Insights
Recent Changes in Relation to Determination of Companies Subject to Independent Auditing
The Presidential Decision No. 6434 on Determination of Companies subject to Independent Auditing (the “Decision”) was published in the Official Gazette on November 30, 2022. The Decision provides significant changes to the independent auditing thresholds compared to the Decision No. 2018/11597 on Determination of Companies subject to Independent Auditing, which will remain in force until January 1, 2023. With the effect of the Decision, publicly-traded companies that exceed… »
The Guidelines For The Implementation of The Regulation on Sales, Advertisement And Promotion of Medical Devices Has Been Updated
Following the adoption of the substantial amendments to the Regulation on Sales, Advertisement and Promotion of Medical Devices (“Regulation”) on 2 September 2020, the new Guidelines for the Implementation of the Regulation on Sales, Advertisement and Promotion of Medical Devices (“Guidelines”) has been published on the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency’s (“Agency”) website on 12 February 2021. The most crucial changes brought with the Guidelines are in relation to… »
Sector Inquiry on Online Advertising Sector
The Competition Authority announced that the Competition Board decided to launch an inquiry related to the online advertising sector on 21.01.2021. As mentioned in the announcement, the online advertising sector has a complex supply chain which includes various services and actors. It has been emphasized that the market is in an intricate structure and develops rapidly. Similar to the global practice and having become subject to inquiries in some countries, the broadcasting… »
Developments on Signature Specimen and Signature Circular
Amendments Related to Signature Specimen The Amending Law Related to the Technology Development Zones and Certain Other Laws (the "Law No. 7263") was published in the Official Gazette on February 3, 2021 and entered into force on the same date. Article 22 of the Law No. 7263 amended Article 40 of the Turkish Commercial Code with respect to issue of signature specimen. In this regard, the amendment provides that signature samples of real person merchants and authorized… »
New Guidelines Published For Promoting Medical Devices
On 12 February 2021, the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency published new guidelines (Turkish language) for the implementation of regulation on sales, advertising and promotion of medical devices. The new guidelines introduce detailed provisions on implementing some of the significant amendments that were made to the Regulation on Sales, Advertising and Promotion of Medical Devices on 2 September 2020. Under the guidelines, in addition to advertising and promotional… »
Analysis on Corruption Perceptions Index 2020 in Times of Covid-19
2020 Corruption Perception Index (“CPI 2020”), Transparency International’s annual report reflecting the perception of corruption in public sector among 180 countries/territories all over the world, was announced on 28 January 2021. The contributions of country experts, non-governmental organisations and representatives of the business world generate the results in the CPI which measures up the countries/territories on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very… »
Amendments to the Turkish Commercial Code
The Law on the Prevention of the Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction No. 7262 (the “Law No. 7262”) was published in the Official Gazette No. 31351 on December 31, 2020. Although the Law in general sets forth the principles related to implementation of the sanctions of the United Nations Security Council regarding prevention of financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the same legislation also introduces certain amendments to the… »
Amendments to the Communiqué with respect to Capital Loss and Negative Equity
The Communiqué Amending the Communiqué on the Procedures and Principles Regarding Implementation of Article 376 of the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102 (the "Amending Communiqué”) was published in the Official Gazette on December 26, 2020, and entered into force on the same date. Article 376 of the Turkish Commercial Code (the “TCC”), which is also known as the provision for technical bankruptcy, provides mandatory measures to be taken by companies in the event of capital… »
List of Compassionate Use Programs Has Been Published
Compassionate Use Programs are designed for patients who have a serious or urgent, life-threatening disease whose treatment has been unsuccessful with available medicinal products licensed by the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (“Agency”) in Turkey and who cannot be included in the clinical trials on this subject. The Compassionate Use Program aims to provide the drug, which is not licensed in Turkey, but licensed or not in other countries, by the company that… »
Constitutional Court’s Recent Decision Regarding Inspection on Employee E-mails
Constitutional Court’s decision of 12 January 2021 concerning the application no. 2018/31036[1] discusses, once again, employer inspection on employees’ corporate e-mail accounts and the terminations relying on the collected correspondences, in scope of the right to protection of personal data and freedom of communication. In the said decision, the Constitutional Court found no violation as to the right to protection of personal data and freedom of communication, since the… »
A Look at Brand Enforcement During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Turkey’s first official diagnosis of COVID-19 was announced on March 11 2020. Since then, the country has experienced lockdowns, quarantines, travel bans and limited access to public services at various levels, depending on the progress of the pandemic. There were months where the legal and administrative bodies’ effectiveness was inversely proportional with the curve of pandemic, which affected all governmental agencies. Incidentally, brand enforcement activities were also… »
Court of Appeals Finds Likelihood of Confusion Between Short Marks in Surprising Decision
In a somewhat controversial decision (Case 2019/5262 E, 2020/3449 K, 2 July 2020, recently published), the Court of Appeals(11 Chamber) has considered the likelihood of confusion between short trademarks. Background The case was led before the Ankara Second IP Court (Merits No 2017/139 E, 2017/411 K) by a famous clothing company, Koton Mağazacılık Tekstil Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Şirketi (‘Koton’), the owner of the distinctive logo depicted below: Koton requested the… »