Guideline On Advertisements Including Price Information and Discounted Sale Advertisements and Commercial Practices (“Guideline”) prepared to guide advertisers, advertisement agencies, organizations, vendors, providers, intermediary service providers and all persons, institutions and organizations related to advertising that advertisements with price information, discount sales advertisements and commercial applications is published.

According to the Guideline prepared based on the Law No. 6502 on Consumer Protection and the Commercial Advertising and Unfair Commercial Practices Regulation (“Regulation”) and adopted as the principal decision No. 2022/1 at the meeting of the Board of Advertisement dated 12.04.2022 and numbered 320;

Main Principles

• Expressions such as "free of charge" and "free" should not be used in cases where the consumers are required to pay, in order to obtain the goods, excluding compulsory and reasonable delivery costs. Delivery and postage costs required to be paid by the consumer should be shown with the price, and if these fees cannot be calculated in advance, consumers should be informed accordingly.
• Options that entail additional payment obligations should not be presented as pre-selected, explicit consent of the consumer should be obtained in advance.
• All inclusive expressions such as “net”, “all”, “everything” should not be used in cases where the price or discount advertisement does not apply to all or a certain category of goods or services.
• In advertisements for general discounts by providing different discounts for different categories of goods or services, it is necessary to indicate the category of the goods or services clearly and comprehensively, and related price reductions such as “winter seasonal products”, “brand products”, “blue dotted products”, “(discount) on 2. Product”.
• The expressions “up to ….”, “From ….” should be indicated in legible size and the scope of the goods included in the discounted sale must meet the reasonable expectation of the consumer.
• To deprive the consumer of the opportunity or time necessary to make an informed choice and to make an immediate decision, it cannot be stated that the goods or services will be offered under certain terms for a very limited period of time contrary to reality.
• Sensitive consumer groups (such as the elderly, the disabled, children etc.) additional care should be taken in discount sales advertisements and commercial applications. In addition to price information in advertisements for this group, expressions such as “only” or “solely” should not be used to create the perception that the price is low; children should not be encouraged to convince their parents or others to purchase goods or services; and children should not be implied to enter into contracts.

Advertisements With Price Information

• Advertisements that include the sales price of a good or service should display the total price, including taxes. In cases where a tax, duty or fee is not calculated according to the qualifications of the consumer or the provisions of the relevant legislation, an explanation that the specified ones are not included in the price and the calculating method of the total price should be included.
• Sales prices should be stated in Turkish Lira except for package tours, training, transportation and accommodation services to be carried out abroad.
• In installment payment advertisements, the total price of the advertised good or service, the number of installments and the installment amount should be displayed in legible size or stated audibly.
• If advertisements promise that a good or service will be provided to consumers for free, the obligations that consumers must fulfill should be clearly stated in the main message of the advertisement.
• If there is a period or stock limit related to the validity of the price of the good or service, this period and the amount of the stock should be clearly stated in the advertisements.
• The personalized price should be presented to the consumer along with the current sales price for that good or service.

Discount Sale Advertisements

• The prior price, the start and end dates of the discounted sale, the goods or services subject to discounted sale and the limited number of quantities should be clearly stated in the advertisements for discounted sales. Statements or images that may mislead consumers regarding the amount and scope of the discount or create the impression that more discounts are being applied than in reality, cannot be included in the advertisements.

• The lowest price applied within 30 days prior to the date of the discount should be taken as a basis in determining the sale price of a good or service before the discount. If goods or services are sold at different prices through different sales channels and a general price reduction announcement is made on different sales channels, the previous price of the goods and services must be the lowest price applied during the 30-day period before the start of the discount on the relevant sales channel. However, when calculating the amount or rate of discount on advertisements for perishable goods such as fruits, vegetables, eggs the price before the discounted price should be taken in account, not the lowest price within 30 days.

• Expressions such as “Amazing/Fabulous November/Friday offers”, “giant deals” or phrases such as “20% discount on all products today”, "10-TL discount on all products today" can be used and the price of the product before the discount does not need to be specified in these advertisements.

• The sales prices of the goods or services offered for sale on more than one e-commerce platform and/or other platforms cannot be based on and announced as the sales price before the discount for sales to be made on other e-commerce or other platforms or discounts to be applied. In other e-commerce platforms or channels. Discount sales advertisements, statements that may cause consumers to perceive the recommended sales price as the crossed-out reference price with a discount or the lowest price applied within the last thirty days, or the previous price cannot be used.

The following applications have not been evaluated within the scope of the discounted sale regulated by the Regulation;
 

• 1. Conditional sales such as “Buy 3 pay 2”, “buy 1 get 1 free”, “50 TL discount over 500 TL”, “20% discount on the 2. product“, "buy 3 get 30% discount on cart”,
  2. Advertisements based on comparisons of discounted sales prices of sellers or providers, such as “best/lowest price”,
  3. Discount cards, coupons, loyalty programs which gives the consumer the right to a long-term price reduction in certain groups of goods or services, or applications that allow consumers to accumulate points for their future purchases,
  4. ”Dynamic“ or ”real-time" pricing methods applied in air transportation,
  5. Personalized price discounts that are not qualified to announce a price reduction.

New obligations have been imposed on advertisers and intermediary service providers.

The Law on Consumer Protection and the Regulation on Commercial Advertising and Unfair Commercial Practices, as well as new regulations made in favor of the consumer in the legislation, attract attention.

Especially by the advertisers, sellers, advertising agencies and providers, also providers acting on behalf of the consumer service providers and e-commerce service providers must comply with the new regulations regarding advertising activities contains price and discounted price.

Please find the Guideline prepared to guide all persons, institutions and organizations related to advertising in Turkish from the link.