The Law Amending the Soil Conservation and Land Use Act and Certain Other Laws was adopted by the General Assembly of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye. With the exception of Article 20, the amendments will take effect on the date of publication and introduce significant restrictions on the alcohol sector, in addition to wide-ranging regulations concerning agricultural and forest areas.
Among the key changes in the law is the sponsorship and promotion ban imposed on companies producing alcoholic beverages. In order to prevent companies operating in the alcohol industry from advertising through sponsorships at concerts, events, and similar gatherings, the existing advertising ban has been further tightened to prohibit those who produce, import, and market alcoholic beverages from supporting any event or any broadcast or post across any medium in any form whatsoever by using their trade names, product brands, emblems, logos, trademarks, or other symbols, or any other names or symbols that evoke them.
Similarly, it is prohibited to display names, words, shapes, images, and letters that evoke the names, brands, logos, emblems, or symbols of alcoholic beverages or of companies that produce, import, or market alcoholic beverages inside or outside business premises, in storefronts, at sales counters, and in event areas.
The current ban on brand-stretching between alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages is being expanded to include brands of fermented alcoholic beverages and distilled alcoholic beverages. Under the new regulation, it is prohibited to use a fermented alcoholic beverage brand as a distilled alcoholic beverage brand, or a distilled alcoholic beverage brand as a fermented alcoholic beverage brand.
The authority to impose administrative sanctions for violations relating to the prohibition on the sale of alcoholic beverages via vending machines, the prohibition on their use in all types of gaming machines or gambling and betting through different means, the prohibition on their sale to consumers through press and broadcasting or by post and the prohibition on their retail sale between 22:00 and 06:00, is being transferred to local administrative authorities.
A one-year transition period is envisaged for compliance with the prohibitions introduced by the amendments. Businesses engaged in retail or on-premises sale of alcoholic beverages are expected to comply with the new regulation within one year from its effective date. Products falling within the scope of the brand-stretching prohibition are required to be brought into compliance with the new provision within three months; otherwise, it is stipulated that such products may not be placed on the market.
The Law, which was debated and approved by the General Assembly of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, will enter into force upon receiving the President’s approval and being published in the Official Gazette.
