As our readers may recall from our earlier articles, one of the main obligations of the data controllers under the Personal Data Protection Law is to register with VERBIS (i.e. the data controllers' registry), non-compliance of which may lead to administrative fines up to nearly 2,000,000 TRY as of 2021. Our readers will also recall that the Personal Data Protection Board ("Board") had granted a de facto time extension to data controllers for fulfilling their registration obligations.

Having identified that some of the data controllers have not been able to complete their registration with VERBIS due to the challenges related to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Board has extended the period to register for all data controllers until 31.12.2021. The extension applies to data controllers residing abroad as well as data controllers residing in Turkey.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.