Judicial Review Of Board Decisions

The Data Protection Law does not include an explicit provision concerning the appeal process of Board decisions imposing administrative fines; however, it is accepted that criminal courts of peace are the authorized courts pursuant to Law No. 5326 on Misdemeanours dated 30/3/2005 since the title of Article 18 of the Data Protection Law is “Misdemeanours,” and administrative fines are issued as per Article 18 of the Data Protection Law. Having this in mind, decisions imposing behavioural sanctions can be appealed before administrative courts. This is a controversial issue being subject to discussions in practice and among academicians.

Criminal courts of peace are first instance courts in Turkey, and their decisions are subject to review of other criminal courts of peace which are, again, first instance courts. On the other hand, once the appeal process before the criminal courts of peace is completed, it is also possible to apply to the Turkish Constitution Court.