Recent Development In Turkey, consumer complaints against sellers and manufacturers may be brought in Turkish consumer courts only if the amount in dispute is above a certain threshold. These thresholds are re-set shortly before the beginning of each calendar year. Consumer complaints below the jurisdictional thresholds may only be brought in 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 2017, raising it by 14.47%. Consumer complaints below the threshold of TRY 6,860 (approximately USD 1,832) must be submitted to consumer arbitral tribunals, whereas those above this threshold must be submitted to consumer courts. |
Conclusion
If a consumer fails to submit his/her complaint to the appropriate consumer arbitral tribunal or consumer court, his/her application will be subject to rejection at the preliminary examination phase. This would also allow defendant companies to raise a valid objection.