The Turkish personal data Protection Law No. 6698, also known as the KVKK, came into effect in April 2016, shortly before the European Union’s GDPR.

Both laws were tailored to their region’s court systems and maintain similar objectives. They share some distinct similarities and differences in the way that they are structured, and companies that serve customers in both regions are required to follow both.

Please note that in 2022, the country changed its name from Turkey to Türkiye. Even though the older spelling "Turkey" is still widely used and understood, the official name is Türkiye. Therefore, we will use the official name Türkiye in the blog below.

What Is KVKK?

Turkish KVKK is the primary privacy legislation governing the collection, use, and storage of personal data of Türkiye citizens, with the aim to protect individuals' privacy while setting obligations and requirements for businesses.

The Kişisel Verilerin Korunması Kanunu (KVKK), or Law No. 6698 went into effect on April 7, 2016, two years before the European Union’s GDPR. 

KVKK was one of the first data privacy legislations globally to establish a solid legal framework for personal data protection.

If your business collects or manages personal data from citizens of Türkiye, you must comply with the KVKK. Non-compliance with the legislation can result in significant penalties, including fines and enforcement actions.

In 2025, KVKK introduced updated consent management requirements, emphasizing digital consent tracking, user-friendly withdrawal mechanisms, and other changes.

Read more about the 2025 amendments and a practical guide to KVKK compliance.

Who Does Türkiye's KVKK Apply To?

The KVKK has broad applicability. According to Article 2 of the law, the KVKK applies to natural or legal persons processing data of Türkiye’s citizens.  This includes data processing done by fully or partially automated means, as well as non-automated means.

Please note that Türkiye’s KVKK has extraterritorial implications, meaning that even if the entity is located outside Türkiye but processes personal data of Türkiye’s individuals, the entity must comply with the law.

This has the following implications:

• You may need to register with Türkiye’s data controller registry (VERBIS) if you qualify and you process Turkish data.
• Your operations should meet core obligations under KVKK: lawfulness/fairness, data minimization, purpose and storage limitation etc.
• For cross-border transfers of Turkish personal data abroad (e.g. to your servers outside Türkiye), the law has specific rules that apply.

Consent Requirements under Türkiye’s KVKK

Turkish KVKK requires explicit consent for collecting, processing, and sharing of personal data. Special care must be taken for handling sensitive personal data of Turkish residents.

explicit consent must be:

• Specific: Clearly tied to a stated purpose.
• Informed: Based on clear notice of how data will be used.
• Freely given: Provided voluntarily through an affirmative action.
• Granular: Provide users with specific options for consenting to different types of data processing purposes.
• Revocable: Allowing individuals to withdraw consent at any time.

Organizations must clearly explain what data they collect and why. Businesses must record user consent for proof of compliance.  

In 2025, KVKK introduced updated consent management requirements, emphasizing digital consent tracking and user-friendly withdrawal mechanisms.

Scan your website for free to see what website cookies and other trackers your site uses:

Penalties and Enforcement of Türkiye’s KVKK

The enforcement authority is the Personal Data Protection Authority (KVKK Authority). The authority can investigate, require data controllers to provide information, issue decisions, impose administrative fines or even criminal liability, and take other corrective actions.

Data subjects can bring civil claims for compensation if they suffer damage due to violations of the law.

Non-compliance with Türkiye’s KVKK could cover administrative sanctions and criminal liability.

Administrative fines

Article 18 of the law sets out administrative fines such as failure to inform individuals about their data collections, failure to keep data secure, failure to comply with board decisions, and failure to register with the data controllers’ registry (VERBIS).

The fines are updated annually based on the revaluation rate under Türkiye’s Misdemeanours Law and Tax Procedure Law.

For 2025, the updated ranges ranges of administrative fines include (please check current official data):

• For failing the obligation to inform individuals (Art. 10): 68,083 TL – 1,362,021 TL.
• For failing to provide data security (Art. 12): 204,285 TL – 13,620,402 TL.
• Failure to comply with cross-border notification requirements: 71,965 TL– 1,439,300 TL.
• For failing to register with VERBIS (Art. 16): 272,380 TL to 13,620,402 TL.

For example, until August 2024, the authority announced that it had imposed 503,935,000 TL in fines on domestic and foreign controllers for failing to fulfil VERBIS registration/notification obligations.

Criminal liability

Legal basis: article 17 of KVKK states that Articles 135-140 of the Turkish Penal Code (Law No. 5237) apply for crimes concerning personal data.

Typical criminal offences include:

• Unlawful recording of personal data may lead to imprisonment from 1 to 3 years. If the data relates to sensitive categories, the penalty may become even more severe.
• Unlawful provision or obtaining of data may lead to imprisonment from 2 to 4 years.
• Failure to delete or anonymize data when required may lead to imprisonment from 1 to 2 years.

Criminal liability means not only administrative sanctions are possible but also criminal prosecution of responsible persons.

Similarities Between KVKK and GDPR 

The big-picture objectives of both the KVKK and GDPR cover similar ground. Both regulations aim to protect the Personal Information and privacy of data subjects, as an increasing number of businesses collect and process their Personal Information.

The regulations address and try to prevent the indiscriminate collection of data, and the access of unauthorized people to that data. The regulations differ in their approaches to this common objective.

Differences Between the KVKK and the GDPR

The Liability of the Data Breach 

The GDPR holds both the data controller and the data processer liable for any damages that may arise from a data breach, while the KVKK draws a separate distinction for the responsibility within these roles.

Below is the text from Article 82 of the GDPR:

“Any person who has suffered material or non-material damage as a result of an infringement of this Regulation shall have the right to receive compensation from the controller or processor for the damage suffered.”

In Article 18 of the KVKK, they address liability for data breaches:

“The administrative fines listed in this article shall apply to natural persons and private law legal persons who are controllers.”

The KVKK treats the processors and controllers separately and issues fines only to the controller.

The Presence of the Data Protection Officer and Data Protection Representative

The GDPR requires the presence of either a data protection officer (DPO) or a data protection representative (DPR) under specific circumstances, while the KVKK does not.

GDPR compliance maintains that the controller and processor shall designate a data protection officer in any cases where:

• The processing is carried out by a public authority or body, except for courts acting in their judicial capacity.
• The core activities of the controller or the processor consist of processing operations which, by their nature, their scope, and/or their purposes require regular and systematic monitoring of data subjects on a large scale.
• The core activities of the controller or the processor consist of processing on a large scale of special categories of data under Article 9or personal data relating to criminal convictions and offenses referred to in Article 10.

When data controllers do not operate in the EU, they must designate a DPR in any of the EU countries, except when data processing is a rare occurrence or doesn’t involve sensitive data.

The GDPR requires a Data Protection Impact Assessment in Some Cases

Article 35 of the GDPR requires a data protection assessment in certain specific cases. According to the article, assessments are required when:

• A systematic and extensive evaluation of personal aspects relating to natural persons is based on automated processing, including profiling, and on which decisions are based that produce legal effects concerning the natural person or similarly significantly affect the natural person.
• Processing on a large scale of special categories of data referred to in Article 9, or of personal data relating to criminal convictions and offenses referred to in Article 10.
• Systematic monitoring of a publicly accessible area on a large scale.

The KVKK does not include any such requirement in Turkey.

The KVKK Requires the Registration of Data Controllers

Data collectors in Turkey are required to enlist on the Data Collectors Registry, VERBIS. This falls under the obligation of businesses to prepare data inventory and requires businesses to take a comprehensive approach to their data collection.

The requirement is for businesses with more than 50 employees, a financial balance sheet over TRY 25 million, or the registration is established abroad. If the business does not register, a fine of TRY 20.000 to TRY 1.000.000 may be imposed, depending on the specifics surrounding the situation.

The GDPR Requires the Recording of Processing Activities

Under Article 30 of the GDPR, the organizations must document their processing activities, and show them to the Data Protection Authority whenever required. In the KVKK, these recordings are regulated by the Data Controllers Registry.

Fines Are Higher Under the GDPR

The EU fines for non-compliance with data regulations are consistently higher than their Turkish counterparts. As stated above, KVKK non-compliance fines range from TRY 20.000 to TRY 1.000.000. Fines in the EU can reach as high as EUR 20.000.000 or 4 percent of the last fiscal year’s turnover.

The Data Subject’s Right to Control Their Data

In the KVKK, the data subject maintains the right to inquire about what the data controller can process or use and request its deletion. The GDPR provides more detail to the rights of the data subject.

According to Article 17, these are the circumstances when data must be erased without delay:

1. The personal data are no longer necessary about the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed.
2. The data subject withdraws consent on which the processing is based according to point (a) of Article 6(1), or point (a) of Article 9(2), and where there is no other legal ground for the processing.
3. The data subject objects to the processing according to Article 21(1) and there are no overriding legitimate grounds for the processing or the data subject objects to the processing according to Article 21(2).
4. The personal data have been unlawfully processed.
5. The personal data have to be erased for compliance with a legal obligation in Union or Member State law to which the controller is subject.
6. The personal data have been collected about the offer of information society services referred to in Article 8(1).

The Scope of Both Laws

The easiest way to think about the scope of the GDPR is that if your business has a customer base in the EU, or you are collecting marketing or advertising data of European residents, those activities should be done within compliance with the GDPR.

All-natural and legal residents of Turkey are similarly covered by the KVKK protections. All international data controllers that conduct data processing in Turkey must register with the country’s Data Controller’s Registry no matter their size or profits.

Practical Implications For Businesses

While there are some significant differences between both the European and Turkish data regulations, both are molded around the characteristics of the relevant legal systems. Both keep the rights of their data subjects at heart. Businesses with European or Turkish markets need to understand the relevant compliance requirements. International companies that do business in both regions may be likely required to fall into compliance with both regulations.  

Businesses operating in Türkiye or processing personal data of Turkish residents must treat these enforcement risks seriously: administrative fines now can reach multi-million TL amounts, and criminal liability is real.

Even foreign-based controllers are at risk if they handle data of Turkish individuals or transfer Turkish data abroad.

Businesses should take these steps to comply with the KVKK:

1. Obtain and document consent Obtain explicit, informed consent from data subjects. Be transparent about the purpose of data collection and respect data subject rights. Record consent logs for proof of compliance.
2. Respect purpose limitation and data minimization principles Limit processing to specific, lawful purposes. Collect personal data for the purposes disclosed at the time of collection and not process it further in a manner incompatible with those original purposes.
3. Ensure your entity complies with ALL KVKK obligations (information notices, data security, board decisions, registration with VERBIS, cross-border transfers) since non-compliance with any of these obligations leads to specific fine ranges.
4. Register with VERBIS before collecting personal data. Delayed registration with VERBIS is still subject to fines. The authority has already actively imposed large fines for non-registration on time.
5. Record user consent, audit and documentation for proof of compliance. The board will assess faults, controller’s financial status, size of violation, etc.
6. Implement security measures Implement robust technical (encryption, access controls), organizational (policies, training), and procedural (incident response) security measures to protect data.
7. Prepare for data breaches Include compliance within risk-management and incident-response processes because data breaches may trigger enforcement. Prepare a breach-response plan and the actions on how to notify the authority and consumers, how to remediate data breaches.
8. Implement a Consent Management Platform (CMP)
   Implement a CMP to deliver cookie notices and obtain explicit, granular Cookie Consent, create a Privacy Policy, and respect user consent choices.

CookieScript CMP is a professional CMP that has all required functionalities for the KVKK compliance:

• Integrations with CMS platforms like WordPress, Prestashop, Wix, etc.
• Grannual Cookie Banner – allows individuals to accept or reject analytics and third-party tracking individuall
• Google Consent Mode v2 integration – enables privacy-safe analytics without exposing personal data.
• Google Tag Manager integration – simplifies integration.
• Certification by Google – allows to use Google products like Google Ads, Analytics, etc.
• CookieScript API – allows developers to integrate external systems to manage Cookie Consent.
• Cookie Scanner – Scans websites for cookies, local storage, or session storage.
• Consent recordings – records user consent and their changes for proof of compliance.
• Third-party cookie blocking – automatically blocks all non-essential scripts until consent is given.
• Geo-targeting – determines your website’s user location and automatically presents the correct Cookie Banner.
• Local storage and session storage scanning.

In Spring 2025, CookieScript received its fourth consecutive G2 badge as the Best Consent Management Platform. 

The platform is also recognized as a Google-certified CMP in the Gold tier, highlighting its compliance with privacy and the latest consent management requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between GDPR and KVKK?

GDPR is the data protection law of the European Union, while KVKK is Türkiye’s personal data protection law (Law No. 6698). While both laws share many similarities, KVKK is less extensive in scope and contains more localized requirements like VERBIS registration for data controllers in Turkey. Fines are higher under the GDPR. Use CookieScript CMP to comply with GDPR, KVKK, and other privacy laws globally.

Does KVKK have the same extraterritorial scope as GDPR?

GDPR explicitly applies to any organization worldwide that processes personal data of individuals in the EU. KVKK does not define extraterritoriality as clearly, but in practice, it applies to foreign businesses processing data of individuals in Türkiye, especially if they collect data, offer services, or transfer Turkish personal data. Use CookieScript CMP to obtain cookie consent and comply with GDPR, KVKK, and other privacy laws globally.

Are consent rules different under GDPR and KVKK?

Both laws require informed, explicit, and freely given consent. Pre-ticked boxes and silence (continuous scrolling without any action) do not count as consent under either law. However, GDPR allows multiple legal bases for processing beyond consent (contract, legitimate interest, etc.), while KVKK emphasizes explicit consent, especially for marketing and special categories of data. Use CookieScript CMP to comply with GDPR, KVKK, and other privacy laws globally.

Do GDPR and KVKK allow cross-border data transfers?

Yes, both GDPR and KVKK allow cross-border data transfers, but conditions differ. GDPR allows data transfers to countries with adequacy decisions, standard contractual clauses (SCCs), BCRs, or explicit consent. KVKK requires either adequate protection in the destination country, commitment, SCCs, or explicit data subject consent when no other mechanism exists. Unlike GDPR, Turkey has approved very few “safe” countries, making cross-border transfers more challenging under KVKK.