Consumer Protection Law Amendments: Key Updates


The Legislative Proposal Amending the Consumer Protection Act and Various Other Laws (the "Amending Law"), which was adopted by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and expected to enter into force in the upcoming days, introduces significant amendments to the provisions concerning administrative sanctions related to advertisements and unfair commercial practices regulated by Law No. 6502 on the Consumer Protection Law (the "Law"), as well as modifications to the supervision mechanism of the Advertising Board. In the event that the Amending Law is enacted in its current form, the changes summarized below shall be implemented:

 

Amount of Administrative Sanctions:

  1. Individuals and entities that act contrary to the provisions of the Law regarding unfair commercial practices may be subject to suspension measures for up to three months or administrative fines. With the Amending Law, these fines have been increased to a range of TRY 60,000 TL to TRY 600,000, and in cases where the violation occurs nationwide, it may escalate to up to TRY 6,000,000.

 

Supervision Mechanism:

  1. In the event that the required information and documents are not properly submitted during the inspection, a correction must be made within 7 (seven) days. Should the information and documents not be accurately provided within this timeframe, an administrative fine amounting to 1% of the annual gross revenue shall be imposed.
  2. Furthermore, the Amending Law grants the Advertising Board the authority to offer a settlement option in the administrative fines imposed. In this context, the public costs arising from the litigation processes related to administrative actions based on violations of the provisions concerning commercial advertisements and unfair commercial practices, as well as the public benefits obtained from the rapid and definitive resolution of such violations and processes, are taken into account. This allows for the application of the existing settlement mechanism, applicable to violations of other provisions of the Law, to also cover the provisions regarding commercial advertisements and unfair commercial practices.

 

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