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of the service provider is to ensure that the terms and conditions of the
agreement, including the cost, is seen by the recipient prior to the entry
of the payment information. Following this, the service provider shall
send a confirmation through electronic means to the recipient without
delay. Moreover, the service provider is obliged to provide necessary
technical facilities to the recipient for the correction of the input errors.
Pursuant to the legislative justification of the E-Commerce Law, the
relevant obligation is an obligation to perform and not an obligation to
inform/notify.
Regulations Concerning the Commercial Communication
The commercial communications are regulated under the Art. 6 of
the E-Commerce Law. As per the said article, the electronic messages
which include direct marketing or advertisement cannot be sent to the
recipients through the use of automated calling systems without human
intervention, facsimile machines (fax) or electronic mail without the
prior written consent of the recipients. It should also be noted that the
abovementioned provision is not applicable to consented electronic
commercial communication databases established prior to the effective
date of the E-Commerce Law.
Two systems are accepted worldwide for the supervision of the
unsolicited e-mails. The first system is the “
opt-in
” system, which is
also adopted by the E-Commerce Law. This system requires the prior
consent of the recipient as a condition for the service providers to com-
municate with the recipients by electronic means. Accordingly, the ser-
vice providers cannot send any fax, e-mail and text messages to the
potential recipients without their prior consent. Furthermore, the Art. 7
of the E-Commerce Law stipulate that the content of the communica-
tion shall be in compliance with the consent provided.
The second system is called the “
opt-out
” system and it is a sys-
tem accepted by the US and Far East countries
3
. According to this sys-
tem, the recipient has the right to decline the electronic communication
tools which are used. In other words, the service providers do not
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3
Legislative Justification of Law numbered 6563, p. 7.