Regulation on Consumer Arbitration Committees Has Been Published

1) What is Consumer Arbitration Committee?

Consumer arbitration committees are the institutions that conclude disputes related to consumer transactions and are established to find solutions to disputes that may arise from consumer transactions and consumer-oriented practices.

2) What are the Fundamental Regulations Made in the Regulation on Consumer Arbitration Committees?

With the relevant Regulation, the old regulation was abolished, and the working procedures and principles of the consumer arbitration committees and the procedures and principles related to process and transactions were generally determined.

The Regulation on Consumer Arbitration Committees ("Regulation") (In Turkish) has been published in the Official Gazette dated September 21, 2022 and numbered 31960. The regulations made in the Regulation are as follows;

• For disputes under 30,000.00 TRY, application to consumer arbitration committees has been made compulsory. For disputes valued over 30,000.00, it is mandatory to apply to the court and it is arranged that it is possible to apply to the consumer arbitration committee by waiving the surpassed part over 30,000.00 TRY. For the waived part, it is regulated that even if this part is below 30,000.00 TRY, no application can be made to the consumer arbitration committee again.
• In accordance with Article 107 of the Civil Procedure Law No. 6100, the application procedure for indeterminate receivables has been adopted and it has been regulated that if the monetary demand becomes certain, this amount must remain below the monetary limit of the consumer arbitration committee.
• In disputes which have the same subject, reason and parties, more than one application can not be made to more than one consumer arbitration committee or to the same consumer arbitration committee; In the event that such an application is made, it is arranged that a pendency examination will be carried out ex officio or upon the objection of one of the parties and that applications that have been finalized cannot be applied again.
• Applications to be made to consumer arbitration committees will be decided within 6 months at the latest, but it is also stated that this period can be extended for another 3 months in compulsory cases.
• It is regulated that applications can be made physically in writing, via mail or by filling in the information list through the system (e-government system) by the consumer or through his representative. The mandatory element to be included in the application has been determined, and it has been arranged that if there are deficiencies or inconsistencies in them, the consumer arbitration committee has the right to request the applicant consumer to remedy this deficiency within 7 days.
• Except for those that are mandatory in the application, correspondence can be made with the relevant official institutions for the provision of missing information and documents, that information and documents may be requested from the parties, that the parties may be given a period of 30 days for this, that if requested and approved, the consumer arbitration committee may extend this period, it is also arranged that if information and documents are not submitted within the given period, the decision will be made with the existing information and document in the file.
• It is regulated that the notifications to be made by the consumer arbitration committee will be made through the Revenue Administration System, if not possible, through UETS, and if this is not possible either, by registered mail in physical.
• With the Regulation, in line with the Civil Procedure Law No. 6100, the provisions of "Correction of the Decision" and "Completion of the Decision" were added and the possibility of eliminating the deficiencies and inaccuracies in the decisions was introduced. While no time is foreseen for the decision correction, a period of 15 days is stipulated for the completion of the decision.
• In the case of an appeal against the decision of the consumer arbitration committee given in favor of the consumer, the relative attorney fee will be awarded in favor of the other party in case of a cancellation decision against the consumer. However, in case it is decided to cancel the decision due to the submission of information and documents that were not submitted to the consumer arbitration committee at the litigation stage, the costs of the proceedings and the attorney's fee will not be ruled against the consumer.

The provisions of the Regulation will enter into force as of October 1, 2022. However, the provision on the 7-day additional request for the deficiency of the mandatory elements required to apply and provision for completion of the decision will enter into force as of January 1, 2023. It is regulated that the provisions of the Regulation will also be applied to the applications of the consumer arbitration committee that have not yet been decided as of the effective date.

Should you have any queries or need further details, please contact your customer representative.