IYS and commercial calls in Turkey: what businesses need to know

What is IYS and why are commercial calls covered?

IYS is Turkey’s national system for recording consent and opt-outs for commercial electronic messages. Recipients can see which brands may contact them on which channels and withdraw consent there. Businesses check a recipient’s consent status in the same system before sending.

The definition of a commercial electronic message in Law No. 6563 does not stop at SMS and email: it explicitly lists voice messages made by telephone, call centres, automatic dialling machines and smart voice recording systems. A marketing call made by an AI assistant is therefore covered, as are WhatsApp, SMS or email messages with a quote link sent after the call.

Which calls need prior consent?

If you call consumers to promote something, you need prior consent that has been recorded in IYS. Commercial messages to merchants and tradespeople do not require consent, but those numbers must also be registered in IYS with the “merchant” type and checked for opt-outs before sending. B2B calling is therefore not entirely outside IYS.

Whether a recipient counts as a merchant is not always obvious. There are interpretations that self-employed professionals such as doctors with a private practice, lawyers and accountants are neither merchants nor tradespeople, and that municipalities are not merchants either; calling them without consent may not be covered by the merchant exemption. This is an interpretation and should be confirmed with your lawyer.

Responding to a customer’s own request (for example, calling someone who asked for information through a form) is not the same as a campaign call. If the conversation moves beyond the request into promotion, separate consent may be needed, so clarify the boundary in advance.

What does it mean if a number has no IYS record?

An address with no consent record in IYS is treated as an opt-out. Even if your own list says “this person gave us permission”, you cannot send them a commercial message unless that consent is in IYS. That is why the IYS check should be run on the current list immediately before a campaign.

Recipients can withdraw consent at any time. Opt-outs must be processed within three business days, and no further messages may be sent after that. Someone who says “do not call me again” during a call should be handled the same way. Consent and opt-out records must be kept for a long period; the law specifies ten years.

What should be said at the start of a commercial call?

The person being called should learn who is calling and why at the very start. Law No. 6563 requires stating on whose behalf the message is made and, for voice calls, saying that it is promotional at the start of the call. Turkey’s Distance Contracts Regulation also requires that a consumer called for sales purposes be told at the outset who is calling, on whose behalf if it is another party, and the commercial purpose of the call.

Article 18(8) of Turkey’s Advertising Regulation, in force since 1 August 2026, requires clear disclosure of AI use that significantly affects consumer decisions and of digital characters indistinguishable from humans. In AI sales calls, it is therefore important for the assistant to say it is an AI from the start. The person should also be given a clear way to refuse further calls.

• Who is calling: the company name or brand
• On whose behalf: the other company’s name if calling for someone else
• Purpose: that the call is promotional or sales-related
• A clear statement if AI is being used
• How to opt out: how the person can say they do not want further calls

What happens if the rules are broken?

Turkey’s Ministry of Trade imposes separate administrative fines for messages sent without consent, missing identity information, failing to offer an opt-out, and breaches of the regulation. The fine for messages without consent applies per message; the 2026 range is TRY 2,859–14,309 per message and can be increased up to ten times for bulk sends. Fines double if repeated within a year. Amounts are updated every year, so check the current table in official sources.

Enforcement is largely complaint-driven: any recipient who is bothered can file a complaint. The law directs fines at both service providers and intermediary service providers. When a calling or messaging platform counts as an intermediary is open to interpretation, so clarifying how responsibility is shared in the contract helps both sides.

How do you prepare a compliant call list?

Compliance starts when the list is built, not on campaign day. Do not start calling without knowing the consent source, recipient type and IYS status of each person. A business’s own IYS registration is made via e-Devlet or e-signature by the person shown as authorised in Turkey’s central trade registry (MERSİS), so it cannot be delegated to the software team.

• Consent source and date for each record: which form, which wording
• Recipient type: individual, merchant or public body
• A fresh IYS check immediately before the campaign
• A do-not-call list, with opt-outs from calls added to it
• No scraped or purchased lists
• Retention of consent and opt-out records

How does Xaly handle consent in outbound call campaigns?

In Xaly outbound campaigns, you confirm that contacts gave prior consent when uploading the list; consent and IYS registration remain the business’s responsibility. The assistant says on whose behalf it is calling and that it is an AI at the start of the call. Attempts are capped, and people who ask not to be called are added to a list and never called again.

You set the calling hours, and international calling is off by default, enabled only when explicitly allowed on your account. We recommend reviewing your campaign design with your own legal adviser.