
The Ministry of Trade Advertisement Board imposed an advertisement suspension penalty and an administrative fine of 189 million 29 thousand 136 lira on 384 files discussed in its meeting this month.
According to the statement made by the Ministry, the Advertisement Board, which imposed fines of over 2024 million liras in 277 due to deceptive advertising or unfair commercial practices, examined advertisements that deceive, mislead consumers, exploit their lack of experience and knowledge, and unfair commercial practices in its first meeting of 16, numbered 2025, held on January 353, 2025.
In this month’s meeting of the Advertising Board, it was determined that 209 out of 189 files discussed were in violation of the legislation. A precautionary suspension decision was issued for 1 file regarding the advertisement and commercial practices in question, along with advertisement suspension penalties for 188 files, a total administrative fine of 29 million 136 thousand 384 liras and an administrative measure of blocking access to 10 of the files found to be in violation was decided in order to prevent consumer grievances.
The Advertisement Board conducted an investigation into the use of environmental declarations in the banking sector in order to prevent the exploitation of consumers’ environmental sensitivities. The investigation found that the main promise in advertisements for loans such as “green housing loans” specific to homes with energy identity documents and “green vehicle loans” specific to electric and hybrid vehicles should be stated clearly and understandably, but that the advertisements mentioned advantages such as interest rates or fee exemptions, but that sufficient information was not provided regarding these advantages. In addition, it was determined that although “attractive” and “favorable interest rates or fee exemptions” were mentioned regarding sensitivity to the environment and nature, there was no difference in practice from standard loans, and finally, the impression was created that the environmental actions taken had a greater impact than they actually did.
In this context, it was decided to impose a penalty of “suspension” of advertisements on 10 banks regarding the advertisements containing the aforementioned violations, and also to inform financial market unions and non-governmental organizations via a distributed letter.
In order for consumers who are parties to financial contracts to be able to choose the most suitable credit offer and to ensure fair competition in the sector, credit advertisements should include all fees, commissions and expenses, in addition to interest and profit share, and information indicating the total cost of the credit and the annual cost rate should be included in the main message of the advertisement. In this context, the Advertising Board determined that in a vehicle campaign advertisement of a financing company, the participation fee received as a condition of the credit with interest rate was not included in the main message and the annual cost rate information including this fee was not provided. Thus, it was determined that the real cost of the credit was hidden from consumers. For these reasons, it was decided to stop the advertisements in question.