In recent weeks, the EU Draft Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste as well as communiqués on the inspection of compliance with relevant standards or technical regulations for certain imported and/or exported products have been published in the commercial and trade sector. In addition, various amendments were made to the Customs Regulation, the Regulation on the Principles and Rules to be Applied in Retail Trade, and the Law on the Regulation of Retail Trade.

The amendments to the Law on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce that was adopted on 1 July 2022 will enter into force on 1 January 2023. As part of these amendments, the Regulation on Electronic Commerce Intermediary Service Providers and Electronic Commerce Service Providers was published on the Official Gazette no. 32058 dated 29 December 2022.
The Regulation aims to detail and clarify the requirements under the Law.

In recent weeks, the Decree on Electronic Export Incentives and the new Regulation on Consumer Arbitration Committees have been published in the commercial and trade sector. In addition, there have been various amendments to the communiqués on environmentally friendly design requirements and energy labeling for certain products, the Regulation on Consumer Credit Agreements, the Law on the Regulation of Retail Trade, the Regulation on the General Principles of Waste Pretreatment and Recovery Facilities and the Regulation on the Principles and Rules to be Applied in Retail Trade. In addition, the monetary limits for application to consumer courts and the fines for consumer law violations have been increased.

On 11 January 2022, the Personal Data Protection Authority (“Authority”) published the Draft Guideline on Use of Cookies and on 20 June 2022, it published the Guideline on Use of Cookies (“Guideline”). With the Guideline, the Authority aims to bring forward recommendations to ensure compliance of cookie usage procedures followed by data controllers with the Personal Data Protection Law.