Law No. 7589, known publicly as the 12th Judicial Package, was published in the Official Gazette on 31 July 2026. As its name suggests, the package is about how the courts work; between the lines, though, it carries a set of changes that matter to technology companies, fintech and crypto platforms, and litigation practice across the board. This piece walks the whole package through a technology and business lens.
Enforcement and guardianship sales move fully onto the electronic portal
The amendments to Article 114 of the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law refine the rules of the UYAP-integrated electronic sale portal: bid thresholds are clarified, the first auction in partition sales of inherited real estate is reserved to the heir co-owners, and a bidder who fails to pay the auction price on time now faces an administrative fine of five percent of the bid. Changes to Articles 440 and 444 of the Civil Code move guardianship-approved sales onto the same portal. Both take effect on 31 October 2026 after a three-month transition; for teams building enforcement technology, the portal is now the single venue.
Notarial records go electronic, free of charge
Article 55 of the Notaries Law makes electronic delivery the default where a court or prosecutor requests a certified copy: the notary scans the original, signs it with a secure electronic signature and sends it electronically, with no journal entry and no fee, tax or paper charge. In disputes and due diligence, the circulation speed of notarial records is a quiet but real gain.
Article 158/4: calibrating the account-rental economy
This is the package’s most direct touch on fintech and crypto. Where participation in fraud consists solely of handing over payment instruments or the credentials enabling use of an account held with a bank, intermediary institution, payment service provider or crypto-asset service provider, the sentence is now reduced by half. The transitional provisions go further: pending files caught by the rule are reversed and returned, and for convicts at the enforcement stage an effective remorse door opens on condition that the victim’s loss is fully compensated within six months. The legislature is widening the sentencing gap between the organiser and the account mule; for platforms, suspicious-account detection and victim reimbursement rails matter more than ever, because the remorse mechanism is indexed to making the victim whole.
Article 80 CCP: a lifecycle for digital evidence
Rewritten after a Constitutional Court annulment, Article 80 requires the results of computer and phone examinations to be recorded, stripped of identity data, in a dedicated system, destroyed immediately where no prosecution or an acquittal follows, and otherwise destroyed before a prosecutor twenty years after finality. The person recorded may ask a judge to delete the data earlier once the purpose lapses. For founders and companies whose devices have been seized, the fate of the data is tied to a clear calendar for the first time; the operating detail arrives by joint regulation of the Justice and Interior Ministries.
The procedure front
| Change | Substance | Practical effect |
|---|---|---|
| CCP (HMK) 149/4 | Wet-signature rules no longer apply to remote hearing participants, save for waiver, acceptance and settlement (in force 31 October) | Remote hearings finally shed the signature bottleneck |
| HMK 147/3 | No more than three months between hearings as a rule | Calendar discipline in commercial cases |
| HMK 109/4 and repeal of 107 | The indeterminate claim action is gone; in partial claims the demand may be increased once, freely, until the end of trial | Claim strategy must be built at the outset |
| Administrative procedure (İYUK 45-46, Law 2576 Art. 7) | Annulment and damages cases up to TRY 486,000 heard by a single judge; the appeal path after regional review narrowed | Many KVKK, BTK and Advertising Board fine challenges will start before a single judge and end without cassation |
The last row matters more than it looks: the fate of challenges against administrative fines will now largely be decided at first instance and regional appeal. The quality of the first petition has never counted for more.
Statutory interest redefined
Article 1 of Law No. 3095 changes: where the contract sets no rate, statutory interest now runs at eighty percent of the Central Bank’s short-term rediscount rate, adjustable twice a year. The old disconnect between frozen rates and economic reality closes; writing default interest expressly into contracts becomes more valuable, not less, because the fallback is now a moving reference.
Is handing over a crypto account no longer a crime?
It is; the provision is a calibration, not an amnesty. Contribution limited to handing over account credentials remains participation in fraud; what changes is the halved sentence and, for past files, a remorse window conditioned on compensation. The account mule also loses something: none of these mechanisms is available until the victim’s loss is made whole.
What changed on suspended judgments (HAGB)?
Article 231 CCP was rewritten in line with Constitutional Court case law: suspension of the pronouncement now requires full compensation of the victim’s loss, the decision is open to appeal, and review covers both procedure and merits. The economics of HAGB in white-collar files change with that condition.
Where to start
Update three files: review the interest clauses in your contract templates against the new fallback rule; diarise the one-off claim increase that Article 109/4 gives you in pending receivable cases; and if you operate in fintech or crypto, document your suspicious-account and victim-reimbursement processes around the logic of Article 158/4. Most of the package took effect on 31 July; the e-sale and remote-hearing provisions follow on 31 October 2026.
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