The proposal aims to determine the procedures and principles regarding the activities of foreign digital accommodation platforms carried out domestically via the electronic commerce environment, and covers the conditions, obligations and sanctions for these platforms to operate domestically via the electronic commerce environment.
"Intermediary service provider" is defined as the real and legal entities that provide the electronic commerce environment for the economic and commercial activities of others, "Ministry" is defined as the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, "Service provider" is defined as the real or legal entities that engage in electronic commerce activities, "Permit document" is the permit issued by the Ministry for foreign digital accommodation platforms to operate in the country via the electronic commerce environment, and "Foreign digital accommodation platform" is defined as the service provider and intermediary service provider resident abroad operating within the scope of the regulation through the electronic commerce environment.
With the proposal, foreign digital accommodation platforms will be required to obtain a permit from the Ministry in order to operate. No other business/permit document will be required for the activities of foreign digital accommodation platforms that operate by obtaining a permit within the scope of the regulation.
The document fee will be 5 million TL and this amount will be increased every year, effective from the beginning of each calendar year, by the revaluation rate determined and announced in accordance with the relevant provision of the Tax Procedure Law for the previous year. The President will be authorized to increase this amount up to 2 times or reduce it by half. The document fee will be deposited into the Ministry's revolving fund account.
The validity period of the permit will be 2 years and will not be transferable.
In order to obtain a permit, one must be a digital service tax payer, have no debts to the tax offices, provide a domestic notification address and a responsible citizen of the Republic of Turkey or a legal entity, provide the National Electronic Notification System (UETS) address for the responsible real or legal persons, and pay the document fee.
Foreign digital accommodation platforms will designate at least one authorized person as a representative in Türkiye in order to fulfill the requirements of notifications, notifications or requests sent by judicial or administrative authorities, to respond to applications made by individuals within the scope of this regulation and other laws and to ensure the fulfillment of other obligations, and will include the contact information of this person in the electronic commerce environment where they operate in a way that can be easily seen and directly accessed, and notify the Ministry. If the representative is a legal person, the legal entity must be established as a capital company in accordance with the Turkish Commercial Code, and at least one of the persons authorized to represent the company must be a Turkish citizen and a resident of Türkiye. If the representative is a real person, this person must be a Turkish citizen and resident in Türkiye.
If the foreign digital accommodation platform is a member of a consolidated group in terms of financial accounting, a separate document will be issued for each platform that will operate independently. In this way, certification transactions can be carried out through the same notification address and responsible person.
NATURE AND SCOPE OF THE PERMIT CERTIFICATE
Foreign digital accommodation platforms will be able to directly carry out electronic commerce of accommodation establishments with a tourism certificate from the Ministry and residences rented for tourism purposes with a permit from the Ministry, and flight ticket sales made electronically.
Foreign digital accommodation platforms, in addition to the activities that they have the right to carry out directly in accordance with the regulation, will be able to trade services offered exclusively by travel agencies, through travel agencies holding an operating certificate within the scope of the Law on Travel Agencies and Association of Travel Agencies, and car rental services through businesses authorized by the Ministry of Commerce for this purpose.
Within the scope of the provision that foreign digital accommodation platforms can directly carry out electronic commerce of accommodation establishments with tourism certificates from the Ministry and residences rented for tourism purposes with permits from the Ministry and flight ticket sales made electronically, sales where at least two of the services that are not related to transportation, accommodation and services related to them are made directly by foreign digital accommodation platforms will not be considered within the scope of package tour.
The Ministry will be authorized to determine which tourism activities can be permitted, which are related to and complementary to those clearly stated in the bill.
In disputes arising from activities within the scope of the permit, Turkish law will be applied exclusively and Turkish courts will have exclusive jurisdiction.
Foreign digital accommodation platforms that are authorized in accordance with the regulation and operate exclusively in the fields for which they are authorized will not be accepted as electronic commerce intermediary service providers or electronic commerce service providers within the scope of the Law on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce.
OBLIGATIONS OF FOREIGN DIGITAL ACCOMMODATION PLATFORMS
The bill also determines the obligations of foreign digital accommodation platforms.
Accordingly, foreign digital accommodation platforms will not be able to operate outside the scope of the permit and will not be able to sell and market other products. It will have to carry out its activities within the scope of the permit only through the electronic commerce environment it will use for these activities.
It will notify the Ministry within 15 days of any changes in the information and documents underlying the permit. They will need to send the information and documents requested by the Ministry within 15 days. If requested and the request is deemed appropriate, the Ministry will grant an additional period of 15 days.
In the electronic commerce and promotion of accommodation establishments and houses rented for tourism purposes, they will be obliged to verify the document numbers in accordance with the procedure determined by the Ministry and include these document numbers in their activities. In cases where no service is provided or the type of service provided and the amount or rate of the service fee is not specified in the brokerage agreement, they will not be able to receive a fee from the provider of the service subject to the activity.
Even though no objective criteria are included in the brokerage agreement or on the grounds that an application has been made to public institutions or judicial authorities, the provider of the service subject to the activity will not be able to fall behind in the ranking or recommendation system, restrict, suspend or terminate the service.
It will not be able to restrict the commercial relations of those who provide the services subject to the activity, to offer goods or services at the same or different prices through alternative channels, or to advertise, and it will not be able to force the providers of the services subject to the activity to sell promotional services, including making unilateral changes in the sales price for the supply of goods or services from itself or any other person. Any provision allowing these will not be included in the brokerage agreement.
The amount to be collected from the sales price of the service by foreign digital accommodation platforms, under any name, cannot exceed 17 percent for domestic sales made within the country.
The amount received by foreign digital accommodation platforms based on the sales price of the service will be calculated based on the amount excluding taxes in any case.
With the proposal accepted by the Public Works, Zoning, Transport and Tourism Commission of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, regulations are made regarding the sanctions and penalties to be applied by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to foreign digital accommodation platforms in cases where they do not comply with the obligations imposed on them.
Accordingly, if it is determined that the services that must be provided through travel agencies that have an operating license within the scope of the Travel Agencies Law and the car rental services that must be provided through businesses authorized by the Ministry of Commerce are carried out through businesses that do not have an authorization or operating license, an administrative fine of 200 thousand liras will be imposed.
If foreign digital accommodation platforms do not notify the Ministry of changes in the information and documents underlying the permit within 15 days, an administrative fine of 200 thousand liras will be imposed and 15 days will be given to correct the violation. If the violation is not resolved within this period or is detected for the second time within the same calendar year, the administrative fine will be increased by 50 percent. If the violation is detected for the third time within the same calendar year, the permit will be canceled without additional time.
If it is determined that the platforms in question do not notify the Ministry of the relevant changes within the specified period or do not send the information and documents requested by the Ministry within the specified period, an administrative fine of 200 thousand liras will be imposed. If the obligation is not fulfilled within 15 days from the notification of this administrative fine, the permit will be cancelled.
If it is determined that these platforms do not include document numbers in the electronic commerce and promotion of accommodation businesses and houses rented for tourism purposes, the relevant provision of the Tourism Encouragement Law will be applied for undocumented accommodation businesses, and the relevant provision of the Law on Rental of Houses for Tourism Purposes and Amendments to Certain Laws will be applied for houses rented for undocumented tourism purposes.
If it is determined that foreign digital accommodation platforms have violated the principle of not collecting a fee from the service provider in cases where no service is provided or the type of service provided and the amount or rate of the service fee is not specified in the brokerage agreement, an administrative fine of 10 times the unfairly charged fee will be imposed.
An administrative fine of 500 thousand liras will be imposed if it is determined that foreign digital accommodation platforms have violated the provision not to downgrade, restrict, suspend or terminate the service in the ranking or recommendation system, on the grounds that foreign digital accommodation platforms do not include any objective criteria in the brokerage agreement or on the grounds that an application has been made to public institutions or judicial authorities.
If it is determined that there is a violation of the provision of not restricting the commercial relations of the service providers, offering goods or services at the same or different prices through alternative channels, or advertising, not forcing the service providers to sell promotional services, including making unilateral changes in the sales price of goods or services from themselves or any other person, and not including any provision in the intermediary contract that allows these, an administrative fine of 500 thousand liras will be imposed. If the violation is detected for the second time within the same calendar year, the administrative fine will be increased by 50 percent, and if it is detected for the third time in the same period, the permit will be cancelled.
ADMINISTRATIVE FINE IN THE AMOUNT OF 10 TIMES THE UNFAIRLY RECEIVED PRICE
If it is determined that the amount to be collected from the sales price of the service by foreign digital accommodation platforms exceeds 17 percent, an administrative fine of 10 times the amount unfairly collected will be imposed. If the violation is detected for the second time within the same calendar year, the administrative fine will be increased by 50 percent, and if it is detected for the third time in the same time period, the permit will be cancelled.
If the service promised to the customer is not provided incompletely or not at all, an administrative fine of 50 thousand lira to 100 thousand lira will be imposed per contract.
If the Ministry is notified that the administrative fines determined according to the regulation and the obligations arising from the execution of the decisions and decisions made by the courts regarding the disputes arising from the implementation of the proposal are not fulfilled, the foreign digital accommodation platform will be given 30 days by the Ministry to fulfill the obligations. If the obligations are not fulfilled at the end of this period, the permit will be cancelled.
If the tourism share required to be deposited according to the Law on the Turkish Tourism Promotion and Development Agency is not deposited on time in accordance with the procedures and principles determined in accordance with the same Law, the foreign digital accommodation platform will be given 15 days to do so. If this amount is not deposited at the end of the period, the permit will be cancelled.
If foreign digital accommodation platforms do not comply with the obligation to use and keep operational hardware, programs and software determined by the Ministry in the execution of activities within the scope of the regulation, an administrative fine of 500 thousand liras will be imposed.
The permit will be canceled if activities are carried out that are contrary to the interest of the country, undermine public trust and undermine the country's tourism. Foreign digital accommodation platforms whose permits have been canceled will not be able to request a new document for 6 months.
The Ministry will decide to block access for foreign digital accommodation platforms that are found to be operating in the country without obtaining a permit from the Ministry and foreign digital accommodation platforms whose permits have been canceled or whose permits have expired, and this decision will be sent to the Association of Access Providers for implementation. Access blocking decisions will be submitted to the criminal judge of peace for approval within 24 hours. The judge will announce his decision within 48 hours, otherwise the decision will be automatically annulled. An objection may be made against the decision made by the criminal judgeship of peace in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Administrative sanctions will be applied by the Ministry.
AUTHORITY AND TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS
The Ministry will be authorized to eliminate any hesitations and disruptions that may arise during the implementation of the regulation, to make the necessary arrangements to ensure uniformity of implementation, and to determine the procedures and principles regarding the implementation of the bill.
With the proposal, a regulation is made regarding the tourism share in the Law on Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency. Accordingly, Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency will receive a tourism share of 7.5 per ten thousand from foreign digital accommodation platforms. The digital service tax base will be taken as basis in calculating this share.
On the date when the regulation comes into force, foreign digital accommodation platforms operating in the country via the electronic commerce environment will be required to apply to the Ministry to obtain a permit within 3 months from the date of entry into force of the provision. Administrative sanctions will be applied to those who do not comply with this obligation or whose applications are not accepted, those who are found to be operating in the country without obtaining a permit from the Ministry, and foreign digital accommodation platforms whose permits have been canceled or whose permits have expired.
According to the proposal accepted in the commission, the regulation will come into force on January 1, 2027.
