ETBİS Registration in Turkey: Who Needs It and How It Works

ETBİS (Elektronik Ticaret Bilgi Sistemi, the E-Commerce Information System) is the Ministry of Trade's register of businesses selling online in Turkey. If your Turkish business sells through its own website or app, you must register before you start selling, free of charge, and update your details within 30 days of any change. This is general information, not legal advice.

This guide is written for foreign founders and expats running online businesses in Turkey.

The legal basis

• Law No. 6563 on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce defines ETBİS (Article 2) and requires businesses to report to the Ministry's system (Article 11(4)). Fines are in Article 12.
• The ETBİS Communiqué, in force since 11 August 2017, sets out registration and reporting. The system opened on 1 December 2017.
• The 2022 Regulation on e-commerce intermediaries and service providers (Official Gazette 29.12.2022, No. 32058) sets what your website must show, including a KEP address.

The practical details below come from the Ministry of Trade's e-commerce FAQ (in Turkish).

Who has to register

According to the Ministry, three groups register before they start trading:

1. Businesses selling through their own website, mobile site or app
2. Marketplaces (e-commerce intermediaries)
3. Businesses resident in Turkey that do not sell online domestically but take orders through a marketplace based abroad

The third row of the first list surprises many expats: if you live in Turkey and run an Etsy shop or an Amazon seller account through a Turkish business, ETBİS applies to you.

Foreign companies with no Turkish entity. Login works only through Turkish registries: the authorised person signs in to e-Devlet (Turkey's government services portal) with a Turkish ID number, and the business must appear in MERSİS (the central trade registry) or ESBİS (the tradespeople registry). The system is built for businesses set up in Turkey. We have not found an official rule placing a foreign company that sells cross-border with no Turkish presence under ETBİS; if you set up a Turkish company or branch, it registers.

What you need before registering

• A MERSİS or ESBİS record with you as the authorised representative
• A KEP address (Kayıtlı Elektronik Posta, registered electronic mail with legal standing for official notices). The 2022 regulation requires it on your website, and the Ministry says you should get it before completing registration
• A live domain or app details
• Details of your providers: bank or payment institution, carrier, e-commerce platform, warehouse

How registration works

1. The authorised person signs in through e-Devlet and opens ETBİS at eticaret.gov.tr.
2. You select the business you represent and add your domain or app.
3. You complete the tabs: KEP address, type of e-commerce, product and service categories, payment methods, second-hand goods, payment institutions, carriers, platform provider, the country and address where customer databases are hosted, warehouses, and cross-border sales.
4. When no tab shows a red warning, you click "complete registration".

There are no documents to submit and no fee.

After registration

Note the database location field. If your store runs on a platform hosted outside Turkey, you declare that country here. It is also relevant under KVKK (Law No. 6698, Turkey's data protection law), which we cover in our data protection compliance article.

If you sell abroad, the annual cross-border report is broken down by payment method. Our guide to payment gateways in Turkey explains which options actually work for a business set up here.

What your website must show

According to the Ministry, the home page needs a "Contact" (İletişim) section with your KEP address, email and phone; your professional chamber and any code of conduct; and, for companies, the trade name, MERSİS number and head office address. It also needs a "Transaction Guide" (İşlem Rehberi) explaining the ordering steps, whether and for how long the contract is stored, how buyers can correct input errors before ordering, your privacy rules and any alternative dispute resolution.

You will often read that the ETBİS QR code must be shown in your footer. The Ministry's current FAQ does not list a QR code among the required website information, and we could not find that requirement in the current official texts. Showing one does no harm; the information above is what is required.

Fines

The Ministry's FAQ says that individuals and private legal entities that fail to register or report face an administrative fine under Article 12 of Law No. 6563. The range quoted there (TRY 79,230 - 396,150) is from an earlier year; amounts rise every year, and the 2026 figures were set in the Official Gazette of 25.12.2025 (No. 33118). Check the current figure in the table at the end of the law's text on mevzuat.gov.tr.

Checklist

• [ ] Turkish entity registered in MERSİS or ESBİS, with you as authorised person
• [ ] KEP address obtained
• [ ] ETBİS registration completed before launch, with no warnings
• [ ] Payment, shipping, platform and database location details declared
• [ ] "Contact" and "Transaction Guide" sections on the home page
• [ ] Someone responsible for updating ETBİS within 30 days of any change
• [ ] March deadline in the calendar if you sell abroad

Summary

ETBİS registration takes a few hours once your company record, KEP address and website information are ready. You complete the registration yourself; we build the contact and transaction guide sections, footer details and order flow your store needs as part of our e-commerce website service. For the full list of what you need to sell online in Turkey, see our guide to starting an e-commerce business in Turkey.