Developments in Turkish e-commerce law - February 2023

Following the adoption of Law no. 7416 Amending Law no. 6563 on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce on 1 July 2022 (the “Law”), the Turkish Ministry of Trade (the “Ministry”) has started to issue much anticipated secondary legislation. This includes the Regulation Amending the Distance Contracts Regulation, issued on 23 August 2022, and more recently the Regulation on Electronic Commerce Intermediary Service Providers and Electronic Commerce Service Providers (the “New Regulation”), which was published in Official Gazette no. 32058 dated 29 December 2022.

The amendment to the Distance Contracts Regulation had imposed certain new obligations on e-commerce intermediary service providers, such as the requirement to fulfil the preliminary information obligation, establish a system to facilitate the exercise of the withdrawal right by customers, or make refund payments.

The New Regulation, on the other hand, further details the obligations brought upon e-commerce intermediary service providers and e-commerce service providers by the Law, imposes additional obligations, and addresses certain points left unclear under the Law. These are consistent with the trend towards stricter constraints imposed on e-commerce intermediary service providers, also known as marketplace operators, and greater protection for e-commerce service providers in their relationships with such marketplace operators.

The main take-aways from the New Regulation are highlighted below.

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