The amendment to the Law on Radio and Television Broadcasts (“RT Law”), which was published in the Official Gazette of March 28, 2018, regulated broadcasting services (i.e. radio, television and on-demand broadcasts) provided through internet and required these services and their providers (media service providers and platform operators) to be under the supervision and authority of Radio and Television Supreme Council’s (“RTUK”). The Regulation provides detailed information regarding this process.

The authority to initiate dumping or subsidy examinations, upon complaint or, where necessary, ex officio, has been given from the Ministry of Economy to the Ministry of Trade (“Ministry”). Within the scope of this authority, the Ministry announces its decisions with the communiqués published on the Official Gazette.

Presidential Circular on Information and Communication Security Measures (“Circular”) is published in the Official Gazette of July 6, 2019. The aim of the Circular is reducing of security risks and governing measures to be taken to ensure safety of information which is critical to national security and public order.

European Union’s (“EU”) proposal for regulation on online intermediation services and search engines (“Regulation”) is expected to be published shortly on the Official Journal of the European Union and become effective twelve months following its date of publication.

1. Introduction: Despite annulment of Article 14 of the Decree No. 556 by the Turkish Constitutional Court has created a lacuna about the legal ground of the use obligation of trademarks; the proprietor always had the obligation for using its trademark in Turkish and international Trademark Law. In a nutshell a trademark that has not been genuinely used in Turkey for at least continuous 5 years, the trademark can be requested to be cancelled due to non-use of the trademark, unless there is a justification for non-use of the trademark. This article studies the justifications that can be shown for non-use of a trademark in consideration of the current case-law.

I. Introduction: Merger, in general, is a complex procedure which requires detailed and long formalities. Simplified merger creates an option for the joint stock companies to merge in a faster way without being subject to certain transactions.

On May 30, 2019, Ministry of Justice (“Ministry”) prepared the judicial reform strategy document (“Strategy Document”) which introduces comprehensive changes and improvements to the Turkish judicial system. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Turkey announced and presented the new reforms brought by the Strategy Document to the attendees of a conference on judicial reform strategy. 

The Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (“Agency”) announced¹ the Draft Regulation on Sales, Advertising and Promotion of Medical Devices (“Draft Regulation”) on May 9, 2019. The Draft Regulation will replace the Regulation on Sales, Advertising and Promotion of Medical Devices (“Regulation”) currently in force. Through the announcement, the Agency expressed that the Regulation requires an amendment as a result of practical matters presented during the implementation of the Regulation and the current needs of the sector. The Agency has invited suggestions and comments from concerned parties until close of business on June 9, 2019, by post or through the Agency’s official e-mail address.

Developing and establishing an effective anti-money laundering (“AML”) compliance program is a requirement for financial institutions in order to combat laundering the proceeds of crime and terrorist financing worldwide. 

The authority to initiate dumping or subsidy examinations, upon complaint or, where necessary, ex officio, has been given from the Ministry of Economy to the Ministry of Trade (“Ministry”). Within the scope of this authority, the Ministry announces its decisions with the communiqués published on the Official Gazette.

The reasoned decision¹ of the Turkish Competition Board (the “Board”) concerning the  preliminary investigation initiated by the Turkish Competition Authority (the “Authority”) against four movie producers and their professional union has been published on the official web-site of the Authority on March 8, 2019 (the “Reasoned Decision”).

The concept of garden leave is not a familiar concept to Turkish labor law as the legislation does not regulate this concept explicitly. The employers however in practice might have the need to make use of this concept for various reasons. Below we first introduce the concept of garden leave in general and then examine this concept under Turkish labor law.

A. Introduction: On November 1, 2018, Personal Data Protection Board (“Board”), acting under the Personal Data Protection Authority, published its principle decision with number 2018/119 in the Official Gazette, which then corrected on November 7, 2018 (“Decision”). Board’s Decision is regarding prevention of promotional notifications, e-mail messages, text messages and calls that data subjects might receive from data controllers and data processors.

Overall, 2018 was a more active year in terms of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) enforcement actions compared to 2017. In 2018, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) took a total of 40 enforcement actions, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) took a total of 14 enforcement actions.

In May 2017, Regulation (EU) 2017/745 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2017 on medical devices (“EU Regulation”) entered into force, stipulating a transition period for medical device manufacturers to comply with the EU Regulation by May 2020. As the title of the EU Regulation suggests, it lays down enhanced rules on medical devices, manufacturers, distributors, importers, and notified bodies. For any medical device to be put into and sold on the market, full compliance with the EU Regulation is required. The EU Regulation introduces and addresses several new principles and renders procedures pertaining to medical devices more transparent, trackable and predictable. These changes aim to ensure a high level of safety and protection for patient health and for the users within this industry, also taking into consideration the technological evolution and developments in this field.

In September 2018, the Capital Markets Board (“CMB”) had issued an announcement on its website, declaring that a secondary legislation for crowdfunding was underway. Just recently, on January 4, 2019, CMB published the Draft Communiqué on Equity Crowdfunding No. III-35/A (“Draft Communiqué”). In the announcement, CMB states that the Draft Communiqué aims to ensure the effective penetration of the crowdfunding model into the capital markets legislation and create a regulatory framework for crowdfunding activities.

ELIG Gurkaynak Attorneys-at-Law has promoted Tolga Uluay and Burcu Can to partner, effective January 1, 2019.

“Just cause” is a term that is used frequently under the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102 (“TCC”). In broad terms, “just cause” may be defined as a situation in which the relationship between a shareholder and the company and/or between a shareholder and other shareholders becomes unbearable or untenable for valid legal reasons. Although the term “just cause” is frequently employed under the TCC, Turkish lawmakers did not opt to provide an explicit definition of this term under the TCC and instead delegated this duty to the doctrine and the courts.