Yalova KVKK Lawyer: Data Protection, Compliance and Administrative Fines
Law No. 6698 (KVKK) puts every company that processes personal data under regulatory oversight. Compliance projects, data breach response and challenges to administrative fines help protect a business's legal position and its reputation.
Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data (KVKK) puts every company that processes personal data under regulatory oversight. A properly designed compliance project, a sound response to data breaches and well-prepared challenges to administrative fines are critical to protecting your business's legal position and its reputation.
Written by Mesut İlme, attorney at law · Yalova Bar Association reg. no. 287 · Data protection and KVKK · Serving central Yalova and its districts · Author profile. Linked pages are in Turkish.
Industrial plants, tourism businesses, healthcare providers and e-commerce platforms in Yalova are subject to every KVKK obligation whenever they process personal data. İlme Law Office draws on a technical perspective rooted in engineering and handles KVKK compliance as a whole, covering both its legal and its technical side.
Our KVKK Services
Our work covers the full range, from compliance projects to data breach crisis management.
KVKK Compliance Advisory
A comprehensive data protection compliance project for companies
- Current-state analysis
- Policy drafting
- VERBİS registration
Privacy Notices and Explicit Consent
Drafting and review of texts that comply with KVKK Art. 10–11
- Privacy notice
- Explicit consent statement
- Cookie policy
Data Breach Management
72-hour notification, crisis communication and the legal process
- Notification to the Board
- Informing data subjects
- Root cause analysis
Challenging Administrative Fines
Administrative court proceedings against decisions of the KVKK Board
- Challenging the Board decision
- Action before the Administrative Court
- Stay of execution
Data Subject Requests
Application procedures and response management under KVKK Art. 13
- 30-day response period
- Complaint to the Board
- Right to compensation
Cross-Border Data Transfers
Explicit consent, BCRs, written undertakings and standard contracts
- BCR approval
- Standard contracts
- Adequacy assessment
Key Concepts of the KVKK
Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data (KVKK) entered into force on 7 April 2016 and applies to all natural and legal persons that process personal data. Its principles largely parallel those of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Key Definitions
- Personal data: Any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (name, Turkish ID number, phone number, IP address, cookies, etc.)
- Special categories of personal data: Sensitive categories such as race, health, religion, sect, membership and biometric data
- Data controller: The natural or legal person who determines the purposes and means of processing personal data
- Data processor: A person who processes personal data on behalf of the data controller (e.g., a cloud provider)
- Data subject: The natural person whose personal data is processed
- Processing: Any operation performed on data, including collecting, recording, classifying, using, disclosing, transferring and erasing it
The KVKK Compliance Project
A KVKK compliance project maps all of a company's data processing activities and brings them into line with the law. Projects differ by sector and company size, but a typical compliance project runs through the following stages:
Stages of a Compliance Project
- Current-state analysis: Data flow map, processing purposes, legal bases
- Risk assessment: Identifying both visible and hidden risks; impact analysis
- Policy drafting: Data retention and destruction policy, explicit consent procedure
- Privacy notices: Separate notices for customers, employees, visitors and the website
- Data security measures: Technical (encryption, access authorization) plus administrative (training, confidentiality agreements)
- VERBİS registration: For data controllers that meet the thresholds
- Employee training: Role-based training for authorized staff
- Audit and monitoring: Periodic internal audits and compliance monitoring
A completed compliance project lowers the risk of administrative fines. It also means the company is prepared for the critical 72-hour response window if a data breach occurs.
Privacy Notices and Explicit Consent
The duty to inform and explicit consent are the two KVKK concepts that are most often confused. The duty to inform (Art. 10) applies to every processing activity. Explicit consent (Art. 5(1)) is required only where no other legal basis exists.
What a Privacy Notice Must Contain
- The identity of the data controller (full name or trade name, address, contact details)
- The purpose of processing the personal data
- To whom the data may be transferred (recipient categories) and for what purpose
- The method used to collect the data and its legal basis
- The data subject's rights under Art. 11
Conditions for Explicit Consent
Explicit consent must (1) relate to a specific matter, (2) be based on information, (3) be given freely and (4) be expressed unambiguously. A pre-ticked box (opt-out) does not count as explicit consent; active approval (opt-in) is required. Where there is an imbalance of power, as between employer and employee, explicit consent is not considered valid.
Data Breaches and the 72-Hour Rule
A personal data breach covers unauthorized access to a database as well as the loss, theft or mistaken disclosure of data. The most common sources of breaches are phishing attacks, ransomware, social engineering and employee error.
Breach Response Steps
- Detection and containment: Determining the categories of data and the number of people affected
- Root cause analysis: Identifying the source of the breach through a technical forensic examination
- Corrective action: Patching systems, resetting passwords, restricting access
- Notification to the Board: Within 72 hours via verbis.kvkk.gov.tr
- Notification to data subjects: Directly or through the press where the risk is high
- Documentation: Keeping a written record of the entire process (for Board inspection)
If notification is late or never made, a separate administrative fine may follow, in addition to the fine for the breach itself. In its decisions, the KVKK Board has imposed substantial additional fines on data controllers that breached the notification obligation, on top of the penalty for the breach.
Board Decisions and Challenging Fines
The KVKK Board publishes its decisions imposing administrative sanctions each year. Average fines are rising, and decisions imposing fines in the millions of Turkish lira have become common, particularly for inadequate data security and failure to notify breaches.
The Administrative Court Route
A Board decision can be challenged with an action for annulment before the Administrative Court within 60 days of notification. It is critical to request a stay of execution along with the action. If the stay is granted, the fine does not have to be paid. The main arguments examined in an annulment action include:
- Whether the Board decision is based on concrete evidence
- Errors in interpreting the legal bases (Art. 5, Art. 6)
- Whether the amount of the fine is proportionate
- Procedural violations during the investigation
- Multiple penalties for the same act
In the case law, a significant share of Board decisions have been annulled or had the fine reduced. So rather than paying a Board fine automatically, the professional approach is to first assess the legal remedies available.
Data Subject Rights and Compensation
KVKK Art. 11 gives data subjects broad rights. They may find out whether their personal data is being processed and for what purpose, obtain information about transfers within Türkiye and abroad, request correction, request erasure or destruction, object to automated decisions and claim compensation for damage caused by unlawful processing.
Art. 13 Applications and the Response Period
Under KVKK Art. 13, a data subject may apply to the data controller in writing or electronically. The data controller must respond within 30 days at the latest. A missed deadline or an inadequate response opens the way to a complaint to the Board and creates a risk of administrative fines.
Action for Compensation
Under KVKK Art. 14, a person whose personal data has been processed unlawfully may claim pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages. This action is a separate judicial route from the administrative fine and is heard by the Civil Court of First Instance (Asliye Hukuk Mahkemesi). Where many people are affected, a collective action may be filed.
Why Work With a Lawyer on KVKK Matters?
The KVKK sits at the intersection of law and technology, and it keeps evolving. Reading the text of the Law is not enough. Board decisions, GDPR harmonization efforts and court case law continually shape the field. A technical understanding rooted in engineering is a significant advantage in this area.
İlme Law Office combines legal and technical perspectives to represent clients across the full range of KVKK matters, from compliance projects and data breach crisis management to challenges against Board decisions and compensation actions. The office offers scalable compliance solutions for SMEs, manufacturing plants, hotels and e-commerce businesses in Yalova.
Frequently Asked Questions
What obligations does my business have under the KVKK?
Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data applies to all natural and legal persons that process personal data (data controllers). The core obligations are: (1) registration with VERBİS (for data controllers that meet the set criteria), (2) the duty to inform (KVKK Art. 10), (3) obtaining explicit consent (for special categories of data and in certain other cases), (4) data security measures (Art. 12), (5) notifying the Board within 72 hours of a data breach, (6) responding to data subject applications within 30 days and (7) a retention and destruction policy. How these obligations apply varies by sector and data volume.
Is VERBİS registration mandatory, and which companies must register?
Whether a company must register with the Data Controllers' Registry Information System (VERBİS) depends on threshold criteria set by the KVKK Board. As of 2024, the registration requirement covers domestic legal entities whose annual net turnover or balance sheet total exceeds TRY 100 million, as well as companies with 50 or more employees per year. In certain specific areas, such as healthcare, finance and education, the threshold has been lowered. Failing to register carries serious administrative fines, and in existing Board decisions these fines can run into the millions of Turkish lira.
What should I do if a data breach occurs?
Under KVKK Art. 12(5), the data controller must notify the KVKK Board as soon as possible (as a rule, within 72 hours) after learning of the breach. For high-risk breaches, the affected data subjects must also be notified directly. The steps, in order, are: (1) detecting and documenting the breach, (2) root cause analysis and corrective action, (3) notification to the Board (verbis.kvkk.gov.tr), (4) notification to the affected individuals and (5) restoring system security. Failing to notify on time is grounds for an administrative fine separate from the one for the breach itself.
I received an administrative fine from the KVKK Board. What can I do?
You can file an action for annulment of a KVKK Board decision with the administrative court within 60 days of notification of the decision. The competent court is the Administrative Court for the place where the addressee of the decision resides or has its place of business. A stay of execution is usually requested in the annulment action, and if the court grants it, the fine does not have to be paid. When reviewing whether the Board decision is lawful, the court examines arguments such as procedural defects, insufficient concrete evidence and a disproportionate fine. A significant share of Board decisions end in annulment or a reduced fine in court.
What is the difference between a privacy notice and explicit consent?
A privacy notice (KVKK Art. 10) is the information given to the data subject when personal data is processed. It is mandatory for every processing activity and is not a consent requirement. Explicit consent (KVKK Art. 5(1)), by contrast, is a legal basis that must be given for a specific matter, unambiguously and freely. It is needed only where none of the other processing conditions under Art. 5(2) and Art. 6 applies. No explicit consent is needed where processing is necessary to perform a contract, required by a legal obligation or based on legitimate interest, but the privacy notice is still mandatory. Getting this distinction wrong is the most common cause of KVKK violations.
How does the KVKK differ from the EU's GDPR?
The KVKK and the GDPR share broadly similar principles (the duty to inform, explicit consent, data security, breach notification). There are, however, important differences: (1) the GDPR allows transfers abroad freely where adequate protection is found, whereas the KVKK requires Board approval or a written undertaking; (2) the maximum administrative fine under the GDPR is EUR 20 million or 4% of turnover, whereas the KVKK applies proportional fines; (3) the GDPR has no "single victim concept," while data subject applications play a prominent role under the KVKK; and (4) the requirement to appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO) is broader under the GDPR. Turkish companies that transfer data abroad must comply with both regimes.
Can I keep my employees' personnel files by obtaining their explicit consent?
No. An employee's explicit consent is not an appropriate legal basis for processing that arises from employment law. According to the Board's established decisions, the imbalance of power between employer and employee means such consent is not considered freely given. Data such as personnel files, payroll and performance reviews are processed under Art. 5(2) on the basis of "establishment or performance of a contract" or "legal obligation" (Labor Law No. 4857, social security (SGK) legislation). For special categories of data, such as medical reports and biometric data, the processing conditions under Art. 6 must also be met.
How do we comply with the KVKK for CCTV (security camera) footage?
Security camera footage is personal data and is subject to the KVKK. The compliance requirements are: (1) visible, clear notice signs (information about the cameras and the data controller), (2) a defined retention period (generally 30–90 days), (3) restricted access to the recordings, (4) no cameras in sensitive areas (toilets, changing rooms) and (5) readiness to notify within 72 hours in the event of a breach. The KVKK Board has fined businesses that kept recordings for long periods without justification or operated cameras without notice. These rules matter especially for shopping malls, factories and workplaces open to the public in Yalova.
Can I transfer my customers' data to a business partner?
Data transfers are subject to specific rules under KVKK Art. 8 (within Türkiye) and Art. 9 (abroad). A domestic transfer requires either (1) the data subject's explicit consent or (2) one of the conditions set out in Art. 5(2) and Art. 6. Data may be transferred on the basis of contractual necessity, a legal obligation or legitimate interest, but the recipient must also comply with the KVKK. The transfer must be stated in the privacy notice, which must show the categories of data transferred and the categories of recipients transparently.
Which court hears KVKK cases in Yalova?
Actions for annulment of KVKK Board decisions are heard by the administrative courts, specifically the Administrative Court for the place where the addressee of the decision resides or has its place of business. In Yalova, these cases fall under the jurisdiction of the Yalova Administrative Court (within the judicial district of the Bursa Regional Administrative Court). Compensation actions under KVKK Art. 14 may be heard by the Civil Court of First Instance where the data subject or the data controller is domiciled. Claims for non-pecuniary damages arising from a data breach are in any case subject to the general provisions.
Can I claim non-pecuniary damages for processing that violates the KVKK?
Yes. Under KVKK Art. 14, a person whose personal data has been processed unlawfully has the right to claim compensation for the damage suffered. Both pecuniary damages (concrete loss, e.g., lost business following reputational harm) and non-pecuniary damages may be claimed. The judge sets the amount of non-pecuniary damages based on the nature of the violation, the number of people affected, the data controller's degree of fault and whether the violation was ongoing. The compensation action is a separate judicial route from the administrative fine, and both can be pursued together.
How much does a KVKK lawyer in Yalova charge?
In KVKK matters, attorney's fees may not fall below the minimum set by the Minimum Attorney Fee Tariff (AAÜT) published by the Union of Turkish Bar Associations. Fees depend on the subject of the engagement (compliance project, data breach response, challenge to a Board decision), the size of the company, the workload and the complexity of its data processing activities. A monthly retainer (ongoing legal counsel) may suit medium-sized and large companies that process data. In that case, the scope and term are set out clearly in the engagement agreement. Please contact our office for specific fee information.
Comprehensive Legal Support for KVKK Compliance
Contact our office if your business in Yalova needs a KVKK compliance project, a response to a data breach or a challenge to a Board decision.
İlme Law Office · Süleyman Bey Mah. Arabacılar Sok. 55/1-2, Yalova Merkez
Consultations are held in Yalova or by video call, in Turkish or English. Write to us with a short description of the matter and we will propose a time.
Phone: 0 (226) 911 07 99 · Office hours Mon–Fri, 09:00–18:00 (Türkiye time).
This page is an English edition of the Turkish original, prepared and reviewed at Ilme Law Office; where the two differ, the Turkish text prevails. It is general information under the advertising rules of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations and does not replace advice on your specific case. Read the Turkish original.