The application period for short-term employment allowance is extended due to force majeure arising from Covid-19 pandemic. With the Presidential Decision dated 22.12.2020 and numbered 3316 (“Decision no. 3316”), it is decided to extend the application period for short-term

The Personal Data Protection Authority (“Authority”) issued statements through a public announcement published on 16.12.2020 (“Announcement”), regarding personal data of the data subjects made public in accordance with the personal data processing activities. In the Announcement, the Authority stated that making public should be interpreted in a different and narrow manner compared to disclosing personal data to the public; it should be defined as disclosing personal data to the public by the data subject with the intention and purpose to make the personal data public.  

The Law on Restructuring Certain Receivables and Amending Certain Laws ("Law") numbered 7256 has been published in the Official Gazette dated 17.11.2020 and numbered 31307. Subsequently, in order to determine the procedures and principles regarding the implementation of the provisions of the provisional article 93, added to the Income Tax Law numbered 193 with Article 21 of the Law, General Communiqué on the Inclusion of Certain Assets to the Economy (Serial No: 1) ("Communiqué") has been published in the Official Gazette dated 28.11.2020 and numbered 31318 by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance. The aforementioned Communiqué includes explanations on bringing money, gold, foreign currency, securities and other capital market instruments abroad belonging to real and legal persons’ to Turkey, and the process regarding money, gold, foreign exchange, securities and other capital market instruments owned by income or corporate taxpayers and held in Turkey, but that have not been included in the legal book records and immovable being notified to tax offices in order to be recorded in legal book records, for the purposes of including said assets in the national economy.

The Law on Restructuring Some Receivables and Amending Some Laws ("Law") dated 11.11.2020 and numbered 7256,  published in the Official Gazette dated 17.11.2020 and numbered 31307. Subsequently, the Communiqué on the Restructuring of Customs Duty under Law No. 7256 ("Customs Communiqué") and the General Communiqué of Law No. 7256 on Restructuring of Certain Receivables ("General Communiqué") were published in the Official Gazette dated 27.11.2020 and numbered 31317.

Some amendments were made with the Communique regarding the Amendment of the Authorization Communiqué on the Execution of Investment Incentive Certificate Transactions in Electronic...

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.