Millions of liras in fines for unlawful housing and vehicle listings on social media

Following inspections conducted by the Ministry of Trade targeting real estate and vehicle listings on social media platforms, fines were imposed on non-compliant businesses and social media companies that failed to complete the Electronic Listing Verification System (EIDS) integration.

According to data from the Ministry of Trade, a total of 15.2 million TL in administrative fines has been issued to 152 businesses so far as part of inspections targeting social media listings. In recent reviews, 70 real estate and auto gallery businesses identified as sharing listings contrary to regulations on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok platforms were fined 7 million TL.

Sanctions were also imposed on platforms determined not to be integrated into the Electronic Listing Verification System (EIDS) and failing to fulfill identity and authorization verification obligations. Within this scope, an administrative fine of 20 million TL was issued to Meta Platforms and 4 million TL to TikTok. With the latest decisions, the total amount of fines applied to Meta Platforms reached 36.2 million TL.

The Ministry stated that including price information in real estate and vehicle listings is mandatory. It was noted that businesses must include a verified listing link via EIDS and the listing price in their social media posts to avoid facing sanctions, while visuals and descriptions shared must belong to the real estate or vehicle subject to the verified listing. It was recorded that inspections will continue in order to prevent fake listings and ensure transparency in electronic commerce.