The President announced a Circular on Curfews and New Circular on Restrictions and Measures on 30.11.2020.

As per that Circular; until a new decision is taken, a curfew will be applied across the country on weekends; starting at 21:00 on Fridays, covering all Saturday and Sunday and ending at 05:00 on Mondays.

The first application will start at 21:00 on Friday, 04.12.2020 and end at 05.00 on Monday, 07.12.2020.

In addition, until a new decision is taken, a curfew will be restricted between 21:00 and 05:00 on weekdays (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) throughout the country.

The first application will start at 21:00 on Tuesday, 01.12.2020 and end at 05.00 on Wednesday, 02.12.2020.

Also; during the curfew, certain places and persons will be exempted from the restriction in order to ensure the continuity of production, manufacturing, supply and logistics chains and the continuity of health, agriculture and forestry activities.

As per these decisions, the below will be exempt from these restrictions.

According to the official announcement made by the Ministry of Trade on 30.11.2020, the date for registration of the service providers to the Commercial Electronic Message Management System (IYS) and submitting current recipients' confirmations has been postponed considering the negative effects of the COVID-19 virus on business processes. According to the announcement:

• For service providers with commercial electronic message approvals of over 150 thousand, the deadline of submitting confirmations has been postponed to 31 December 2020, and the deadline of controls of these confirmations by citizens to 15 February 2021.
• For service providers with commercial electronic message approvals of 150 thousand or less, the deadline for submitting confirmations has been postponed to 31 May 2021, and the deadline of controls of these confirmations by citizens to 15 July 2021.

Sanitation Tax

Sanitation tax is collected in 2 installments each year from the workplaces that benefit from the municipal solid waste collection and sewerage services. Deadline for the second installment is 30.11.2020.

Payments can be also deposited via E-Municipality system.

With the Directive on Amendment on the Commercial Communication and Commercial Electronic Messages published in the Official Gazette No. 31227 dated 28.08.2020, Article 2 of the Directive on Commercial Communication and Commercial Electronic Messages ("E-Commercial Directive" or "Directive") has been changed, according to this change the deadline for transferring the received confirmations to the Message Management System ("IYS") has been extended until 1.12.2020. What is IYS? Who are subject to the Law? What should responsible parties do until the deadline?

In this article, we will explain the basic principles of commercial communication to be established with electronic messages within the framework of the current regulations and IYS.

What is Electronic Commercial Message, In Which Situations Do E-Message Legislation Apply?

Electronic commercial messages are regulated under the Electronic Commerce Law ("E-Commerce Law" or "Law"), Directive and relevant legislation.

The Directive covers the commercial communication established by means of electronic communication for the purpose of promoting service provider's goods, services or business, for marketing purposes or for the purpose of doing them on behalf of someone else. However, some transactions subject to private sectoral regulations are exempted from the Directive. These are: