The Act Amending the Act on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce: New Rules for (New) Players in Electronic Commerce in Türkiye
Mesut Serdar ÇekinThe rapid development in e-commerce has prompted a Turkish legislator to subject the existing law on its regulation to a comprehensive reform. In the process, the existing law was not substantially altered. Instead, the reform identified new players and imposed new obligations on them based on the net transaction volume. In particular, these players refer to large-scale online platforms on which e-commerce occurs. The express aim of the legislator is to prevent the formation of monopolies in this sector in general and to facilitate market access for small companies in particular. In this context, unfair business practices in B2B relationships have been defined. In addition, the new players, who were designated as e-business intermediary service providers and e-business service providers, must observe numerous restrictions with regard to business activities. In particular, this change is concerned with offers of goods, financial transactions, and delivery services on the online platforms. Another aspect of importance is the introduction of a licensing obligation for the exercise of e-commerce activities. To better monitor compliance with these obligations, the Turkish Ministry of Commerce has been empowered with certain responsibilities. The introduction of an Electronic Trade Information System also serves to improve monitoring. Finally, new sanction mechanisms have been introduced with the aim of effectively enforcing the obligations. The objective of this study is to present these new regulations.
Das Gesetz zur Änderung des Gesetzes über die Regulierung des elektronischen Geschäftsverkehrs: Neue Regeln für (neue) Akteure im elektronischen Geschäftsverkehr in der Türkei
Mesut Serdar ÇekinRasante Entwicklungen im Bereich des E-Commerce haben den türkischen Gesetzgeber veranlasst, das bereits bestehende Gesetz über die Regulierung des elektronischen Geschäftsverkehrs einer umfassenden Reform zu unterziehen. Dabei wurde das bestehende Gesetz nicht wesentlich geändert. Stattdessen wurden neue Akteure definiert und diesen neue Pflichten auferlegt, die sich nach deren Netto-Transaktionsvolumen richten. Es handelt sich dabei insbesondere um große Online-Plattformen, auf denen der elektronische Geschäftsverkehr stattfindet. Ausgesprochenes Ziel des Gesetzgebers ist es dabei, die Bildung von Monopolen in diesem Sektor zu verhindern und insbesondere kleineren Unternehmen den Marktzugang zu erleichtern. In diesem Zusammenhang wurden unlautere Geschäftspraktiken im B2B-Verhältnis definiert. Darüber hinaus müssen die neuen Akteure, die als Anbieter von Vermittlungsdiensten im elektronischen Geschäftsverkehr und Anbieter von Diensten des elektronischen Geschäftsverkehrs bezeichnet wurden, zahlreiche Einschränkungen hinsichtlich ihrer Geschäftstätigkeit beachten. Dabei geht es insbesondere um das Anbieten eigener Waren auf den Online-Plattformen, um das Anbieten von finanziellen Dienstleistungen sowie von Zustelldiensten. Ebenfalls von großer Bedeutung ist die Einführung einer Lizenzpflicht für die Ausübung der Tätigkeiten im Bereich des elektronischen Geschäftsverkehrs. Um die Einhaltung dieser Pflichten besser überwachen zu können, wurde das türkische Handelsministerium mit einigen Zuständigkeiten ermächtigt. Ebenfalls zur besseren Kontrolle dient die Einführung eines Elektronischen Handelsinformationssystems (ETBIS). Schließlich wurden neue Sanktionsmechanismen eingeführt, die gerade die effektive Durchsetzung der Pflichten bezwecken. Ziel des vorliegenden Beitrags besteht darin, die neuen Regelungen darzustellen.
In recent years, the share of e-commerce in total business transactions has increased very rapidly in Turkey. New players have entered the market, and new business models and product groups have been introduced. Moreover, the number of players has increased by 88% in one year. This rapid development in the market has prompted a Turkish legislator to substantially reform the Turkish E-commerce Regulation Law No. 6563 of 2014.
A key issue is the asymmetry in market power between e-commerce intermediary service providers and e-commerce service providers. The reason underlying this notion is that the majority of service providers are micro or small enterprises, whose bargaining power against e-commerce marketplace operators is extremely low. Intermediary services are deemed to abuse this asymmetry of power by prioritizing goods or services, refusing to offer or making data transfer difficult, forcing service providers to provide certain goods or services, paying out purchase price sums to service providers at a later time, or forcing service providers to participate in sales promotion. Other examples include downgrading in the ranking or recommendation system and the restriction, suspension, or termination of services offered to e-commerce service providers. Furthermore, service intermediaries should gain advantage by evaluating customer data in terms of logistics and payment services. The increasing dependence of service providers and consumers can lead to the deterioration of the competitive environment in the medium term; monopolization and, thus, to higher prices; decreases in the quality and diversity of products offered, standardization of services; and decline in investment and production potential and innovation.
Based on these premises, the law firstly defines e-commerce intermediary service providers followed e-commerce service providers. It also specifies the environments in which e-commerce occurs. The catalogue of obligations is linked to net transaction volume; thus, this term is also explained. Another important term is economic unit.
With regard to the liability of providers of intermediary services, the Act introduces a notice-and-take-down procedure with regard to unlawful content. In addition, it presents a special form of the procedure in relation to the infringement of intellectual property rights. As such, e-commerce intermediary service providers must establish, maintain access to, and effectively manage an information system to comply with their obligations under the Act.
The Act also proposes a general definition of unfair commercial practices followed by an exemplary list of specific cases, whereby these are not enumerative. According to this definition, acts of intermediary service providers toward service providers, which significantly disrupt the business of the latter, restrict their ability to make reasonable decisions, or force them to make a particular decision and could result in them becoming party to a business relationship to which they would not normally be a party, are unfair.
With regard to the obligations of providers of intermediary services in e-commerce as well as providers of e-commerce services, the law differentiates according to net transaction volume. Specifically, general provisions are firstly provided, which apply to all players. This aspect specifically concerns the case in which these operators are prohibited from offering the sale or the arrangement of sale of goods that bear their trademarks or those of persons with whom they are economically connected or for whom they have the right to use the trademark on the e-commerce marketplaces in which they offer intermediary services. This change is followed by obligations for intermediary service providers and e-commerce service providers whose net transaction volume exceeds TL 10 billion within a calendar year. This part is mainly concerned with purpose restrictions on the use of data obtained by intermediary services during individual transactions on their respective platforms. Further restrictions on promotional activities will be imposed on intermediary service providers and e-commerce service providers, whose net transaction volume in a calendar year exceeds TL 30 billion and number of transactions excluding cancellations and returns exceeds 100,000. Finally, providers of intermediary and e-commerce services whose net transaction volume in a calendar year exceeds TL 60 billion and number of transactions without cancellations and returns exceeds 100,000 are no longer allowed to offer certain financial services and parcel and delivery services.
Furthermore, the Act stipulates a licensing obligation, which exponentially increases with the increase in the net transaction volume of the players.
Finally, with regard to sanctions, the Act envisages a graduated approach. The Ministry will be authorized to impose fines of up to TL 40 million and to block certain contents.
