IKV, in cooperation with Protection of Consumers and Competition Association (TÜRDER) organised a seminar entitled “New Consumer Protection Law of Turkey in the EU Integration Process” on 6 October 2015 in Istanbul. During the conference, detailed information was given regarding the Consumer Protection Law No: 6502 in force in Turkey and the latest positive and negative developments regarding its implementation were discussed.

With the importance of the consumers and their rights highlighted in long-term plans such as the digital market and the energy union which are on EU’s agenda that will contribute in the establishment of a functioning market mechanism and competitive environment, the need to integrate and adapt Turkish current legislation to the market structure has also increased.

At the opening speech, IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu drew the attention to the fact that in the upcoming period, consumer policies will be at the very centre of long-term EU strategies. IKV Chairman Zeytinoğlu emphasized that with the Digital Single Market Strategy announced on 6 May 2015, it is foreseen for consumers to gain access to digital products, to present more information regarding their rights in e-trade, to raise awareness on the rights regarding digital products, to improve the corporate capacity in member states, to harmonize different practices in member states and to enhance the active participation of the consumers in the decision making process.

The Head of Unit of Consumer Protection and Market Surveillance at the Ministry of Customs and Trade Fatma Çağlar stressed that their aim is to encourage the consumption instead of applying dissuasive penalties. On the other hand, in respect to EU’s approach to consumers, a special focus is giving to raise the awareness of consumers. Fatma Çağlar stressed that with the Law, Turkish legislation has been %99 harmonized with the EU acquis. On the other, she pointed out that they have introduced stricter measures than the EU in areas such as consumer credits, customer sales contracts and credit card offers.

During the seminar, President of TÜRDER, Federation of Consumer Organizations (TÖF), Association for the Development of Consumer Awareness (TÜBİDER) and Consumer Protection Association (TÜKODER) and representatives of the Turkish Competition Authority have assessed the law and its implementation. They drew the attention to the improvement made to the legislation on consumers compared to the prevision law. They also stated that the framework of the law was laid down by taking into account EU Directives. However, they also stressed that there is still some loopholes in this law which in force for one year and half. Indeed, there are more than 5 million complaints regarding the law. Among the complaints received by the consumer protection associations, the complaints on bank transactions run the forefront, followed by defective goods in the second position.  It has been also stressed that most of these complaints have not reached a solution.  Lastly, it was also mentioned that the Law of Competition and the Law of Consumer are complementary but the jurisdiction has not been clearly defined in the arbitration delegation.