Turkish Ministry of Trade has made an announcement dated 30.11.2020 (“Announcement”) on the postponement of the deadlines regarding the registration and transfer of electronic message approvals (“e-message approvals”) to the Commercial Electronic Message Management System (“CMS”) for the service providers. It is stated in the Announcement that the deadlines provided with the Regulation on Commercial Communication and Commercial Electronic Messages (“Regulation”) published in the Official Gazette dated 15.07.2015 and numbered 29417 are postponed. The reasons for the postponement of the deadlines are established as due to adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic to the daily life and business life as well as the setbacks occurring in this manner.

The following amendments has been made to Article 10 titled "Prohibitions" of the Regulation Regarding The Activities, Operations And Audit Principles Of The Data Storage Organization (“DSO”) published in the Official Gazette dated 19.09.2018 and numbered 30540 (“Regulation”) with the Regulation Regarding The Amendments Of The Regulation On The Activities, Operations And Audit Principles Of The Data Storage Organization published in the Official Gazette dated 15.10.2020 and numbered 31275: DSO executives and staff and their spouses and their children under custody cannot trade and take positions in the markets where the transactions reported to the DSO are concerned. The exception to this rule is regulated under the Article 10/2 of the Regulation.

Regulation on the Amendment of the Warranty Certificate Regulation, Regulation on the Amendment of the After Sales Services Regulation and Regulation on the Amendment of the Promotion and User Manual Regulation (“Regulations Amending the Warranty Certificate, After Sales Services and Introduction and User Manual Regulations”) are published in the Official Gazette dated 05.11.2020 and numbered 31295.

The Personal Data Protection Board (“Board”), rendered its decision dated 10.09.2020 and numbered 2020/691 (“Decision”) upon a complaint made to the Personal Data Protection Authority (“Authority”) including that an advertisement message was sent to the complainant data subject (“Complainant”) by an association (“Data Controller”), it is unclear through where the personal data was accessed by the Data Controller, Complainant’s personal data was used without an explicit consent, and Complainant’s request to obtain information from the Data Controller was left unanswered after 30 days of statutory period.

In its decision dated 17.09.2020 (“Decision”), the Constitutional Court of Turkey (“Turkish Constitutional Court”; “TCC”) evaluated the claims within the frame of application numbered 2016/13010, that the corporate e-mail correspondence of the applicant was subjected to inspection by the employer in the attorney partnership where the applicant worked, the applicant’s employment contract was terminated based on the correspondence between the applicant and the team manager which was obtained during the inspection, there was no written or verbal rule in the workplace that employees’ e-mails could be inspected and the inspection subject to application occurred without the consent of the applicant, the termination was not based on a just or good cause, besides, the termination did not take place within six workdays after the reason for termination have been found out by the employer, the court of instance did not present any justification to meet the applicant’s objections and evidence, and thus the right to a fair trial, the freedom of communication and the right to respect to privacy has been violated.

The Competition Authority (“Authority”) presented the Draft Communiqué on Agreements, Concerted Practices and Decisions and Practices of Associations of Undertakings Which are Considered Not to Appreciably Restrict Competition ("Draft Communiqué") to the public on its official website on 23.10.2020, in pursuant of the Competition Board (“Board”) Decision dated 22.10.2020 and numbered 20-47/653.

The Communiqué on the Procedures and Principles on Social Network Provider (“Communiqué”) issued by the Information Communications and Technologies Board (“Board”) entered into force as it got published on the Official Gazette dated 02/10/2020 and numbered 31262. The Communiqué, regarding the procedures and principles concerning domestic and international Social Network Providers (“SNPs”) with more than 1 million access in Turkey, has been issued based upon the Annex 4 of the Law No. 5651 on Regulating Broadcasts Made on the Internet and Combating Crimes Committed Through These Publications (“Law”).

The "Information Technologies and Communication Institution Cryptocurrency Research Report" (“Crypto Currency Report”) prepared by the Sectoral Research and Strategy Development Department was published on the web site of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority ("ICTA") on September, 2020. This Cyrpto Currency Report, which enables us to see that developments taking place in the informatics sector are closely monitored by ICTA, provides general information on cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchain technology and includes an assessment of the state of cryptocurrencies in the World and in Turkey.

The Republic of Turkey Identity (ID) Card Electronic Authentication System Regulation (“Regulation”) published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Turkey dated 22.10.2020 and numbered 31282, regulated the procedures and principles of the ID Authentication System (“System”). Pursuant to the Regulation, the service provider certification applications in the field of electronic ID card shall be made to the General Directorate of Population and