International Conference on Eurasian Economies
10-12 July 2017 – Istanbul, TURKEY
Paper detail
Paper ID : 1824
Status : Paper published
Language : Turkish
Topic : Law
Presenter: Ph.D. candidate Didar Özdemir
Session : 4A Hukuk
The Protection of Confidential Business Information by Criminal Law
Ticari Sırların Ceza Hukuku Tarafından Korunması
- Prof. Dr. Çetin Arslan (Hacettepe University, Türkiye)
- Ph.D. candidate Didar Özdemir (Hacettepe University, Türkiye)
Abstract
The Turkish Penal Code (TPC) no.5237 embodies “the reveal of confidential business information and documents” as a crime. However, neither article 6 of the TPC titled “definitions” nor the legal justification of the article contains the definition of the confidential business information or commercial secret. The abrogated Turkish Commercial Code no.6762 disposes the reveal of this kind of information as an act of unfair competition. In a similar vein, the current Turkish Commercial Code no.6102 assumes the illegal acquisition and the reveal of business secrets as acts of unfair competition and subjects them to criminal sanction. Also the article 562 of the TCC no.6102 disposes that if the auditors reveal the confidential business information of the auditee company, they are punished according to the article 239 of the TPC. The Proposal of Code on Business, Bank and Client Secrets refers to the article 239 of the TPC in case of the violation of the confidentiality obligation. Finally, the Act of the Protection of Competition no.4054 brings a confidentiality obligation for the Council and staff members. In this study, we will try to explain first the notion of confidential business information or commercial secret, then the penal norms about the confidential business information and the confidentiality obligation and last, the elements of the crime disposed in the article 239 of the TPC which is referred by most of the other penal norms in this respect.
JEL codes: K14, K22
Arslan, Çetin, Özdemir, Didar (2017). "The Protection of Confidential Business Information by Criminal Law" in Proceedings of International Conference of Eurasian Economies 2017, pp.125-131, Istanbul, TURKEY.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36880/C08.01824
