No room for misleading advertising! Ministry of Commerce issues fines

The Ministry of Trade's Advertising Board imposed an administrative fine of 141 million Turkish Lira for advertisements found to be in violation of legislation in the first six months of 2025. In a written statement, the Ministry noted that deceptive advertising and unfair commercial practices are regulated under Consumer Protection Law No. 6502 to prevent consumer grievances arising from transactions and to protect their rights and interests. It also noted that all advertising and promotions targeting consumers are meticulously examined for factors such as deceptiveness, exploitation of lack of knowledge and experience, and impact on economic interests.

12,499 FILES WERE REVIEWED In this context, it was stated that 12,499 files from food, health, communication and many other sectors were reviewed by the Advertisement Board of the Ministry of Trade in the first 6 months of the year, and "11,657 of 12,499 files were not processed because they did not meet the application conditions in the legislation or were out of scope. The remaining 842 files were evaluated and decided on by the Advertisement Board. In addition, a preventive suspension was imposed on 4 files until the Board's decision was made in order to prevent consumers from suffering. Recently, applications related to various areas such as promotions regarding the driving range information of electric vehicles, and practices called 'dark commercial design' that complicate the subscription processes for consumers on music, video and media content platforms with a rapidly increasing number of users, were brought to the Board's agenda. 753 of the 838 files discussed on the Advertisement Board's agenda were found to be in violation of the relevant legislation. In this context, 456 files were "Suspension penalties were imposed for 17 files, suspension and access blocking penalties were imposed for 2 files, correction decisions were issued for 2 files, administrative fines and suspension penalties were imposed for 225 files, and administrative fines and suspension and access blocking penalties were imposed for 13 files. The Ministry of Trade imposed administrative fines totaling 141,123,032 TL. Furthermore, in 40 files, it was decided to implement only access blocking measures to prevent consumer grievances, and 85 files were not found to be in violation of the legislation."

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SAFE AND TRANSPARENT SHOPPING The statement also made recommendations for consumers and sellers for safe and transparent shopping, and the following statements were included: "It is of great importance for consumers to pay attention to the following points in order to avoid being victimized by discount campaigns: They should determine their needs accurately before shopping, do preliminary research about the seller or provider, compare the price of the goods or services to be purchased with similar products, pay attention to the discount amount and rates, check whether the website address belongs to the seller or provider, be careful about pages directed through social media, check whether the website has security elements such as SSL certificate and 3D secure, and carefully read the preliminary information provided before making payment. On the other hand, sellers and providers organizing discount sales campaigns should pay attention to the following points: They should state the start and end dates of discounted sales, and if the quantity of goods or services offered for sale is limited, they should state this amount clearly and understandably, they should not include misleading statements or images regarding which goods or services are included in the discount and the discount rates to be applied, they should not include the discount amount or rate. "When determining the price, they should use the lowest price applied within thirty days before the start date of the discount and share the price information before this discount in the advertisements, and if there is a price validity period or stock limit, they should clearly state this information in the advertisements."