Health advertising rules in Türkiye: what you may and may not post

The Ministry of Health's Regulation on Promotion and Information Activities in Health Services, published in the Official Gazette on 12 November 2025, prohibits covert or open advertising of health services and having it done for you. Promotion and information are allowed if certain conditions are met. The regulation repealed the earlier one of 29 July 2023, so guides written for the 2023 text are partly out of date.

It applies to three groups: health professionals, private health facilities and international health-tourism intermediaries. Law No. 3359 on Basic Health Services and consumer law sit beneath it, so the same post can be examined by both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Trade.

Yes, but only by meeting every condition in Article 7. The article covers preventive and improving visuals. The key condition is the patient's explicit consent, which can be taken in writing or electronically using the “Visual Content Recording and Processing Consent Form” in Annex 1 of the regulation. The patient has the right to see the image before it is published and can withdraw consent at any time; a withdrawal is processed immediately.

The facility or professional must publish the image themselves. Having an agency post it does not remove your responsibility.

Article 8 gives facilities and intermediaries that hold a Ministry international health-tourism authorisation more room. The conditions: a separate social media account or website aimed abroad; a clear statement that health-tourism services are provided; the authorisation certificate published on the site or account; the HealthTürkiye logo on all channels aimed at health tourists; and a facility name, title and domain consistent with the title on the licence.

On this channel, sponsored promotion in official languages other than Turkish is allowed, the audience is set to abroad, and promotion aimed at creating demand among people living in Türkiye is not allowed. Medical procedures that are banned or not permitted in Türkiye may not appear. Intermediaries must stay within the intermediary services defined in the legislation, must not suggest they provide health care, and must say that the service is delivered by the partner facility they have a protocol with.

Article 12 of the regulation says that where non-compliant promotion is found, the administrative sanctions in Additional Article 11 of Law No. 3359 apply to facilities and intermediaries. According to the law's text, the fine for private health institutions is up to two per cent of the previous month's gross service revenue, with a floor (the law states 100,000 TL; amounts are revalued every year, so check the current figure against the Ministry's announcement). If the same act is repeated within a year the fine is increased, and on a third occasion activity may be suspended for up to ten days.

For doctors and dentists who are not in independent practice, the older Law No. 1219 applies and their employer and professional body are notified; for other professionals the matter goes via the Ministry of Trade to the Advertising Board. Access to harmful content can be blocked, and personal-data breaches are handled separately under KVKK.

The health regulation is the special rule; the general advertising rules still apply. The Regulation on Commercial Advertising and Unfair Commercial Practices requires advertising to be truthful, not deceptive, recognisable as advertising and not covert, and verifiable claims must be provable. Advertising for health services must also comply with the specific provisions of the relevant legislation. The regulation rests on the advertising provisions of Consumer Protection Law No. 6502, under which the Advertising Board decides.

One change published on 1 July 2026 is relevant: influencer posts made in return for a benefit (payment, a discounted product, an event invitation) must carry a clear label such as “advertisement” or “promotion”. A clinic working with an influencer is already restricted by the health regulation, but the label rule shows that hiding a post's promotional nature is a separate breach.

The regulation holds those who post non-compliant promotion and those who share it equally responsible. A doctor resharing the clinic's campaign from a personal account, or a coordinator putting a patient's thank-you message on their own Instagram story, can be as problematic as a post on the clinic's account. A written social-media policy for staff is the cheapest safeguard: what goes on which account, who approves patient images, and why screenshots of patient messages are never shared.

A patient's screenshot or photo can also be health data. Sharing it without the patient's explicit consent breaches KVKK as well; see our KVKK guide.