TurkeyTurkish Penal Code, Disclosure of Trade Secrets
Law No. 5237 (Turkish Penal Code), Art. 239 (Ticari Sır)
archived copy
Read from a public archive copy, not the publisher directly. The publisher does not serve this page to automated readers, so a direct fetch was not an option here; how we access sources. Archived 2026. Publisher's page: https://www.mevzuat.gov.tr/mevzuatmetin/1.5.5237.pdfIn force since .
An unfair competition rule binding public and private bodies.
- Instrument type
- an act of a legislature
- Obligation class
- Prohibition
What it requires
- Do not give or disclose to unauthorized persons trade, banking or customer secrets, in the form of information or documents, that you know by reason of your position, duty, profession or craft (Art. 239(1)).
- Do not give or disclose to unauthorized persons such information or documents after obtaining them by unlawful means (Art. 239(1)).
- The same rules apply to technical discoveries and inventions and to information on industrial application (Art. 239(2)).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Art. 239(1): imprisonment of one to three years and a judicial fine of up to 5,000 days, on complaint. Art. 239(3): where the secrets are disclosed to a foreigner not resident in Turkey or to that person's officials, the penalty is increased by one third and no complaint is required.
What this law does
Article 239(1) punishes a person who gives or discloses to unauthorized persons trade, banking or customer secrets, in the form of information or documents, that the person knows by reason of a position, duty, profession or craft, and applies the same penalty where persons who obtained that information or those documents by unlawful means give or disclose them to unauthorized persons.
Article 239(2) extends the same rule to technical discoveries and inventions and to information on industrial application. The offence is prosecuted on complaint, except that no complaint is needed where the secrets are disclosed to a foreigner not resident in Turkey or to that person's officials.
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