Advertisement Board imposed approximately 125.3 million lira fines for misleading advertisements in 5 months

In a statement made by the Ministry of Trade, it was stated that 56 of the 65 files decided by the Board in its meeting on May 15 were found to be contrary to the legislation, and a total administrative fine of 10 million 495 thousand 800 liras was decided to be imposed on these files, along with a suspension penalty, and an access ban measure was also decided to be implemented in 5 files in order to prevent consumer grievances.

In the statement, it was stated that the Board made opinions and evaluations on 736 files in the first 5 months of 2025, including the May meeting, and imposed suspension penalties and administrative fines of 125 million 281 thousand 151 liras on 661 files that were determined to be deceptive advertising or unfair commercial practices.

In the statement, it was reported that the board inspected the applications and advertisements that were designed to influence the rational decision-making processes of consumers and to highlight goods and services or sellers/providers that consumers would not normally encounter during their shopping on the internet sites, with interface designs prepared in a way that would affect the rational decision-making processes of consumers. The following was noted:

"One of the main agenda items of the Board's May meeting was promotions that manipulate comments made by consumers about businesses on e-commerce platforms such as store follower counts, product favorites/add to cart, asking questions, and evaluations, and the number of downloads and comments in application stores, thus highlighting companies, applications or goods and services that consumers are unlikely to encounter in normal operation, and publishing comments that are contrary to real experiences."

PENALTIES GIVEN TO THOSE WHO AFFECTED CONSUMERS’ PURCHASING BEHAVIOR

In the statement, it was emphasized that an administrative fine of approximately 3.5 million liras was imposed on the six companies that made the said promotions aimed at influencing the purchasing behavior of consumers, as well as a penalty of stopping the said advertisements and blocking access to the said websites.

In the statement, it was stated that commercial practices such as showing one of the subscription packages as pre-selected on a video sharing site and requiring the addition of credit or bank card information in order to benefit from the "Try it for '0' lira for 1 month" offer , and indicating only with an "X" mark in the upper right corner of the screen, without being in the same place and in the same appearance, for consumers who do not want to benefit from the offer when the "2 months free" option is offered through the mobile application, were included in the agenda of the Board.

The statement noted the following:

"As a result of the investigation, the interface designs in question, which would lead consumers to make transactions that they would not be a party to under normal circumstances, and the recording of consumers' payment information despite the subscription packages being offered as 'free trials' were evaluated as shady designs, and it was decided to stop the commercial practices in question and impose an administrative fine on the company."