Türkiye's Trade Ministry gets power to set installment periods and extra limits on retail sales
An amendment in Türkiye's Official Gazette of October 15, 2026, issue 33401, lets the Ministry of Trade decide how long installment plans may run, and impose further limits, for sales of goods and services other than housing. The Ministry says the goal is to keep retail installment methods in line with BDDK decisions on cards and loans.
Article 12/B of the retail rules regulation has been rewritten
The Ministry of Trade amended the Regulation on Principles and Rules for Retail Trade (Perakende Ticarette Uygulanacak İlke ve Kurallar Hakkında Yönetmelik). The amending regulation appeared in the Resmî Gazete, Türkiye's Official Gazette, dated October 15, 2026, issue 33401, and took effect the same day. The underlying regulation was first published on August 6, 2016, in issue 29793. The Minister of Trade is responsible for enforcing it.
In its announcement that day, the Ministry said the change hands it the authority to set installment periods and to add further restrictions on them. It framed the scope as installment sales of goods and services by retail businesses to consumers, with housing sales left out. Anadolu Ajansı carried the story the same day under the byline of Ayşe Böcüoğlu Bodur, based on the Ministry's statement.
Two paragraphs replaced, three repealed
Article 1 of the amending text replaces the first and second paragraphs of Article 12/B and repeals paragraphs three, four and five. Under the new first paragraph, the Ministry may fix installment periods, or impose additional limits, on installment sales of goods and services other than housing. Whether or not a negotiable instrument is issued in the sale makes no difference; the power applies either way. The text also expressly brings in periods where, after a sale, a debt is spread into installments for a fee or payment is deferred.
The new second paragraph covers procedure: decisions taken under this power will be posted on the Ministry's website and sent to top-level professional organizations; the Ministry's announcement adds that they will go to the relevant ones. One point matters most for now. Neither the regulation nor the Ministry's announcement names a specific number of installments or a maximum term. The change sets no cap today; it gives the Ministry the power to set one.
Card installments and other installment methods move under one rulebook
The Ministry's rationale is alignment. BDDK, Türkiye's banking regulator, takes decisions on installment periods for purchases made by credit card, shopping loan and consumer finance. The Ministry wants the other installment methods used in retail to follow those decisions. According to its statement, the new power lets it put the needed rules in place quickly and effectively once BDDK acts, and set them according to current economic conditions in full alignment with the banking regulator.
Our reading: installment periods for card, shopping loan and consumer finance sales already follow BDDK decisions, and the Ministry can now draw a line for the other installment methods too, whether the sale uses a negotiable instrument or not. Since any limits will be set through decisions posted on the Ministry's website, the content and timing of the first one will matter most to retailers. The sources do not name a BDDK decision taken alongside this change, nor a date for the Ministry's first decision.
This one is about Turkish retail directly
Here the sources are about Türkiye itself, and they support three facts. The power covers installment sales by retail businesses to consumers in Türkiye and excludes housing. Ministry decisions will be published on its official website and passed to top-level professional organizations. The aim is to carry BDDK's installment rules for credit cards, shopping loans and consumer finance over to other methods.
What follows is UNALSOFT's interpretation. No installment count, maximum term or sector-specific limit has been set yet, and the sources mention no penalty amounts or enforcement mechanism. They also do not explicitly mention e-commerce, online stores, marketplaces or distance selling, and they do not say whether or how decisions will apply to online retail. So we do not read this as a rule that covers online sales. Still, installments are one of the main levers for basket size, so store and site owners have good reason to watch the Ministry's announcements. We covered the wider picture of Turkish e-commerce volume on September 15; that piece is unrelated to this regulation.
UNALSOFT's take
We read this less as a limit and more as a reason to prepare for limits that may come. There is no concrete installment cap yet, and decisions will be posted on the Ministry's website, so keeping installment options as settings you can change from a panel, rather than values hard-coded into the store, buys a business time. Merchants who lead campaigns with an installment promise should also state clearly which payment method that promise depends on. That is why, in our e-commerce panel work, we treat managing installment and payment rules from one place as a separate step. Since the sources do not say how the change will affect online sales, this piece does not offer a legal conclusion.
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