Legal issues

Hi! Docusign covers a wide range of offerings under the Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) category, but I am assuming here that you are asking about electronic signature and the legality of it in Turkey. If so, yes, Docusign eSignature is legal and can be used for electronic signatures in Turkey, with some limitations. Here are the key points:

Docusign’s electronic signatures are considered valid and legally binding in Turkey under the Electronic Signature Law No. 5070.  This law recognizes secure electronic signatures as having the same legal effect as handwritten signatures. However, there are certain exceptions where electronic signatures cannot be used, as outlined in Article 5 of the E-Signature Law: 

• Documents and contracts subject to specific form or procedural requirements (e.g. wills, marriage contracts)
• Security agreements, except bank guarantees
• Commercial deeds like bills of exchange, bonds, checks, warrants, commercial bills
• Transactions that require an "official form" before an authority like a notary public

For cases allowed by law, Docusign’s electronic signatures created with a qualified electronic certificate from an authorized Turkish provider would be considered secure electronic signatures and legally valid. Docusign supports integration with Turkish certificate authorities. So in summary, while Docusign’s e-signatures are generally legal in Turkey, there are certain document types where handwritten signatures are still required by law. Businesses should review the exceptions carefully. 

Hello @aysbuse ,

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Nathaly | Docusign Community Moderator
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Hi Linda,

our Turkish Branch wants to use DocuSign. QES is required. Which TSP can be legally used for this case?

Kind regards

Claas

Hello ​@CH13,

Thank you for reaching out to the Docusign Community! We are glad you are here and happy to share our knowledge.

• If you require a Qualified Electronic Signature (QES)  recognized in Europe for Turkish signers, and the signatures will be used for business within Europe, you can use IDV Premier.
• If you require a digital signature recognized by Turkish authorities for Turkish or other nationality signers for business within Turkey, you can use Signer Held Key.

Heads up: QES is an add-on feature in Docusign. If you have more questions and would like more detailed information, including pricing and plan specifics, the Docusign Sales Team is available to help you. They can guide you on whether you are planning to purchase a plan or are currently using a Web plan . 👉 Contact the Docusign Sales Team | We're Here to Help.

If you have an enterprise account, you can open a support case 👉 Open a case in the Docusign Support Center

Let us know if you have questions. Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Melanie | Docusign Community Moderator
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Hi there ​@CH13,

I'm just checking in to see if you still need any help, and we'll gladly help you with any questions you may have. Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Melanie | Docusign Community Moderator
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Hi Melanie, ​@Melanie.Panguito 

We are also a Turkey-based company, and we'd like to use DocuSign not only for our internal corporate signing processes in Turkey, but also for the international agreements we execute with our business partners abroad.

However, as you previously explained, compliance with Turkish regulations requires the use of QES.

I was wondering whether the IDV Premier or Signer Held Key solutions you mentioned are services that we can simply enable ourselves after creating a DocuSign account and subscribing to an appropriate plan. In other words, are these self-service features that can be added to our subscription, or do they require additional software development or technical integration?

I'd really appreciate it if you could provide a bit more detail on how these solutions work.

I previously contacted your sales team and was referred to one of your partners in Turkey. Unfortunately, I haven't received a response from them yet. That's why I'm trying to understand whether it's possible for us to select an appropriate DocuSign plan ourselves, activate these capabilities, and establish a signing workflow that is fully compliant with Turkish legal requirements, without having to rely on a local implementation partner.

Thank you in advance for your guidance.

Hello ​@OzgurO 

To clarify, IDV Premier is an add-on offering for Docusign eSignature that provides the identity verification required for Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) workflows. It is not included as a standard feature of all DocuSign plans and must be licensed separately.
For organizations that simply want to send documents for signature using the DocuSign web application, implementing a QES workflow typically does not require custom software development or API integration. However, enabling QES involves more than selecting a subscription plan. In addition to the appropriate eSignature and IDV Premier licenses, the required Qualified Trust Service Provider (QTSP) services must also be provisioned and configured for your DocuSign account.
As a result, QES functionality is not generally a self-service feature that can be activated directly from the account administration interface. Provisioning of the necessary services is typically completed by Docusign as part of the licensing and account setup process.

With respect to Turkey, compliance depends on the requirements of Turkish electronic signature legislation and on the Qualified Trust Service Provider that issues the signing certificates. For this reason, the appropriate QES configuration for Turkish-compliant signing should be confirmed with Docusign before implementation.
I understand that you were referred to one of our partners in Turkey and have not yet received a response. I apologize for the delay. If you have an existing Docusign sales representative or account team, I recommend following up with them so they can help coordinate the required licensing and confirm the appropriate QES solution for your specific use case in Turkey.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions. We would be happy to assist further.
 

Sincerely,

 Ma. Cassandra | Docusign Community Moderator
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Hello ​@OzgurO 

How are you? We'd like to know if my previous response addressed your questions. If so, we hope you could consider selecting it as Best Answer ✅," so others can find it too.

Otherwise, if you still require further assistance, please don't hesitate to let us know. We are always happy to help!

Sincerely,

Ma. Cassandra | Docusign Community Moderator