The Regulation on the Electronic Commerce Intermediary Service Providers and Electronic Commerce Service Providers (“Regulation”) has been published in the Official Gazette dated 29 December 2022 and numbered 32058 by the Ministry of Trade.
The Regulation regulates the obligations of electronic commerce intermediary service providers and electronic commerce service providers, unfair commercial practices in electronic commerce, unlawful content, intermediation agreements, electronic commerce license and other issues related to electronic commerce.
With the Regulation, the Regulation on Service Providers and Intermediary Service Providers in Electronic Commerce published in the Official Gazette dated 26.8.2015 and numbered 29457 has been repealed.
The Regulation defines an electronic commerce service provider as “a service provider which concludes contracts or takes orders for the supply of goods or services in an electronic commerce marketplace or in its own electronic commerce environment.” Electronic commerce intermediary service provider on the other hand, is defined as “an intermediary service provider which enables the conclusion of contracts or placing orders for the supply of goods or services of electronic commerce service providers in the electronic commerce marketplace.”
Unlike Law No. 6563 on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce, both electronic commerce intermediary service providers and electronic commerce service providers are classified as medium, large, or very large-scale according to their net transaction volumes in a calendar year.
Electronic commerce intermediary service providers with a net trading volume of more than ten billion Turkish liras in a calendar year are considered to be medium-scale, while electronic commerce intermediary service providers with a net trading volume of more than ten billion Turkish liras in a calendar year and have more than ten million transactions excluding cancellations and returns are considered to be medium-scale.
Electronic commerce intermediary service providers are considered large-scale if their net trading volume in a calendar year is above thirty billion Turkish liras while having over one hundred thousand transactions – excluding cancellations and returns – as well as fulfilling the obligations set forth in the Regulation for medium-sized electronic commerce intermediary service providers. Meanwhile, electronic commerce intermediary service providers with a net trading volume of more than sixty billion Turkish liras and more than one hundred thousand transactions excluding cancellations and returns in a calendar year, as well as those that fulfill the obligations set forth in the Regulation for medium and large electronic commerce intermediary service providers, are considered very large-scale.
Electronic commerce service providers are considered large-scale if their net transaction volume in a calendar year exceeds thirty billion Turkish liras and the number of transactions, excluding cancellations and returns, exceeds ten million, and if they also fulfill the obligations set forth for medium-sized electronic commerce service providers in the Regulation.
Electronic commerce service providers are considered to be very large scaled if their net trading volume in a calendar year exceeds sixty billion Turkish liras and the number of transactions, excluding cancellations and returns, exceeds ten million, and if they fulfill the obligations set forth in the Regulation for medium and large electronic commerce service providers.
An obligation to provide information is imposed on electronic commerce service providers, and they are required to provide the following information under the heading “contact” on the home page of their electronic commerce environment in a directly accessible manner:
• Trade name, MERSIS number and headquarters address for merchants; name and surname, tax identification number and headquarters address for artisans and craftsmen.
• KEP address, e-mail address, telephone number, business name and registered trademark, if any.
• Information on the professional chamber of which it is a member, the code of conduct related to the profession and how these can be accessed electronically.
Electronic commerce intermediary service providers are also obliged to provide the same information under the heading “contact” on the home page of the electronic commerce marketplace in a directly accessible manner. In addition, electronic commerce intermediary service providers are prohibited to provide intermediation services to an electronic commerce service providers whose identifying information they have not verified, and they must ensure that the identifying information of the electronic commerce service providers to which they provide intermediation services to is up to date.
In addition to this, electronic commerce intermediary service providers and electronic commerce service providers which realize sales on their own electronic environment are obliged to have a “transaction guide” that contains information on issues such as delivery, payment, selection of goods and services on the home page of the electronic commerce environment in a way that can be accessed directly.
Electronic commerce intermediary service providers must designate at least one natural or legal person as a point of contact to enable public institutions and organizations to communicate through and notify the Ministry of Trade of said person’s contact information through ETBIS.
If the electronic commerce intermediary service provider becomes aware that the content provided by the electronic commerce service providers is unlawful, a time limit of 48 hours has been set for the electronic commerce intermediary service provider to remove the content from publication and notify the electronic commerce service provider and the relevant public institutions and organizations of the unlawfulness providing the reasons.
The Regulation also prohibits unfair commercial practices that significantly disrupt the commercial activities of the electronic commerce service providers for which the electronic commerce intermediary service providers provide intermediation services for, reduces its ability to make a reasonable decision or forces the electronic commerce service provider to take a certain decision, causing it to become a party to a commercial relationship to which it would not normally be a party of. Some of the situations that are considered as unfair commercial practices in all cases in the Regulation are as follows:
• Failure to make the payment required to be made to the electronic commerce service providers for the sale of goods or services in full within five business days from the date on which the product sales price enters the disposal of electronic commerce intermediary service providers and the order reaches the buyer.
• Forcing the electronic commerce service providers to sell promotional goods or services, including unilateral changes to the sales price by electronic commerce intermediary service providers.
• Charging a fee to an electronic commerce service provider even though no service is provided, or the type of service provided, and the amount or rate of the service fee are not specified in the intermediation agreement.
The Regulation stipulates that the conditions of the commercial relationship between electronic commerce intermediary service providers and electronic commerce service providers shall be determined by an intermediation agreement made in writing or electronically, and the minimum requirements of the intermediation agreement are specified.
The Regulation also imposes obligations and prohibitions on medium, large and very large-scale electronic commerce intermediary service providers and electronic commerce service providers on issues such as data use and sharing, share transfer notification, independent audit, payment services, and regulatory compliance report.
You can access the full Turkish text of the regulation from the link below.
