The Regulation on Commercial Communications and Commercial Electronic Messages published in the Official Gazette on 4 January 2020 contemplates the establishment of a Commercial Electronic Message Management System (“İYS”) to centralise the collection of consent to receiving commercial electronic messages, the exercise of the right to opt out and the handling of complaints regarding unsolicited commercial messages. In accordance with this regulation, service providers wishing to send commercial electronic messages must register with the İYS and upload the recipients’ consent to the İYS.

As per the Regulation Amending the Regulation on Commercial Communications and Commercial Electronic Messages published in the Official Gazette dated 28 August 2020, the deadline for uploading consents to the İYS has been extended from 1 September 2020 to 1 December 2020. As per these amendments, the new İYS deadlines are as follows:

• The deadline for service providers to upload the commercial electronic message consents they had previously obtained to the İYS is now 1 December 2020;
• The deadline for recipients to check their previous consents on the İYS is now 16 January 2021.

If the recipients do not use their opt-out right until 16 January 2021, the data uploaded to the İYS by the service providers will be deemed approved. In addition, under the amended regulation, the Ministry of Trade has been authorized to further extend the deadlines for the İYS by six months, taking into account the nature of the service providers and the number of commercial electronic message consents to be uploaded to the İYS.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for any further information on this briefing.