Türkiye has not adopted national legislation based on or influenced by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Commerce.

Law No. 5651 on Regulating the Internet was amended in March 2015, broadening the scope of administrative blocking. As a result, Türkiye’s regulator may ban content to secure the protection of life and private property, protection of national security and public order, prevention of crimes, and protection of public health without a prior court order.

Türkiye has reportedly blocked more than 130 social networking and news sites over the years, including independent news sites such as Bianet.org and major social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Periscope, and online tools such as Google Docs, Translate, Books, Analytics, and DropBox. By November 2022, Tumblr was blocked after receiving orders from the Kuşadası Court of Peace due to “a violation of personal rights.” It is reported that more than 712,000 domains and 150,000 URLs were blocked as of December 2022. Nearly 500,000 of these blocks were carried out by BTK. Some 150,000 URLs were banned from access, in addition to 9,800 Twitter accounts, 55,500 tweets, 16,585 YouTube videos, 12,000 Facebook posts, and 11,150 Instagram posts.
Websites can be blocked for “obscenity” or if they are deemed defamatory to Islam. In December 2022, 918 websites were blocked for insulting the president, endangering national security, and promoting narcotics.
Following the February 2023 earthquakes, the government blocked Twitter for eight hours,. Also in February, access to a domestic social media platform, Ekşi Sözlük, was blocked. Independent news outlets are regularly blocked in the country, and in February 2023, blocking orders were issued against 340 URLs and websites, mainly belonging to Kurdish media outlets and literary publishers. The Etkin News Agency received its 50th blocking order in March 2023. Prominent news sites that remained blocked include Ahval News (blocked since 2018) and Haberdar (blocked since 2016). Furthermore, in March 2023, the Rize Court of Peace issued a blocking order against EngelliWeb, the platform where the İFÖD compiles access-blocking orders in Turkey.
Finally, it is reported that service websites like Uber, PayPal, and Booking.com are blocked in Turkey. A court imposed a blocking order against Uber in January 2023, citing “unfair competition.” In addition, the scooter-rental app and website Martı was also blocked in March 2023 following a complaint from the Taxi Drivers Chamber of Istanbul.

The indicator "6.2.4 - Government Internet shut down in practice" of the V-Dem Dataset, which measures whether the government has the technical capacity to actively make internet service cease, thus interrupting domestic access to the internet or whether the government has decided to do so, has a score of 3 in Türkiye for the year 2023. This corresponds to "Rarely but there have been a few occasions throughout the year when the government shut down domestic access to Internet."
Following the February 2023 earthquakes in Turkey, the government is reported to have implemented politically motivated internet blackouts.

According to the Regulation on the Presentation of Radio, Television, and On-Demand Broadcasts on the Internet, all online radio, television, and on-demand streaming services, such as YouTube and Netflix, and online news sites, are required to obtain a license from the government-controlled state television and radio regulator, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK). The regulation makes RTÜK responsible for monitoring their online content and requires content providers to abide by RTÜK’s standards or face revocation of their license and blocking their platforms.

According to the Regulation on After-sale Service, products requiring after-sales services, such as advanced data processing equipment, office equipment and computers, cash registers, TV and video equipment, and wireless equipment, need an import permit from the Ministry of Trade. To obtain such a permit, importers must guarantee that they will provide service and spare parts either by establishing offices or by signing agreements with existing service/parts firms. Complaints have been raised by some companies in 2014 that a lack of transparency in Türkiye‘s import licensing system results in costly delays, demurrage charges, and other uncertainties that inhibit trade.

According to the Notification No. 2019/4 on Import Surveillance of September 2019, the Turkish Ministry of Trade imposed a licensing requirement on the imports of LED lamps.

According to the Notification No. 2020/6 on Import Surveillance of May 2020, the Turkish Ministry of Trade issued a licensing requirement on the imports of mobile phones.

According to the Communiqué on Implementation of Tariff Quota in Imports of Printed Circuit Boards with LED Diodes Used in the Production of Backlight Units, in October 2014, the government of Türkiye announced an altered import quota on printed circuit boards with LEDs used in the production of backlight units.

It is reported that Turkey's documentation requirements for many imports are burdensome, inconsistent, and non-transparent, often causing shipments to be delayed at Turkish ports. Additionally, the Ministry of Trade periodically imposes tracking and monitoring stipulations for certain imports, which include a cumbersome registration process and an annual re-registration requirement, with no helpline or informational service to guide exporters through the registration process.

Companies exporting to the Turkish market must submit evidence of conformity with the European standards (CE Mark) either by providing a notarised conformity certificate from a notified body or a manufacturer’s issued certificate of conformity, which declares compliance with all relevant directives. For products falling outside of the scope of the EU directives and where the Government of Türkiye has established a directive or standard, the current standard or directive would apply.

Certain regulations mandate that financial institutions retain both their primary and secondary systems within the borders of Türkiye, prohibiting the systematic transfer of such data abroad for banks, financial leasing and factoring companies, publicly traded companies, pension investment funds, and other entities regulated by the Capital Markets Board. These regulations include the Regulation on Internal Systems and Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process of Banks, whose Art. 11(4) stipulates that Turkish banks must host their primary data systems—comprising the infrastructure, hardware, software, and data necessary for recording and utilising all information required to conduct banking activities and meet legislative obligations—within Türkiye. Likewise, their secondary data systems, which serve as backups, must also be stored domestically. Additionally, Art. 23 of Law No. 6493 requires system operators to maintain information systems and their backups domestically. A system operator is defined as a legal entity responsible for the day-to-day functioning of payment or securities settlement systems, holding the requisite licence for such operations. This provision further compels online payment services, such as PayPal, to retain all data in Türkiye for a minimum of ten years. The law specifies: “The system operator, payment institution, and electronic money institution shall be required to keep all documents and records related to matters within the scope of this Law for at least ten years within the country, in a secure and accessible manner.”
Additionally, under Art. 73 of the Banking Law, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Authority (BRSA) is empowered to prohibit the sharing or transfer of customer data or bank secrets with third parties outside Turkey. The BRSA may also mandate that banks maintain their information systems and backups within Turkey, based on assessments related to economic security.

According to Art. 9 of the Personal Data Protection Law, data cannot be processed or transferred abroad without the individual's explicit consent. Consent will not be required if the transfer is necessary to exercise a right or is required by law, and either:
- sufficient protection exists in the transferee country or
- if the data controller gives a written security undertaking and Türkiye’s Data Protection Board grants permission.
It is reported that these conditions are very restrictive, so in some cases, data controllers have made their own assessment of whether personal data will be adequately protected based on the criteria used by the Turkish Personal Data Protection Authority to assess adequacy.

Art. 51 of the Electronic Communications Law stipulates that the transfer of traffic and location data abroad is permitted with the data subject's explicit consent.

Türkiye has not joined any agreement with binding commitments to open transfers of data across borders.