With the Law on the Amendment of the Law on the Protection of Consumers and Certain Laws published in the 30.10.2024 dated and 32707 numbered Official Gazette, amendments were made to Law No. 6502 on the Consumer Protection Law (“CPL”), Law No. 6563 on the Electronic Commerce Law (“ECL”), and Tax Procedure Law No. 213. The important amendments to the CPL and the ECL are summarized below.
· Regulations on direct selling systems have been added to Article 47/A of the CPL. Direct selling is also regulated in Articles 24 et seq. of the Regulation on Contracts Established Outside the Workplace. In parallel with these regulations, Article 47/A of the CPL defines direct selling systems as “a selling system established by a direct selling company, where direct sellers, who are not employed under an employment contract and who operate under the names of independent representatives, distributors, consultants, and similar titles in return for benefits such as commissions, premiums, incentives, and rewards, market goods or services to consumers.”
· With the amendments made to Article 77 of the CPL, changes have been made to the minimum and maximum limits of the administrative fines to be imposed for commercial advertisements contrary to the legislation and unfair commercial practices have been amended. In this context, (i) the administrative fines to be imposed for unfair commercial practices will vary between 60 thousand Turkish Lira (TL) and 6 million TL. (ii) The limits have also been increased in terms of commercial advertisements, for instance administrative fines will be imposed a) between 100 thousand TL and 1 million TL for violations committed through television channels broadcasting at the local level, b) between 2 million TL and 200 million TL for violations committed through television channels broadcasting nationwide, and e) between 600 thousand TL and 6 million TL for violations committed through the internet. In addition, the Advertisement Board should consider when imposing administrative fines are regulated, such as the content of the unfairness, the benefit obtained, the magnitude of the damage, the fault and the economic status of the violator.
· The possibility of submitting a reconciliation request to the Ministry of Trade against administrative fines to be imposed under the CPL was not applicable for administrative fines imposed by the Advertisement Board. The relevant provision has been repealed, and thus, it is now possible to submit a conciliation request against administrative fines imposed by the Advertising Board
These amendments to the CPL will enter into force on 30.07.2025.
· The amendments to the ECL relate to the calculation of the license fees to be charged and renewed for electronic commerce intermediary service providers. In this context;
“In the calculation of the license fee:
a) Sales made abroad through the electronic commerce marketplaces of the electronic commerce intermediary service provider and the electronic commerce intermediary service providers with which it is in economic integrity are not included in the calculation.
b) Provided that the net transaction volume of the electronic commerce intermediary service provider is not more than twenty percent of the sum of the net transaction volumes of the electronic commerce intermediary service provider and electronic commerce service providers calculated using ETBIS data, realized in the following calendar year;
1) The sales amount specified in subparagraph (a),
2)The amount of investment expenditure realized by obtaining an investment incentive certificate from the Ministry of Industry and Technology in accordance with the legislation on supporting investments on a Project basis,
twice the amount shall be deducted from the net transaction volume for that calendar year.
c) In determining whether the limit specified in subparagraph (b) has been exceeded or not, limit exceedances below fifteen percent shall not be taken into account."
The amendments to the ECL entered into force on the date of publication.
*This information note does not constitute a legal opinion and has been prepared for informational purposes only. If you would like to obtain a legal opinion on the subject, we kindly ask you to contact us.
