On February 5, 2025, the Personal Data Protection Authority (“Authority”) published the Public Announcement on Matters to Be Considered in Standard Contracts for the Transfer of Personal Data Abroad (“Announcement”) on its website.
The Announcement contains the Authority’s guidance regarding certain events encountered in submissions for Standard Contracts to the Authority. In the Announcement, the Authority provides a total of 12 pieces of information. Some of the most noteworthy points are summarized as follows:
- If the standard contract is not signed by persons authorized to represent and sign, it will be invalid.
- The signatures on the standard contract must comply with the signature regulations of the Turkish Code of Obligations numbered 6098 (e.g., methods like DocuSign, which are considered valid abroad, will not be accepted).
- In a two-columns contract, in both English and Turkish, signatures of both parties must be included in the Turkish section.
- When submitting the standard contract along with supporting documents, the names of the signatories must appear on the documents, and these names must be consistent with those of the signatories.
- The contract must include the signature dates to determine the notification date.
- The addresses, contact points, names of the signatories, and similar information of the parties must be clearly stated in the text.
- If an official document is present among the supporting documents, it must have undergone an official document authentication process (e.g., an apostille).
- Every document in a foreign language must be submitted with a notarized Turkish translation.
- There must be no statement or effective date in the contract indicating that the contract will come into force retroactively.
- No changes can be made to the contract except for elective and alternative clauses.
You can access the full announcement via the following link:
You may always contact us for detailed information and professional support regarding the compliance process.
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