With the decision of the Competition Board dated 11.01.2021 and no: 21-02 / 25, an investigation has been launched ex officio on Facebook Inc., Facebook Ireland Ltd., WhatsApp Inc. and WhatsApp LLC ( all referred to as “Facebook”) to determine whether there is a violation of Article 6 of the Act no 4054 on the Protection of Competition about the obligation to share data on WhatsApp users. 

As it is known, WhatsApp has recently informed its users that WhatsApp’s terms of use and privacy policy will be updated, it is stated that "in order for users to continue to use WhatsApp, they must consent to sharing of WhatsApp data with Facebook companies, otherwise they will not be able to use WhatsApp as of 8 February 2021" in the said information. In this way, the update includes more data being collected, processed and used by Facebook.

It is also stated in the decision that interim measures should be taken within the scope of Article 9 of the Act no 4054 until the final decision is taken as it is likely that serious and irreparable harm might occur as a result of the said practices and in this context, Facebook should stop its conditions regarding the use of WhatsApp users’ data in other services in Turkey as of 8 February 2021 and it should notify all users who have accepted or have not accepted these conditions that it has stopped its new conditions including data sharing with Facebook until the mentioned date. 

Respectfully announced for the information of the public.