Monetary Thresholds are Increased for the Service Providers in Electronic Commerce

With a law published on the Official Gazette dated 07 July 2022 and numbered 31889, significant changes were made in the Law on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce with no. 6563 (“Law”).

With the relevant amendment, the definitions of “electronic commerce service provider” and “electronic commerce intermediary service provider” and the obligations of these service providers were added to the Law. In addition, certain additional obligations were regulated for service providers exceeding the thresholds determined by the Law. The same Law also stated that the determined thresholds can be increased by half by the President in February 2023.

Accordingly, with a Presidential Decision published on the Official Gazette dated 23 February 2023 and numbered 32112, it was decided that the thresholds determined by the Law to be increased by half. The monetary thresholds that will result in electronic commerce service providers and electronic commerce intermediary service providers being subject to additional obligations as a result of this change are as follows:

Foreign transactions are not taken into account in the calculation of net transaction volume and number of transactions.

Apart from the other obligations regulated under the Law, the monetary threshold for the obligation of these service providers to obtain “electronic commerce license”, which will come into force on 01 January 2025, is changed to over 15 billion Turkish lira of net transaction volume in a calendar year (and over 100 thousand transactions, excluding cancellations and refunds).

For electronic commerce intermediary service providers, when determining whether these thresholds for the electronic commerce license are exceeded, the net transaction volumes and transaction numbers of electronic commerce intermediary service providers that are in economic integrity are taken into account.

Additionally, the Ministry of Commerce will have the authority to increase the relevant monetary thresholds according to the annual rate of change of the electronic commerce volume as of 01 January 2024.

For detailed information on the Regulation on Electronic Commerce Intermediary Service Providers and Electronic Commerce Service Providers, click here to read our article.

Authors: Hatice Ekici Tağa, Sümeyye Uçar