Turkey's 2026 Advertising Regulation: A Business Guide

Turkey's advertising regulation changed on 1 August 2026, when the amendment to the Regulation on Commercial Advertising and Unfair Commercial Practices took effect. It matters to any business that works with influencers, uses AI-generated visuals, publishes customer reviews or announces discounts. This guide follows the regulation's text and explains what changed and what a business should review in practice.

When did the advertising regulation take effect?

The amendment was published in the Official Gazette (issue 33297) on 1 July 2026. According to the effective-date article in the text, it entered into force on 1 August 2026. The rules now apply; the preparation period is over.

The summary below collects the articles that matter to a business owner. It is not legal advice; for a situation specific to your sector, read the full text or ask a lawyer.

What changed if you work with influencers?

If a social media influencer's post is an advertisement, that must be stated clearly. Under the text, the post must carry one of the words "Reklam" (advertisement) or "Tanıtım" (promotion); the label may also appear together with the advertiser's name. The regulation adds conditions for how visible the label is, where it sits and how it behaves when a post is re-shared. For audio-only content, the disclosure must come at the start and before the advertisement.

In practice: if you send a product to a micro influencer and ask for a post, add a clause to the written agreement that the post will carry the "Reklam" or "Tanıtım" label. An influencer who forgets the label is exposed, and so is the business that commissioned the post. We summarised how the Advertising Board applies this in a Vinci Notebook note.

How are AI-generated ads affected?

The regulation says two separate things. First, if an ad uses a digital character that cannot be told apart from a real person, or an AI use that would significantly affect economic behaviour, this must be disclosed clearly and distinguishably. Second, ads in which an AI-generated digital copy of a real person appears to have tried or recommended a product are prohibited.

For a business the line is clear. Using an AI-generated product image or background is one thing. Generating a realistic "satisfied customer" or "expert doctor" and having them speak about a product is risky. Cloning a real person's face with AI to give a recommendation falls directly under the ban.

What should you watch if you publish customer reviews?

The regulation regulates consumer reviews (comments, scores, stars) separately. Under the text, only people who bought the product may take part, and reviews from channels where a purchase cannot be verified cannot be published. Reviews must stay up for at least a year without being split into positive or negative, and publishing rules cannot be written to limit reviews to certain topics.

If you run a review section on your own site, ask: did the reviewer actually buy, and can I verify it? If you cannot, keeping the section open is a risk. Deleting negative reviews may also conflict with the new rule. According to the regulation, the response time for reviews was cut from 72 to 48 hours.

Which price counts as the "old price" in a discount?

For goods, the pre-discount price is the lowest price charged in the ten days before the discount starts. For perishable goods and for services, the price immediately before the discounted price applies. If you sell through several channels, the price in the channel running the discount counts.

That makes "raise first, discount later" a documented risk. Keeping a table of the ten-day price history before each campaign lets you show it when needed.

If you run targeted ads

The regulation defines advertising based on online behaviour, history, location or demographic data as targeted advertising. The criteria used to show the ad, and how those criteria can be changed, must be offered to the consumer directly and in an easily accessible way. If the consumer is known, or reasonably expected to be, a child, targeted advertising built on profiling with personal data is not allowed.

If you run Meta or Google ads, the platforms provide much of this disclosure in their own interfaces. It is still worth reviewing targeting settings for products aimed at children. For help setting up an ad account, see our ad management service.

Why does record keeping matter?

In many places the regulation expects a business to be able to show something: the ten-day price history before a discount, a review's purchase verification, the label on a post. If a complaint or inspection arrives and you have no records, proving you were right gets harder. A small evidence folder is therefore as useful as the rules themselves.

Put in it: influencer agreements and screenshots of the posts, the price table before each campaign, a short note on how your review system verifies purchases, and a list of ad content you produced with AI. Starting with a single spreadsheet and updating it monthly is enough; it is a habit, not a heavy process.

A checklist for a business

• Add the "Reklam" or "Tanıtım" label requirement to influencer agreements.
• Do not use AI-generated content that gives the impression of a real person's endorsement.
• If your review section has no purchase verification, consider taking it down.
• Keep a record of the lowest price in the ten days before a discount.
• Review targeting settings on products aimed at children.

To set up your social accounts in line with these rules, see our social media management page; to talk about your own case, use the quote wizard.

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