Regulation on Electronic Commerce Intermediary Service Provider and Electronic Commerce Service Provider

Regulation on Electronic Commerce Intermediary Service Provider and Electronic Commerce Service Providers ("Regulation")for the audits of electronic commerce intermediary service providers and electronic commerce service providers and commercial relations between them has been published in the Official Gazette numbered 32058 and dated December 29, 2022.

The issues regulated by the Regulation are as follows:

1- Obligation to Provide Information

The Regulation defines "electronic commerce service provider" ("ETHS") and "electronic commerce intermediary service provider" ("ETAHS").

Accordingly, ETHS and ETAHS are obliged to have the information specified in the Regulation under the title of communication in their own electronic commerce environment.

2- Order Obligations

ETHS and ETAHS in electronic environment, the obligation is imposed to provide technical tools such as the sale of second hand article in a separate category, the submission of issues related to price and delivery and tax costs before entering payment information, and the provision of technical tools such as ‘return' with summary order form before the order is approved.

3- Unlawful Content

Unless otherwise provided by the other laws, ETAHS shall not be liable for any unlawful of the content provided by ETHS.

If ETAHS becomes aware of illegal content, it is obliged to remove the broadcast within 48 hours and notify ETHS and relevant public institutions and organizations.

4- Unfair Commercial Practices

It is stated that unfair commercial practice cannot be carried out in electronic commerce and the situations that will be considered as unfair commercial practice in each case are listed. Regarding these situations;

• The payment to be made to ETHS for the sale of goods or services should not be made to ETAHS at the latest and to include the full price within 5 business days from the date of receipt of the order to the buyer,
• Forcing ETHS to sell campaign goods or services, including a unilateral change in the sale price by ETAHS,
• Retrospective or unilateral amendment to the provisions of the intermediary agreement to the detriment of ETHS or the presence of a provision enabling this in the intermediary agreement,
• ETAHS has stated that ETHS makes contrary to facts and misleading statements and notifications about its own products and activities.

5- Violation of Intellectual Property Rights

It has been determined that complaints about intellectual property rights infringement will be made to ETAHS through a notary public or KEP. It is regulated that the following information must be included in the violation notifications.

• Registration certificate or bandrol form or activity certificate
• Information about the complainant
• Legislative intention and evidence of
• Website information where the product subject to the complaint is shown
• A statement regarding the applicant's liability for the damages that may occur in case of sharing contrary to facts information and documents in the complaint application

The article of the Regulation on the Internal Communication System will be entered into force on July 1st, 2023, the articles on Data Use and Sharing and Electronic Commerce Volume will be entered into force on 01.01.2024 and the other articles will be entered into force on January 1st, 2023.

You can access related Official Gazette from here (In Turkish).

Should you have any queries or need further details, please contact your customer representative.