The Regulation regarding the Shopping Malls (in Turkish, “Alışveriş Merkezleri Hakkında Yönetmelik”, hereinafter referred to as the “Regulation”) has been issued by the Ministry of Trade, published in the Official Gazette dated 26 February 2016 and numbered 29636.

As a brief summary, we would like to submit it to your information that the Regulation aims at determining the features and characteristics of the shopping malls and establishing the procedures and the principles applicable to the inauguration, the activities and the control of the shopping malls. Furthermore, the Regulation provides the rights and obligations of the owner of the shopping mall, the management of the shopping mall, as well as the rights and obligations of the competent authorities and all other relevant institutions and organizations.

The new Regulation on the amendment of the Regulation regarding Shopping Malls (in Turkish, “Alışveriş Merkezleri Hakkında Yönetmelikte Değişiklik Yapılmasına Dair Yönetmelik”) has been published in the Official Gazette dated 25 February 2023 numbered 32115 and has entered into force as of the same date.

Pursuant to the Temporary Article 2, if a contribution fee (in Turkish, “katılım payı”) is collected by shopping mall management from retail stores for advertising, marketing, consultancy and management expenses within the scope of the temporary article 3 of the Law on the Regulation of Retail Trade numbered 6585 (in Turkish, “Perakende Ticaretin Düzenlenmesi Hakkında Kanun”), the compliance with the said article of such expense sharing transactions through contributions of the stores shall be included in the independent audit report. Accordingly, the said audit report shall be prepared by an independent audit firm authorized by the Public Oversight, Accounting and Auditing Standards Authority (in Turkish, “Kamu Gözetimi Muhasebe ve Denetim Standartları Kurumu”) and shall be submitted to the retail stores in the shopping mall every year until the end of July. The independent audit firm that will carry out the audit is determined by the shopping mall owner or management, and the independent audit expense cannot be collected from the retail stores in the shopping mall.

Our Law Firm remains at your disposal for any further clarifications you may need.

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