Law Amendment Proposal on the Law on the Protection of Personal Data Submitted to the Turkish Grand National Assembly

On 16.02.2024, the Justice Committee of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) received the Bill (Bill) on the long-awaited amendment to the Law on Personal Data Protection No. 6698 (LPDP). It can be said that the Bill, which introduces regulations similar to the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), aims to eliminate the difficulties experienced in practice regarding the processing of special categories of personal data and cross-border transfers. The regulations foreseen in the Bill can be summarized as follows:

• The processing of special categories of personal data has been reorganized and new processing conditions have been introduced in parallel with the GDPR. This means that special categories of personal data can now be processed under conditions other than being stipulated by law. Additionally, employers may process their employees’ sensitive data, including health data, in the presence of legal obligations such as employment, occupational health and safety, and social security. 
• Regarding cross-border transfer, the Bill provides for a system similar to the transfer mechanisms provided for in the GDPR. According to the relevant amendment, the Personal Data Protection Board (Board) may issue an adequacy decision for a specific country, international organization or sector within a country.
• At the same time, appropriate safeguards are introduced in case no adequacy decision is issued. Among these, standard contractual clauses to be announced by the Board stand out. Pursuant to the Bill, personal data may be transferred abroad upon the signing of standard contractual clauses and the notification of this to the Personal Data Protection Authority (Authority) within 5 working days. Administrative fines may be imposed on data controllers who fail to notify the Authority of the contracts signed.
• The Bill also states that personal data may be transferred abroad even in the absence of appropriate safeguards under certain conditions.
• In addition, the Bill provides for the implementation of some new provisions together with the old ones for another 3 months, considering that there may be problems regarding cross-border transfers during the amendment process. Thus, cross-border transfers based on explicit consent obtained before or after the entry into force of the amendment are allowed.
• Finally, the appeals procedure against Board decisions has been modified and it is stipulated that administrative fines may be appealed before administrative courts.