What Changed as of January 1st Under the New E-Commerce Law?

The much debated e-commerce law finally went into effect on January 1st. First passed by the Turkish Parliament in July 2022, the law had been widely discussed ever since, and several of its provisions were later suspended by the 10th Chamber of the Council of State. Despite this, a request to fully annul the law was rejected by the Constitutional Court, allowing it to move forward and take effect.

The new law aims to prevent unfair competition and market monopolization in e-commerce, while making it easier for new players to enter the market. The goal is to support balanced, healthy market growth. The law covers a wide range of provisions, from license renewals and administrative fines for unfair competition to logistics and platform practices.

The law specifically targets unfair competition, and takes steps to prevent platforms from giving preferential treatment to their own products. To enforce this, it introduces administrative fines:

Under the law, e-commerce intermediary service providers found engaging in unfair commercial practices will face administrative fines ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 Turkish lira for each individual e-commerce service provider affected. Intermediary service providers that unilaterally alter sale prices, or that pressure service providers into selling goods or services as part of a campaign, will face a fine of 500,000 lira per affected service provider.

So What Has Actually Changed as of January Under This Widely Debated Law?

The e-commerce law has had a particularly significant impact on platforms, especially Trendyol, and we've already started seeing examples of that change. Trendyol had previously suspended its Trendyol Cüzdan (Wallet) app. As of January, Trendyol has now launched a separate TrendyolMilla app for its own private label products. To announce this change, Trendyol began sending the following message to its customers:

In accordance with Law No. 6563 on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce, as of January 1, 2024, we are required to stop selling our Trendyolmilla, Trendyol Man, Trendyol Curve, Trendyol Modest, and Edit by Trendyol branded products through Trendyol.com and the Trendyol mobile app. Starting January 1, 2024, these products will only be available through our Trendyolmilla app and trendyol-milla.com.

Trendyol has also started notifying customers of this change directly. 📷

For its grocery and food delivery services, Trendyol has similarly rolled out a separate Trendyol Go app. While food and grocery orders can currently still be placed through the main Trendyol app, users who already have the Trendyol Go app installed are being redirected there instead.

We also know that Hepsiburada and other marketplaces have stopped producing their own private label products as well. In short, the e-commerce law is set to bring about a wide range of changes, and we'll continue watching closely to see how its effects play out.