Targeted Advertising Practices Under the Spotlight

Pursuant to the "Announcement" dated 20.03.2024 published by the Advertisement Board (“Board”), it was stated that the membership terms of internet shopping websites were scrutinized at the Board meeting numbered 343 and dated 12.03.2024.

As it is known, pursuant to paragraph 22 of the Deceptive Commercial Practices article in the annex of the Regulation on Commercial Advertising and Unfair Practices, "Using methods that adversely affect the will of consumers to make a decision or choice by means of tools such as guiding interface designs, options or expressions regarding a good or service on the internet, or aiming to cause changes in favor of the seller or provider in the decision they would make under normal conditions" is considered among deceptive commercial practices. As a matter of fact, pursuant to this regulation introduced in 2022, it is observed that the Board has recently paid attention to such activities conducted on the internet.  

Within this scope, we have compiled sample decisions regarding the practices examined at the Board meeting numbered 343 and dated 12.03.2024.

1- Decision No. 2024/2262 Nilüfer Turizm “Plus Ticket”

As a result of the examinations made; it has been determined that consumers proceed to the payment stage on the aforementioned website in order to buy bus tickets on the website, on the payment page opened, the box with the inscription “I want to be a member of Artı Bilet” is pre-checked without the consent of the consumers; the application in question forces the consumers to become a member against their consent, by taking advantage of their lack of knowledge, experience and attention, on the other hand, it is made difficult for consumers who are members of the "Artı Bilet" application to unsubscribe from the membership, and it is not as easy as the membership stage.  In addition, it has been evaluated that consumers are not given a choice whether or not to accept targeted advertising using the company's website, content or interactions with its services during the process of becoming a member of the "Artı Bilet" application, that the commercial practice in question negatively affects consumers' will to make decisions or choices, that consumers are not clearly informed, and that consumers are not given the opportunity to leave no trace on the company's website after purchasing services. 

Accordingly, the Board imposed an administrative fine of TRY 347,128 and decided to correct the unfair practices, considering that these commercial practices are misleading and contrary to the principles of fair competition.

2- Decision No. 2023/326 “Amazon Turkiye” 

As a result of the examinations made; in the process of purchasing the products offered for sale by consumers, consumers were offered the options of “Log In” and “Create Your Amazon Account” without any different options, and in the process of creating an account to purchase the products, consumers were forced to accept targeted advertising by accepting the condition “When you create an account, you agree to Amazon's Terms of Use and Terms of Sale. For more information...you can review Interest-Based Promotions.”, consumers were forced to accept targeted advertising. In addition, it has been evaluated that directing consumers to make changes in their account settings in order to avoid being exposed to targeted advertising after creating an account, i.e. ensuring that consumers opt out of the condition in a more difficult way than accepting the targeted advertising condition, is not sufficient to eliminate the contradiction, and in order to realize the said practice, consumers should be ensured to accept targeted advertising by obtaining their explicit consent at the membership stage. 

Accordingly, the Board decided to impose a penalty of suspension of the aforementioned commercial practices and to correct the practice subject to review.

3- Decision No.2023/327 “Trendyol”

In the process of purchasing the products offered for sale on the website by consumers, it was determined that consumers were asked to “Log In”, “Become a Member” and “Continue Without Being a Member”. As a result of the examinations, it was decided that the commercial practices subject to the examination were not contrary to the rules of consumer and advertising law.

As can be seen, the Advertising Board has examined websites that offer membership conditions to consumers during the purchase phase. In this context, it has been evaluated whether more personal data is requested from consumers than the information that is mandatory and necessary for the purchase process, whether it is made difficult to unsubscribe by stipulating more severe conditions for unsubscribing from the membership than the methods stipulated for entry into the membership, whether cookie and commercial message approval is offered to consumer preference with the membership agreement, and whether personal data is shared with third parties for targeted advertising and marketing purposes.