The new e-commerce law soon to be finalized
ISTANBUL
Work on new e-commerce legislation, which would include regulations protecting local businesses, is expected to be finalized and submitted to parliament soon.
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The new law aims to curb the industry’s rapid growth and guard against competition, according to the daily Milliyet.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan unveiled plans in April to introduce new rules for e-commerce.
The size of the rapidly growing e-commerce business in Turkey, where 72% of the population uses the internet, reached 381.5 billion Turkish liras.
The new legislation will introduce restrictions for certain products, which are sold on e-commerce platforms, and additional taxes on businesses based on their income.
Stiffer fines will also be imposed on companies that sell counterfeit products on these platforms. The legislation will also prohibit companies from engaging in promotional activities that harm competition and from using consumer data to create unfair competition.
The law also provides support for local businesses, which will enter the e-commerce market for the first time, in the form of grants and by guaranteeing easy access to loans and incentives, the daily said.
The biggest players in the local market are foreign companies, and the new legislation is designed to address this foreign dominance.
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The authorities will inform new entrants of the success of the e-commerce site PttAVM.com, owned by the Turkish postal service PTT, as an example to follow as a business model.
PttAVM.com has more than 35,000 suppliers and more than 15 million members and offers more than 30 million products with a turnover of around 2 billion lira.
Mail-order and internet sales jumped 26.4% from a year ago, and they rose 3.2% on a monthly basis in March, according to the latest data from the Turkish Statistical Institute ( TÜİK).
Overall retail sales volume in the country posted a 2.5% year-on-year increase during the month.
