Registered electronic mail (KEP, Kayıtlı Elektronik Posta) is a qualified form of email whose sending and delivery are recorded as legal evidence. It rests on Article 1525 of the Turkish Commercial Code and is issued only by providers authorised by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK). Companies use it for notices, terminations and official correspondence that must be provable.
Key takeaways
- With KEP, an authorised provider records the sender, recipient and moment of sending and delivery; that record can serve as evidence in a dispute.
- Under Article 18 of the Turkish Commercial Code, notices between merchants on default, termination and rescission can be served by KEP with a secure e-signature.
- BTK data show 4.14 million KEP accounts in Türkiye at the end of March 2026, 854,000 of them held by legal entities.
- KEP only exchanges messages with other KEP addresses; quotes, orders and internal correspondence should stay on business email.
- For KEP to work inside a company, it needs a named inbox owner, approval before sending and logging in the records archive.
What is KEP and why do companies in Turkey need it?
With ordinary email it is hard to prove that the other side received a message, or when. "We never got your email" is a serious legal risk, especially for time-bound matters such as terminating a contract or putting a counterparty on notice of default. A notary or recorded-delivery letter solves the problem, but costs time and paper.
KEP solves the same proof problem as a notary or recorded-delivery letter, but digitally. The provider records the sender, recipient and the moment of sending and delivery, and those records can be used as evidence in a dispute. Article 18 of the Turkish Commercial Code also allows notices between merchants on default, termination and rescission to be served by KEP using a secure electronic signature, alongside a notary, recorded-delivery letter or telegram.
In practice the teams that need a KEP address are predictable: legal, finance, procurement and anyone bidding for public contracts. Accounting firms handle this correspondence on behalf of clients too, which demands extra discipline; we cover that in document management for accounting firms.
How widespread is KEP in Türkiye? (2026 data)
KEP is no longer a niche tool. BTK market data show accounts spreading among both individuals and organisations, with the total still rising:
BTK data show that by the end of March 2026 the number of KEP accounts created in Türkiye reached 4.14 million: 3.28 million belonging to individuals and 854,000 to legal entities (26,000 of them public bodies). The total grew 5.8% quarter on quarter in Q1 2026. (BTK Quarterly Market Data Report, Q1 2026)
The same report notes that, as of Q1 2026, 7 of the 9 authorised KEP providers were active. KEP's legal weight depends largely on electronic signatures; according to the BTK report, 3.02 million qualified electronic certificates (e-signature and mobile signature) were active at the end of March 2026.
Regulation also names KEP explicitly. According to the Turkish Data Protection Authority's announcement on the Standard Contract Notification Module, standard contracts used for transfers abroad must be notified within five business days of signature, physically, via KEP or through the online module. The Board's decision 2018/10 also expects special categories of personal data sent by email to go encrypted from a corporate address or through a KEP account.
What is the difference between KEP and ordinary email?
KEP does not replace business email; the two do different jobs. The table summarises the difference between KEP and business email under six headings:
| Feature | Business email | KEP |
|---|---|---|
| Legal evidence | Open to challenge; needs separate proof | Sending and delivery records serve as evidence |
| Where you get it | Any email provider | Only a BTK-authorised KEP provider |
| Who you can write to | Any email address | Only other KEP addresses |
| Signature | Not required | Secure e-signature for legally binding notices |
| Daily volume | High: quotes, orders, internal mail | Low: notices, terminations, official letters |
| Address format | name@yourcompany.com.tr | A provider-specific KEP domain |
The practical rule that follows from the difference between KEP and email is simple: everyday correspondence runs on business email, while the few deliveries that must be provable go by KEP. To set up the everyday channel properly, read how to choose business email; for confidentiality, see business email encryption.
One more point is often confused: the National Electronic Notification System (UETS), used for official service of documents, is separate from KEP. The relevant legislation determines which channel a public body uses to serve you, so both addresses need regular checking.
How does a company get and use a KEP account? Six steps
- Open a KEP account. Apply to one of the BTK-authorised providers; a company account usually requires the authorised person's ID and documents showing who can represent the company, such as the authorised signatory circular (imza sirküleri).
- Prepare e-signatures. Anyone who will send notices or terminations by KEP needs a valid electronic or mobile signature. An expired certificate can block a delivery on the day it matters most.
- Decide who sends and who reads. The KEP inbox must not be forgotten on one person's desk. Write down which role checks incoming messages and how often.
- Set up internal approval before sending. A formal notice cannot be recalled. Requiring sign-off from legal and the relevant manager is simply the logic of an email approval workflow applied to KEP.
- Log every KEP message in your records. Each message, its attachments and its evidence records should be stored in an electronic document management system (EDMS) with a reference number and linked to the relevant contract and file. We describe moving from paper registers to digital in the paperless office guide.
- Tie retention to policy. KEP messages may fall under the same retention logic as commercial books and contract documents. Set the periods in your data retention and disposal policy.
Where should you publish your KEP address?
KEP only works if your counterparties know your address. Put your company's KEP address in the notices clause of your contracts, in quote and order templates and in supplier registration forms, and ask for the other side's KEP address in the same places. You will not waste time hunting for an address when you need one.
What are the most common KEP mistakes?
Companies most often make three mistakes with KEP. The first is opening a KEP inbox only for sending and never checking incoming messages, so deadlines run on a counterparty's notice nobody has read. The second is not keeping the final version of what was sent, leaving no answer months later to "which version did we send?". The third is having a single e-signature holder, so nobody can send anything once that person leaves; at least two authorised people should hold valid e-signatures.
How we set up KEP processes at Digital Bridge
Digital Bridge is not a KEP provider; you obtain your KEP account from an authorised provider. Our job is to fit KEP into your internal records, approvals and archive:
- Discovery. We map which department sends which type of official correspondence, who monitors the KEP inbox and where sent documents are stored.
- Records and archive design. With our document management system service we design numbering, approval steps and linking of incoming and outgoing letters to the right file. Older paper correspondence becomes searchable with document OCR.
- Integration. Within the integration options your provider offers, we connect KEP records to your document system through our API integration service; we explain how such connections work in API integration explained.
- Compliance. Through our data protection compliance service we clarify retention and access rules for KEP documents that contain personal data.
Smart360 for the workflow before and after KEP
KEP messages are sent from the KEP provider's system, but the work before and after usually happens in business email and file storage. Digital Bridge's Smart360 family organises that part. SmartMail business email uses AI to classify incoming mail by content type and separates official correspondence from the rest; a message going out in the company's name can be submitted to one or more approvers before sending, with every step time-stamped.
In SmartFiles document management, the final version of a notice sent by KEP, its evidence printout and the related contract can sit in the same repository area and be linked to each other. Every file uploaded under the same name is kept as a new version, so the answer to "which text did we send?" is in the version history. With file notes and task assignment, replying to an incoming KEP message becomes a task with a named owner.
In public bodies with heavy official correspondence, KEP should be planned as part of the document and application flow; we set out that framework for councils in our guide to digital transformation in municipalities.
Your next step
Start by listing your company's KEP address, who checks the inbox and where the documents sent by KEP over the past year are stored. Then get in touch via our contact page and we will map your official correspondence flow together.
For related topics, see Business Email & Documents and law firm document management.