Frequently Asked Questions:
LAW ON PROTECTION OF CONSUMERS

Edited April 2007

• What are the groups of regulations pertaining to consumer protection?
  
  
• What kind of renovations have been made with the alternations in the Law on the Protection of Consumers?
  
  
• What is the purpose of the Law on the Protection of Consumers?
  
  
• What is commercial advertisement and announcement?
  
  
• What is camouflaged advertisement?
  
  
• What are the functions of the advertisement board?
  
  
• What are the legal means to apply against the conflicts resulting from the Law on the Protection of Consumers?
  
  
• What is the jurisdiction procedure for the actions instituted before Consumer Courts?
  
  
• Who can institute the actions?
  
  
• Is there a regulation related to fines in the Law on Protection of Consumers?
  
  
• What is the legal quality of the fines?
  
  
• Regulations
  
  
• How is an application filed to the Advertisement Board?
  
  
• The fines to be applied to the persons in violation of the prohibition of commercial advertisement or publicity
  
  

What are the groups of regulations pertaining to consumer protection?

We can divide the regulations related to consumer protection into two groups. The first group is of preventive quality and functions as a protector before the consumer is exploited, deceived, caused to suffer loss by the seller. The examples include: “consumer awareness and training” (Article 20); “encouraging and supporting the establishment of consumer organizations” which defend the consumer rights such as association, foundation and consumer cooperatives (Article 3/r); “the obligation for labeling which will provide sufficient information before undertaking a contractual relationship” (Article 12); prohibition of the advertisements and announcements against the laws and public morality; dishonest; deceiving, misleading, exploitive of lack of information and experience; threatening the life and property security; encouraging violent act and committing crime; injuring public health; exploiting the patients, the elderly, the children and disabled persons” (Article 16); “Authorization of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to supervise the appropriateness of the goods and services for quality and its standards” (Article 19, 27); “binding the sellers to prohibition of avoidance from sale” (Article 5/I, II).

The second group of regulations is related to implementing the sanction, which may be resorted by the exploited, deceived, loss-suffering consumer against the seller, because of the legal relationship established between the seller and the consumer. The examples include: “granting some alternative rights to consumer in case of selling of defective (faulty) good or service” (Article 4); “prohibiting that providing goods and services is dependent on some conditions and limitations” (Article 5/III); that the unfair provisions of the contracts are not binding upon consumers (Article 6); “that the term of maturity is attached to certain provisions in sales with installments and that the terms and conditions of the contract are organized in writing and a copy is given to the consumer” (Article 6/A); “holding the producer-manufacturer, exporter, agent, branch and representative together with the seller responsible jointly and severally against the consumer in sales with campaign” (Article 7); “granting the right to return the goods without a reason within seven (7) days and delivering the written text which clearly include the contract conditions in advance to the consumer for sales at door” (Article 8, 9); granting the right to waive from the purchase to consumer within seven days in distant sales by mentioning that the provisions related to sales at door will be applied (Article 9/A); “delivering a reproduction of the agreement in which the terms and conditions for the credit is completely written in consumer loans; prohibiting that the seller makes a unilateral alteration in these conditions; establishing the obligation that a deduction is made from the interest in case the loan is paid before due” (Article 10); limitation in especially default interest by binding the credit cards to the consumer credit terms and conditions (Article 10/A); “in case the seller does not act in compliance with the subscription terms of the periodicals, granting the consumer the right to waive from the contract” (Article 11); the regulation granting the consumers, who are a party to any kind of subscription contracts, the right to waive “establishing the obligation to repair the good purchased by the consumer, which breaks down during the warranty period, without taking any cost for craftsmanship and materials” (Article 13); “the obligation to deliver an introducing guide and a user manual related to the good which sold” (Article 15); “the obligation to write down the necessary warning and descriptive information on the dangerous and harmful goods and on their attached user manual” (Article 18); “making the institutions such as advertisement board (Article 18), consumer council (Article 21), arbitration council for consumer problems (Article 22), consumer courts (Article 23) available for application by the consumer”; “in case the seller does not comply with the liabilities and prohibitions providing for some penal sanctions” (Article 25 and 26).

Because of the fact that these regulations will not solely solve the problem related to the consumer protection, the most appropriate solution is that the consumers individually defend their rights and make use of the ways provided with the law.

What kind of renovations have been made with the alternations in the Law on the Protection of Consumers?

As a consequence of the alteration made with the Law No. 4822;

• The unfair provisions related to the contracts (the unfair standard conditions or the unfair common operation conditions) are regulated with Article 6 for the first time in Turkish Law.
• The article that the unfair term or conditions included in any kind of contracts of which the consumer is a party, will not be binding upon the consumer is provided for.
• A new article has been added to the Law under the title of Distant Sales considering the developments in the electronic trading. Therefore the sales and services rendered with the communication tools such as telephone and telex and especially via internet are taken under the protection of the law

What is the purpose of the Law on the Protection of Consumers?

The purposes of the Law on the Protection of Consumers protection are as follows:

• to take the precautions for protecting the health, security, and the economic benefits of the consumer, for enlightening, and educating the consumer, for recovering the damages suffered by the consumer and for enabling the consumer to protect from the environmental hazards;
• to encourage the attempts of the consumers for protecting themselves, and
• to regulate the issues related to stimulating the voluntary organization during the formation process of the policies in this issue.

At the same time, the Law Pertaining to Preparation and Implementation of the Technical Legislation related to Product No. 4703 to provide the establishment of the infrastructure required for effectively exercising the EU technical legislation, the harmonization process of which continues. The issues such as supplying conditions of these products and the responsibilities of the instructors and distributors, market monitoring and supervision, prohibition related to supplying the insecure goods into market, collecting and destroying them, the working procedure and essentials of the concordance assessment institutions to act in concordance assessments, punitive sanctions, the notifications to be submitted to EU commission and EU member countries. The regulations, which regulate the application procedure and essentials of this law, have been put into force.

In Article 16 of the Law Pertaining to Consumer Rights: the commercial advertisements and announcements shall be fair, true and in accordance with the laws, with the principles determined by the advertisement board, with the public morality and individual rights. No advertisements and announcements and camouflaged advertising which deceive, mislead the consumer or exploit their deficiencies in experience and information, which threaten the life and property security of the consumer, which encourage the violence acts and committing a crime, which exploit the diseases damaging the public health, the elderly, the children and the disabled, shall be published. The advertisements related to competitive goods and services, which serve for the similar necessities or relate to the same purpose are allowed. The advertiser is liable with proving the concrete claims taking place in the commercial advertisement and announcement. The owners of the advertisements, the advertisers and the channel corporations are liable with complying with the provision of this article. In this article it is required that the sale of the products which should not be necessarily purchased for the purpose of making use of the weaknesses of the unconscious or uninformed consumers and it is stated that the advertisement and the principles related to advertisement will be determined by the advertisement board. The prevention of the publication of the exaggerated advertisements and the proof of the claimed element in the advertisement by the advertisement owner, and in case it proven that the advertisement is decisive, the advertisement owner will be hold responsible are provided for in the article.

What is commercial advertisement and announcement?

The definition of the commercial advertisement and announcements have not been determined in the Law on the Protection of Consumers, however in accordance with Article 3/h of the Advertisement Regulation:

“Commercial advertisement and announcements are the notifications of marketing communication quality, published in any channel by the advertisement owner in order to make promotions of a good, service or trademark, to inform and persuade the target audience, to provide or increase the sale or rental of such good, service or trademark.”

What is camouflaged advertisement?

Camouflaged advertisements are those made secretly despite prohibited. For instance, it is forbidden for the lawyers to make advertisements. It should be assessed as a camouflaged advertisement when a lawyer attends in several programs and often launches himself.

What are the functions of the advertisement board?

• To determine the principles to be complied in commercial advertisement and announcements and make notifications thereof by means of the ministry.
• To examine whether the advertisements and announcements are performed in accordance with the law ex officio or upon application.
• To abort, regulate the advertisements made by violating the law provisions or to inflict official fines committing therefore.

What are the legal means to apply against the conflicts resulting from the Law on the Protection of Consumers?

• The Arbitration Board settles the conflict for Consumer Problems in disagreements the value of which is below five hundred liras. The decisions of the board of five members are binding upon the parties.
  The parties may oppose to the decisions within fifteen days before Consumer Courts. The opposition does not abort the implication of the decision however if requested the Court may abort the implication of the decisions as a precaution. The decisions given by the courts upon opposition are absolute. All the contradictions other than the issues, which were subjected to penal sanction in Article 25, are under protection of the function and authority of the Arbitration Boards. The applications are filed to the arbitration boards wherein the consumer had bought the good or service and has domicile in accordance with Arbitration Board Regulation Article 5.
• In accordance with Article 23 of the Law the consumer courts settle the conflicts. In accordance with the interim article 1 of the Law the jurisdiction means of the Consumer Courts are determined by High Council of Judges and Public prosecutors. It has been determined that all the Civil Courts of First Instance may handle the cases, where no consumer court is available.

What is the jurisdiction procedure for the actions instituted before Consumer Courts?

The basic jurisdiction procedure is applied to the actions instituted before Consumer Courts.

Who can institute the actions?

The consumer organization and the Ministry are also granted as the authority to institute an action as well as consumers. These persons are exempted from Court fees. In case the action is finalized against the seller, the Court fees are paid by sellers. The consumer Courts may decide on aborting the violation of law for precaution purposes and on the publication of the final decision in the country and in local newspapers. The decision related to the abortion of the situation in violation of the law is also announced in the same way by the payment of cost by the defendant.

Is there a regulation related to fines in the Law on Protection of Consumers?

In accordance with Article 25, fines in miscellaneous amounts are given to the persons acting in violation to the law. These fines multiply in some cases or are increased in case of replication. The amounts of the fines are reestablished every year.

The Ministry has been appointed as the authority to require the abortion of the campaign and all kinds of advertisements and publicity related to campaign from the periodical publication corporations and the authority to apply before the Court.

It has been mentioned that the fines will be applied with the Ministry and Civilian Authorities by referring to the articles of the penalties mentioned above with Article 26 of the Law.

What is the legal quality of the fines?

The fines are of administrative quality and it is possible to file an opposition against these fines within seven days as of the notification date. The decisions given by the administration court upon opposition are absolute. The fines are collected in accordance with the provisions of the Law Pertaining to the Collection Procedure of the public Credits.

Regulations

- The Regulation Pertaining To The Principles And Implication Basis Related To Commercial Advertisement And Announcements

The regulation covers all kinds of commercial advertisements including the verbal or written words, numbers, visual presentations and sound effects thereof. How to do the direct sale advertisements, the goods sent without order, comparative advertisements and advertisements with witnesses are stated and the points comprised by them are mentioned in the regulation. It has been mentioned in this regulation that no firms or corporations will be discredited; using the emblem or identity elements of another firm no one may benefit the financial will of that firm, other advertisements shall not be imitated and the advertisements shall not be in violation of the public health. It has been further mentioned in the regulation that the definitions, claims or the illustrations related to the provable issues and that the advertisement owners will be responsible with immediately showing such a proof to the authorized persons.

- The Regulation of Advertisement Board

This regulation determines the corporation and functions and working procedure and basis of the advertisement board and the quality and the task periods of its members. The functions of the board are as follows:

• In accordance with the provisions mentioned in Article 16 of the Law, to state the principles to be complied in the commercial advertisement and announcements and notify them by means of the Ministry.
• To examine, ex officio or upon written application, the commercial advertisements and publicity within the framework of the principles stated in paragraph a.
• To punish the ones acting against the provisions of Article 16 of the Law and to abort the related advertisements and publicity up to 3 months for precaution purposes and/or simply abort and/or regulate with the same method and/or give fines in accordance with the examination results.

The board may give the fines mentioned in paragraph c according to the quality of the violation or separately.

The board considers the definitions, rules and developments universally adopted in the field of advertisement, the international advertisement application essentials, the characteristics of the goods or services to be promoted and the special legislation provisions in force as well as the country conditions when determining the principles to be complied with in commercial advertisements and publicity.

How is an application filed to the Advertisement Board?

The applications to the board are filed written. The original written or published documents of the advertisement, which is complained about, are enclosed to the petition. The Board provides the television movies and radio advertisement records from the Radio Television High Council. The application may also be filed by means of the Ministry. If it is considered requisite during the examination, information and advise may be requested in writing from the related persons or institutions. The decision with grounds is devolved to the General Manager and implicated by the Ministry. The Council may establish commissions in order to prepare the report related to the notification of the advices before the decision is settled.

The fines to be applied to the persons in violation of the prohibition of commercial advertisement or publicity

In accordance with Article 2 of the Law related to the protection of the consumer (paragraph VIII), if prohibited advertisements are published by acting against the Article 16, the Advertisement Board applies a fine of 3.500,00 YTL and/or abortion up to 3 months for precaution purposes and/or correction penalty. The Advertisement Board may give these penalties all together or separately according to the quality of the violation. If the violation to Article 16 has taken place via the written, verbal, visual and other means making publications throughout the country, the fine multiplies to ten folds.

If the violation to this prohibition has taken place via the written, verbal, visual and other means making publications throughout the country, the fine multiplies to ten folds. (Law No 4077, 25/VIII). The authorization for application of this penalty is the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. (Law No. 4077).