Legal Glossary

A data controller is a natural or legal person who determines the purposes and means of processing personal data and is responsible for establishing and managing the data filing system. It is defined in Article 3/1-ı of Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data. The core obligations in the Law, such as informing data subjects, data security, responding to data subject applications and, where required, registering with the Data Controllers’ Registry (Veri Sorumluları Sicili), as a rule fall on the data controller.

A data processor is a natural or legal person who processes personal data on behalf of the data controller and on the basis of the authority given by the data controller. It is defined in Article 3/1-ğ of Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data. External service providers offering payroll, accounting, cloud hosting or call center services are in this position in many cases. The data processor does not itself determine the purposes and means of processing; the Law holds the data controller jointly responsible with the data processor for security measures.

Default is the fulfillment of the conditions required by law following the failure to perform a due debt properly and on time. In the debtor’s default, a formal notice (ihtar) is, as a rule, required; however, default without notice may arise in statutory exceptions, such as where the date of performance was fixed jointly. A creditor’s refusal to accept performance is also a separate type of default.

A defect of intent (irade bozukluğu) means that a party’s intent was not formed soundly when a contract was concluded, because of fundamental mistake, fraudulent misrepresentation or duress. When the statutory conditions are met, the affected party may declare that it is not bound by the contract. The statutory time limits for the declaration and for reclaiming what has been given must be monitored carefully.

Defective performance (ayıplı ifa) is the situation in which goods delivered, work carried out or a service provided do not have the characteristics agreed in the contract or those they should objectively have. The type of defect, the contractual relationship, the status of the parties, the duties of inspection and notification, and the elective remedies vary according to the applicable law.

A demerger is a corporate-law transaction in which a capital company or cooperative transfers all or part of its assets to other companies in return for shares. It is regulated in Articles 159 et seq. of the Turkish Commercial Code (TTK). In a full demerger the demerging company ceases to exist; in a partial demerger it continues to exist. The shares are given to the shareholders of the demerging company or, in a partial demerger, to the company itself.

A digital wallet is an electronic device, online service or application in which information on a payment account or a payment instrument such as a card is stored and which enables payments to be made with that information. The Central Bank’s payment services regulation defines it as a payment instrument and reserves this service for authorized payment service providers. A wallet used for crypto-assets, by contrast, is separately defined in the Capital Markets Law and is subject to different rules.