The Offense of Unauthorized Engagement in Activities such as System Operator, Payment Institution, or Electronic Money Institution
Özge Ceren Yavuz KılıçTürkiye’s Law on Payment and Securities Settlement Systems, Payment Services, and Electronic Money Institutions No. 6493 was prepared to fill the legal gap in the fields of payment and security settlement systems, payment services, and electronic money institutions and suit the competence of the European Union in the relevant field and enacted on June 27, 2013 upon being published in the Official Gazette No. 28690. Law No. 6493 defines the main concepts and states the rights, obligations, and sanctions regarding the relevant topics. Also, engaging in activities such as being an unauthorized system operator, payment institution, or electronic money institution and leaving the impression of being a system operator, payment institution, or electronic money institution without proper authorization are punishable offenses according to Article 28 of this law. As such, these acts may pose a significant threat in terms of safety and stability of the financial system, thus endangering financial coordination. Such a scenario could lead to the victimization of everyone who forms society. Therefore, research on these offenses is quite important. Based on these expressed preambles, the topic of the study has been determined as the academic examination and evaluation of the crimes specified under Article 28 of Law No. 6493. In this context, the study will first state collective information about these crime types, then explain the legal value that is preserved by punishing relevant crimes and the elements of these crimes and evaluate the terms of faultiness, attempt, complicity, and concurrence in the context of relevant crimes.
İzinsiz Sistem İşleticisi, Ödeme Kuruluşu veya Elektronik Para Kuruluşu Gibi Faaliyette Bulunma Suçu
Özge Ceren Yavuz KılıçÖdeme ve menkul kıymet mutabakat sistemleri, ödeme hizmetleri ve elektronik para kuruluşları alanlarındaki hukuki boşluğu doldurmak ve ilgili alanlarda Avrupa Birliği müktesebatına uyum sağlamak amaçlarıyla hazırlanmış olan 6493 sayılı Ödeme ve Menkul Kıymet Mutabakat Sistemleri, Ödeme Hizmetleri ve Elektronik Para Kuruluşları Hakkında Kanun, 20 Haziran 2013 tarihinde kabul edilmiş ve 27 Haziran 2013 tarihli 28690 sayılı Resmî Gazete’de yayımlanarak yürürlüğe girmiştir. Bahsi geçen Kanun’da, ana kavramların tanımlanmasının yanı sıra hak ve yükümlülükler ile yaptırımlar da belirlenmiştir. Bu kapsamda, 6493 sayılı Kanun’un 28’inci maddesinde izinsiz sistem işleticisi, ödeme kuruluşu veya elektronik para kuruluşu gibi faaliyette bulunmak ile izinsiz sistem işleticisi, ödeme kuruluşu veya elektronik para kuruluşu gibi faaliyet gösterdiği izlenimini yaratmak da yaptırım altına alınmıştır. Zira gerekli izinler alınmaksızın sistem işleticisi, ödeme kuruluşu ve elektronik para kuruluşu gibi faaliyette bulunulması, finansal sistemin istikrarı ve güvenliği açısından önemli bir tehdit arz edebilir ve dolayısıyla finansal düzeni tehlikeye sokabilir. Bu durum, toplumu oluşturan herkesin mağdur olması sonucunu doğurur. Dolayısıyla izinsiz sistem işleticisi, ödeme kuruluşu veya elektronik para kuruluşu gibi faaliyette bulunma ile izinsiz sistem işleticisi, ödeme kuruluşu veya elektronik para kuruluşu gibi faaliyet gösterdiği izlenimini yaratma suçlarının incelenmesi ve Kanun’da düzenleniş şekillerinin değerlendirilmesi önem arz eder. Bu gerekçelerle, çalışmanın konusu 6493 sayılı Kanun’un 28’inci maddesinde düzenlenen suçların bilimsel şekilde incelenerek değerlendirilmesi olarak belirlenmiştir. Bu bağlamda, çalışmada öncelikle söz konusu 28’inci maddede düzenlenen suç tipleri hakkında genel bilgilere yer verilmiş ve daha sonra korunan hukuki değer ile suçların unsurları açıklanmıştır. Devamında bahsi geçen suçlar çerçevesinde kusurluluk, teşebbüs, iştirak ve içtima ile ilgili değerlendirmelerde bulunulmuştur.
Article 28 of the Law on Payment and Securities Settlement Systems, Payment Services, and Electronic Money Institutions (Law No. 6493, 2013) penalizes engagement in such activities as being an unauthorized system operator, payment institution, or electronic money institution, as well as leaving the impression of being a system operator, payment institution, or electronic money institution without proper authorization. The legal value that is preserved by punishing these crimes is the stability and security of the financial system. Anyone who commits the act described in the law can be judged a perpetrator of these crimes, with the victim being every member of society. The crime regulated in Paragraph 1 of Article 28 involves the act of engaging in activities such as being a system operator, payment institution or electronic money institution without obtaining the required permissions in accordance with Law No. 6493. The crime regulated in Paragraph 2 of Article 28 involves the act of using words and/or phrases that leave the impression that they are engaged in activity as a system operator, payment institution, or electronic money institution in relation to trade names, any type of documentation, announcement, and/or advertisement, or public statement without having obtained the required permissions in accordance with Law No. 6493. The crimes regulated in Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 28 can only be committed with direct intent, because particular emphasis about illegality is placed on the legal definition with the expression “without obtaining the necessary permissions in accordance with Law No. 6493,” with crimes committed by negligence not being regulated by Law No. 6493. Additionally, the permission clause mentioned in the definition of the crimes involve the principle of typicality. For this reason, the intention of the perpetrator must also involve the issue of permission, which also pertains to the principle of typicality. Therefore, any misuse regarding the obligation to obtain permission should be considered an elemental error. Therefore, such a situation should be stated as eliminating the intent of the perpetrator. In addition, a perpetrator cannot be punished should they have not taken the necessary attention and care and thus made an elemental error. This is due to Law No. 6493 not regulating crimes that are committed by negligence.
The offense of engaging in activities such as being a system operator, payment institution, or electronic money institution without proper authorization as regulated in Paragraph 1 of Article 28 of Law No. 6493 is an uninterrupted crime. For this reason, the provisions regarding an attempt at this crime may be applied up until the completion of the crime. Meanwhile, attempting to leave the impression of being an unauthorized system operator, payment institution, or electronic money institution can be considered an offense if the act can be divided into parts. An implied primary-auxiliary norm relationship exists between the two crimes regulated in Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 28 of Law No. 6493. Therefore, perpetrators who have committed the two crimes regulated in these paragraphs should only be punished for the crime in Paragraph 1. Otherwise, if the act constitutes one of the crimes regulated in the Turkish Penal Code as well as one of the crimes regulated in Law No. 6493, the provisions of Law No. 6493 as the special case law must be applied when the same legal value has been violated. Therefore, this situation also applies to Article 28 of Law No. 6493. In addition, the crimes regulated in Article 28 of Law No. 6493 are optional crimes. As a result, committing only one of the optional acts of these crimes will be sufficient for the completion of that crime. The offense of engaging in activities such as being a system operator, payment institution, or electronic money institution without the required authorization as regulated in Paragraph 1 of Article 28 in Law No. 6493 calls for imprisonment from one year to three years and a judicial fine of up to 5,000 days, while the offence of leaving the impression of being a system operator, payment institution, or electronic money institution without the required authorization as regulated in Paragraph 2 of Article 28 in Law No. 6493 calls for imprisonment from one year to three years and a judicial fine of up to 5,000 days. If either of these two crimes are committed within a workplace, the decision may be made to close this workplace for two to six months or, in the case of recurrence, to be shut down permanently.
