Law on Personal Data Protection Nr 6698 & Compulsory Registration to the Turkish Data Registry -VERBIS
As you are also aware, last year in May 2018 the GDPR-General Data Protection Regulation has come into force within the EU which has imposed significant restrictions and boundaries with regard to the personal data processing, storage and usage. The penalties with regard to the breach of the GDPR may go up to 20 Million Euros or the 4 % of the global revenue, whichever is the highest.
In parallel to GDPR, however a year earlier, in April 2017, the Law of Personal Data Protection Nr 6698 (“Data Protection Code”) has come into force within the Republic of Turkey and which has already imposed significant restrictions to the personal data processing, storage and usage in Turkey as well. The Data Protection Code has also brought one very certain and compulsory rule for the companies of which either employs more than 50 employees or the total annual revenue is more than 25 Million TL. The companies which meet either one of these two criteria stated above are obliged to register themselves to the Turkish Data Registry System which is called VERBIS.
The final date to register to VERBIS system has been decided and announced as 30.09.2019. This announcement has been made by the Regulatory Body last year on 01.10.2018 and granted a one (1) year period for all companies which meet with the criteria of either employing more than 50 employees or generating an annual revenue of more than 25 million TL .
Pursuant to Article 18/c of the Data Protection Code, not registering the Company to VERBIS will be punished a monetary fine between 20.000 TL to 1.000.000 TL, most probably depending on the number of the employees and/or the annual revenue of the Company.
| DATA RESPONSIBLES | Commence Date of Registry | Total Legal Period for Registry | Final Date of Registry |
| MINIMUM NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES MORE THAN 50 AND THE TOTAL REVENUE MORE THAN 25 MILLION TL | 01.10.2018 | 12 months | 30.09.2019 |
The Regulatory Body, www.kvkk.gov.tr, will apply high amounts of monetary fine to the companies which do not fulfill their legal commitments until 30.09.2019 in this respect.