What is a Message Management System?

Legislation

As part of the Law No. 6563 on Regulation of Electronic Trade, Legislation on Commercial Communication and Commercial Electronic Messages, it is stated that commercial messages sent to recipients by Service Providers cannot be sent without the consent of the recipient, except for the exceptions specified in the Legislation, and recipients must have the opportunity to refuse the messages sent with consent.

As defined in the Law and the Legislation, signature of recipients is required if consent is received in a physical environment for commercial messages, however, in practice, it is a lengthy process to store and archive these documents, to enable safety and privacy of them, as well as retrieve from archives when required. If the consent in question is taken in the electronic environment, it is stipulated that information concerning the receipt of consent must be delivered to the electronic contact address of the recipient on the same day. Similarly, it is required to keep and store the electronic record of receipt of consent for consents obtained in an electronic environment.

Current Situation

Individuals who have given consent cannot track which companies they have provided consent for after their consent for commercial electronic message is taken, and have to use their refusal right that is notified to them by the commercial electronic message to cancel their consent for commercial electronic messages, separately for each Service Provider.

If a person who has not provided consent for electronic messages makes a complaint upon receiving a message, it is required to obtain information from the relevant Service Provider about whether the consent is received from such person or whether such person has used his/her right to refuse, and administrative sanctions decisions must be made through considering this information.

Purpose

Necessary changes have been made in the Law and Legislation in order to prevent these problems that emerge in practice. Accordingly, a decision has been made to establish a national electronic message management service by the Ministry of Trade, and Turkish Union of Chambers and Exchange Commodities has been assigned to achieve this purpose. İleti Yönetim Sistemi A.Ş. (Message Management System) has been established by the Turkish Union of Chambers and Exchange Commodities for this purpose.

The Message Management System is a national database system that offers services through a website, short message number and call center. The system saves all of the consents given with a time stamp and stores them safely, and by which Service Providers can store and manage message consents of different types such as calls, messages and e-mails. Recipients can also view and cancel any consent they have given and make a complaint about messages sent without consent, and the public can view complaints about messages and the state of consent that is subject to the complaint.

With the Message Management System, the consents that must be received by Service Providers before sending commercial electronic messages to recipients will be stored in a secure environment, and recipients will be able to provide consent and refusal notifications, as well as use their right to make a complaint. The public will be able to fulfill its auditing task rapidly and completely.