Extension of VERBİS Registration Periods
As per Article 16 of the Law on the Protection of Personal Data ("Law") numbered 6698, registration to the Data Controllers’ Registry Information System ("Registry") is mandatory. The Law requires natural and legal persons to register in the Registry held by the Personal Data Protection Authority ("Authority") before starting data processing. These obligations are also specified in the Law and the Regulation on Data Controllers. Apart from the exceptions specified in this regulation, natural and legal persons are obliged to register to the system in accordance with the procedure.
The Personal Data Protection Board ("Board") evaluated the requests submitted by the data controllers, sector officials, and professional organizations to the Authority, and decided with its decision dated 11/03/2021 and numbered 2021/238 that the registration periods to the Registry shall be extended on the grounds that controllers are experiencing difficulties in duly fulfilling the obligation to register in the Registry due to the Covid-19 pandemic affecting the whole world.
With the relevant decision of the Board, it was decided that the registration periods to the Registry for the following data controllers are extended until 31.12.2021:
-Natural and legal person data controllers who employ more than 50 employees in a year or whose total annual financial statement is more than 25 million Turkish Lira and data controllers abroad,
-Natural and legal person data controllers whose main field of activity is processing of sensitive personal data and whose annual number of employees is less than 50 and the total annual financial statement is less than 25 million Turkish Lira,
-Public institutions and organizations and professional organizations with public institution status.
The relevant decision has been published on the Authority’s website and the Official Gazette.