Exemptions from the Obligation to Register with VERBİS

15 May 2018Murat Volkan DülgerCommentary

Introduction

This work was written in Turkish. The summary on this page is a translation; the citation gives the original title in parentheses.

Article 16(2) of the Law on the Protection of Personal Data (KVKK) established the obligation to register with the Data Controllers’ Registry, known for short as “VERBİS”. The same article stated that exemptions from the obligation to register with the data controllers’ registry could be introduced, and that both the establishment and operation of the registry and what the exemptions would be were to be set out in a regulation to be issued. Article 15 of the Regulation on the Data Controllers’ Registry, issued for this purpose, set out the cases in which an exemption applies, and Article 16 set out the exemption criteria.

Article 16(2) of the Regulation stated that the Board has the power to take decisions in order to determine the scope of the exemptions set within the framework of the criteria listed in the first paragraph and the procedures and principles for their application, and that the Board would announce its decisions to the public by publishing them through appropriate means. In all sectors that have to plan for the protection of personal data, and among all those concerned with this subject, there had long been an expectation that the exemptions would be published. The Board’s decision on this matter, dated 2 April 2018 and numbered 2018/32, was published in the Official Gazette of 15 May 2018, No. 30422. In this article I will examine the salient points of that decision.