Recent Development

Consumer complaints against sellers and manufacturers may be brought before Turkish consumer courts only if the amount in dispute is above a certain threshold. These thresholds are determined shortly before the beginning of each calendar year. Consumer complaints below the jurisdictional thresholds may only be brought before a consumer arbitral tribunal. Through the Communiqué on Raising the Monetary Limits Set Forth in Article 68 of Law No. 6502 on the Protection of Consumers and Article 6 of the Consumer Arbitral Tribunals Regulation, Turkey set the threshold for 2022, raising it by 36.20%.

Recent Development

Effective 1 January 2022, higher fines will be imposed for certain violations under the Law No. 6502 on Protection of Consumers. The fines will increase by 36.20% from 2021. 

The Turkish Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Authority has published announcements on biocidal products, the Overseas Drug List, products whose class has changed in accordance with the Medical Device Regulation, international and domestic Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) certification and inspection processes.

The Constitutional Court made evaluations regarding the freedom of expression of students with its latest decision on the right to education. Within the scope of the Decision, the Constitutional Court evaluated that as the education level of the students increase, the restrictions on the freedom of expression must be limited proportionally. Furthermore, the Constitutional Court set out that restrictions on actions and expressions of students that are pursued outside of educational institution premises must only apply if the institutional order is seriously affected.

The Bill on the Amendment of Certain Laws was brought to the attention of the Presidency of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on 16 November 2021. The Bill, which consists of 38 articles in total, envisages making significant changes to several laws, including the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works numbered 5846.

The enforcement of the Internet Domain Names Regulation, published by the Information Technologies and Communications Authority in 2010, which regulates the procedures and principles regarding ".tr" domain names, was delayed until the ".tr Network Information System" becomes operational. In accordance with the recent announcement, the Nic.tr platform, where the procedures for the allocation of ".tr" domain names have been carried out since 1991 in Turkey, will be shut down and the System will start operating. The Regulation, which will come into force at the beginning of the System period, clearly stipulates that ".tr" domain names may be subject to the transactions for sale and transfer, which has not been regulated before

The Judges and Prosecutors Council issued a decision on the establishment of new specialized courts. Further to the Council's decisions, cybercrimes and financial crimes will now be heard in specialized courts. 

The decisions of the Judges and Prosecutors Council on the establishment of new specialized courts were published in the Official Gazette dated 30 November 2021. In this context, the establishment of specialized courts in many fields that require legal expertise has been decided.

The Ministry of Treasury and Finance published the Sustainable Finance Framework setting the standards for green, social and sustainable transactions in financial markets on its website on November 12, 2021.

The Ministry of Interior introduced significant amendments to the Regulation regarding the Principles and Procedures of Collection of Aid. Among the main changes are defining the expressions regarding aid and aid collection activities in detail, including aid collection activities on the internet within the scope of the Regulation, amendments in aid collection permit applications, and operation of aid collection activities.