Senior Associate
Ozan Akman
Department
Competition and Compliance, Contracts
Languages
Turkish, English, French
Contact
ozanakman@erdem-erdem.av.tr
Biography
Ozan Akman is a Senior Associate at the Istanbul office of Erdem & Erdem Law Firm, where he provides legal advice to domestic and international clients across a broad range of legal matters, with a primary focus on data protection and contract law. Ozan is also a member of the firm’s competition practice and provides legal consultancy on competition law matters, particularly in relation to competition investigations.
Ozan has extensive experience in providing comprehensive legal support to local and international clients in drafting, reviewing and negotiating commercial agreements, including those within highly regulated sectors such as payment services and payment technologies.
Holding a CIPP/E certification, Akman takes an active role in projects aimed at ensuring clients’ compliance with national and international data protection legislation. His practice encompasses analysing and auditing existing data processing process, the development of compliance roadmaps, and the management of end-to-end compliance programmes.
Ozan graduated from Ozyegin University Faculty of Law (LL.B.) and holds an LL.M. Degree in European and International Business Law from Leiden University.
Service Areas
Field of law that regulates and protects competition in a free market economy.
A field that regulates legal issues arising from the use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence.
The merger of two or more companies and the acquisition of one company by another.
Based on personal rights and freedoms, it protects the privacy of personal information.
Representative Matters
Personal Data Protection
Contracts
Competition and Antitrust
- Advising domestic and international clients across a wide range of industries — primarily information technology, payment services, financial technology, healthcare, health technology and banking — on their compliance with personal data protection legislation.
- Providing legal consultancy to a leading global payment services provider regarding compliance with Turkish personal data protection legislation in relation to its operations in Türkiye.
- Planning and implementing compliance processes for cross-border personal data transfers among group companies of a globally operating healthcare organization.
- Coordinating compliance processes regarding personal data protection; providing internal trainings on personal data protection, preparing policies and procedures in line with the applicable legislation, carrying out necessary work on personal data inventories (records of data processing), and carrying out registrations before the Turkish Data Controllers Registry (VERBIS) for international companies.
- Providing legal advice to globally operating Turkish organizations on their compliance with international data protection frameworks, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), particularly with respect to their foreign subsidiaries established in the European Union and the United States; preparing and reviewing the relevant legal documentation in this context.
- Managing data breach response processes for data controller companies operating in various sectors and handling data breach notification procedures before the Turkish Personal Data Protection Authority.
- Conducting audits on clients’ online and offline activities; preparing audit reports, identifying compliance actions necessary to be taken concerning data processing activities carried out by client companies through digital and physical channels, and providing legal opinions on related matters.
- Advising global companies operating in the payment technologies sector on the preparation, review and negotiation of commercial agreements, in accordance with the Law No. 6493 on Payment and Securities Settlement Systems, Payment Services and Electronic Money Institutions, as well as other applicable payment services and electronic money legislation.
- Providing legal advice to domestic and international companies operating in the information technology sector on the preparation of IT-related agreements, including but not limited to licensing, software development, Software as a Service (SaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS) contracts.
- Providing legal consultancy to companies operating as electronic commerce intermediary service providers (marketplaces) on the preparation of intermediary service agreements and membership agreements to be concluded with electronic commerce service providers(sellers) and platform users(users), in compliance with applicable electronic commerce legislation.
- Reviewing and preparing Terms of Use for online platforms and mobile applications developed by a global automotive company, as well as agreements to be entered into with consumers and business partners.
- Providing end-to-end legal support in the management of a software development project undertaken by a Turkish factoring company to address sector-specific needs through services procured from an IT service provider; including preparing the software development agreement and related legal documentation.
- Advising a Turkish digital bank on the review and negotiation of outsourcing service agreements and contracts to be concluded with consumers, in compliance with applicable banking regulations.
- Preparing software development agreements for the software solutions addressing the sectoral needs of the insurance industry, within the framework of applicable insurance legislation.
- Preparing, reviewing and negotiating agency and distance insurance agreements to be entered into by Turkish companies operating in the insurance sector in compliance with applicable insurance legislation.
- Reviewing, preparing, and negotiating franchise, monobrand, dealership, and agency agreements to be formed by companies operating in the retail sector.
- Preparing, reviewing and negotiating commercial agreements for pharmaceutical and medical device companies operating in the healthcare sector.
- Preparing, reviewing and negotiating a wide range of commercial agreements including but not limited to service, license, sponsorship, confidentiality and data transfer agreements required by domestic and international clients in the course of their commercial operations.
- Assessing the vertical relationships established by undertakings operating in the retail sector through dealership, franchise and monobrand distribution channels from a competition law perspective; reviewing the relevant agreements accordingly and preparing legal opinions under competition law.
- Reviewing the sales activities conducted by a global undertaking operating in the healthcare sector within the framework of its dealership arrangements from a competition law perspective and preparing legal opinions in this regard.
Education
Leiden University, European and International Business Law (Advanced LL.M.)
Özyeğin University Law School
Saint Benoit French High School
Publications
Other Articles
- “Evaluation of Due Diligence Phase in M&A Transactions In Line with Data Protection Law”, Turkish Journal of Privacy and Data Protection, vol:4, issue:2
- “Competitive Concerns Arising from Data in Mergers and Acquisitions Carried Out in Data-Driven Digital Ecosystems”, Master’s Thesis, Leiden University.
Memberships
Istanbul Bar Association
International Association of Privacy Professionals
Saint Benoit French High School ALUMNI
Leiden University ALUMNI
