Consumer Law
In Turkish law, consumer transactions are all kinds of contracts and legal transactions such as including work, transportation, brokerage, insurance, mandatum, banking and similar contracts which are established between real or legal persons acting for commercial or professional purposes, including public legal entities in the goods or service markets, or acting on behalf or account of them and consumers. The consumer is a natural or legal person acting for non-commercial or non-professional purposes. Thus, it is clearly stated that legal entities can also be considered as consumers.
The basic legislation regarding consumer law in Turkish law is the Law No.6502 on Consumer Protection Act ("Act"). The Act was published in the official gazette on 28.11.2013 and entered into force six months after its publication. In accordance with the Act, issues related to protecting the health, safety and economic interests of the consumer, compensating their damages, ensuring their protection from environmental dangers, taking measures to enlighten and raise awareness for the consumer, to encourage the consumers to protect themselves and to encourage voluntary organizations in the formation of policies on these issues are regulated. It has brought significant changes in comparison with the annulled legislation and has greatly expanded the application area of ​​consumer law. With the Act, contracts such as work, insurance, and mandatum are clearly stated, and it is stated that the Act would be applied in case the disputes regarding these contracts fall within the scope of the consumer transaction definition.
With the expansion of the application area of ​​consumer transactions, the number and type of disputes in consumer courts have increased. Recently, disputes arising from construction contracts, one side of which is contractor and one side of which is consumer, have started to be heard in consumer courts. With the inclusion of contract of mandatum, all of the diagnosis-treatment contracts (provided that public hospitals are kept separate) have gained the title of consumer transaction. Contracts concluded between lawyers and clients who have the capacity of consumer are also considered as consumer transactions. As a natural consequence of the acceptance of these transactions as consumer transactions, the general principles determined in the Act are also applied in these contracts.
Consumer law is an area that needs to be addressed not only in terms of consumers but also from the aspect of sellers / providers. For this reason, matters such as informing as required, ensuring the compliance of the contracts prepared with the Act, and fulfilling the necessary disclosure obligation are in a very important position for these persons. In particular, sellers and providers who also process personal data shall comply with the consumer law. In sectors such as health, accommodation and transportation, these two fields are applied intensively together.
Recently, there has been a significant increase in cross-border consumer transactions. Factors such as the increase in logistics possibilities and the decrease in costs, the habit of end users to shop on the internet, the increase in the presence of websites that make price comparison have led to an increase in cross-border consumer transactions. For this reason, the issue should be examined in terms of private international law as a result of the foreignness element of the transactions made. Issues such as determination of the law to be applied and determination of competent courts made it necessary to study a different aspect of consumer law. Cross-border consumer transactions are resolved in connection with areas such as customs legislation and transport law.
Alparslan Attorneys At Law follows the consumer law in terms of both domestic law and international private law. The needs of its clients in this field are easily and quickly responded. In addition, the field can be viewed from the perspective of both consumers and sellers / providers, and provides the necessary legal consultancy and litigation services according to the needs of both parties. Due to the limitations determined in terms of quantity, disputes can be followed both in consumer arbitration committees and consumer courts. We also have profound academic studies in the field of consumer law. All knowledge and know-how ensure solutions specific to each certain event.
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