Regulation Regards To Commercial Electronic Communications

The Regulation on the Amendment of the Regulation on Commercial Communication and Commercial Electronic Messages (“Regulation”) is published on 04.01.2020. You can find detailed information about the effective date of the obligations below the text.

With this Regulation, real persons and legal entities (“Service Provider”) willing to send commercial electronic messages are required to register with the Commercial Electronic Message Management System (“CEMMS”). Before the message is sent, the e-mail addresses of the recipients who are merchants or artisans must be registered in the system by Service Providers engaged in electronic commerce. Recipients can approve or refuse the electronic message through the CEMMS. The refusal or approval of receivers will be checked through this system.

Approvals not received through the system must be recorded in the CEMMS by the Service Provider within three business days right after the approval is given. Otherwise, these approvals will be considered as invalid. Besides, if approvals are not received through the CEMMS, the burden of proof belongsto the Service Provider in case of any conflict.

The Service Provider must provide the recipient with a contact number or an address in a commercial electronic message, and if rejected, must notify the CEMMS within three business days.

Recipients will be able to apply for complaints against commercial electronic messages via CEMMS as well as e-Devlet and the official website of the Ministry of Commerce and the provincial directorate where the residential address is located.

SUBSTANTIAL DATES DETERMINED BY THE REGULATION:

• CEMMS has become available for registration by the publication of the Regulation, 04.01.2020.

• The approvals received within the scope of this Regulation should be transferred to the CEMMS by the Service Provider until 01.06.2020, and Recipients will start to use their refusal rights as of this date.

• Recipients may submit a refusal notification by 01.09.2020 if they do not want to recieve any messages. Otherwise, they will be deemed to have been approved from that date. Also,starting from September 1, it will be mandatory for Service Providers to carry out approval checks on the CEMMS before sending any message (Exceptions: Commercial electronic messages regarding changes, use and maintenance of the goods or services provided, messages with ongoing subscription, membership or partnership status of collection, debt reminder, information update, purchase and deliver or similar situations; and informative messages sent by companies which are engaged with intermediation in accordance with the capital market legislation.)