A Modernized Robinson List: Turkey Introduces Its Commercial Electronic Message Management System

Turkey introduced on January 4, 2020 the Commercial Electronic Message Management System ("IYS" or "System") through the Regulation on the Amendment of the Regulation on Commercial Communication and Commercial Electronic Messages ("Amendment")¹. With the Amendment, companies (or persons) ("Service Providers") that send commercial electronic messages² for marketing purposes will be obliged to comply with certain rules, including being registered with the IYS – a system similar to donotcall.gov of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission³ or the Telephone Preference Service of the U.K. Office of Communications⁴, all of which serves as a Robinson list of the consumers ("Recipients")⁵.

The new System is considered to be a part of Turkey's recent and rapid developments in the field of data protection. Throughout this article, we will explain the details of the System and then discuss the steps to be taken for compliance.