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.

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:

Law on the Amendment of Some Laws with the Law on Reducing the Effects of New Coronavirus (Covid-19) Epidemic on Economic and Social Life, which includes articles on reducing the effects of Covid-19 epidemic to economic and social life and amendments to be made in some laws have entered into force, having been published in the Official Gazette dated 17.04.2020 and numbered 31102.

Law No. 7244 includes postponing, not taking or restructuring receivables, extending certain periods regulated by law, innovations brought to business life by the Labour Law and other related regulations and many more.

You can find the regulations in the law below:

ARTICLE 1 - Postponement, not taking or restructuring of some receivables

Due to force major caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, it has been ensured that;

As is known, the default interest rate announced every January by the T.R. Central Bank has been applied in case there is no default interest rate is determined in a contract or related clause is invalid regarding the good or service supply, according to the clause 7 of the Art. 1530 of the Turkish Commercial Code.