What is a Consumer Court?
The consumer court is the civil court charged with hearing cases arising from consumer transactions and all kinds of applications against the consumer. The consumer court is a court of first instance in the nature of a special court.
Consumer courts have been established with the Law No. 6502 on Consumer Protection and their field of duty has been determined. The persons authorized to file a lawsuit in the consumer court are designated as “consumers”, “consumer organizations” and “Ministry of Customs and Trade”. Lawsuits filed by the Ministry, consumers and consumer organizations before consumer courts are exempt from fees.
The civil courts charged with handling private civil cases are generally divided into three:
The Court Of First Instance,
Magistrates ‘ Court,
Special Courts (Consumer Court, Commercial Court of First Instance, Intellectual and Industrial Rights Civil Court, Family Court, Cadastral Court, etc. as).
The civil court of first instance and the civil court of peace are the two main courts charged with handling private law disputes. The duty of the civil court of first instance, which is one of the general courts, is the main one, and the duty of the civil court of peace is an exception. With a special provision of the law, all cases and cases that are not explicitly reported to be heard in the magistrate’s court are heard in the civil court of first instance. If the law explicitly recognizes that a special court is assigned for a specific type of dispute, the court assigned to resolve the dispute is that special assigned court determined by the law. Since the consumer court was established by a special law, the “Law on Consumer Protection” No. 6502, it functions with the status of a special court. The courts established to deal with disputes or certain kinds of disputes arising between certain persons are called “Decommissioned courts”. The relationship between the courts of special and general jurisdiction is a Decommissioning relationship.
What is a Consumer? What Does a Consumer Transaction Mean?
The consumer court is tasked with looking into disputes in which at least one of the parties is a “consumer”. All cases related to consumer transactions are heard in the consumer court. The concepts of “consumer” and “consumer transaction” are described in the Law as follows:
Consumer: A consumer is a natural or legal person who acts for commercial or non-professional purposes. the law No. 6502 protects the person who buys a ready-made good or service and uses or consumes it in his daily life. For example, a person is considered a consumer when he buys a razor for shaving at home. When he buys the same razor blade to sell in his grocery store, he is not a consumer, since he is trading for commercial purposes.
Consumer Transaction: In order for a transaction to be considered a consumer transaction, one of the parties to the legal relationship must be a consumer, and the other party must be a seller, a service provider, or a natural or legal person acting on their behalf. It is essential that the transaction carried out between the parties is not carried out for a professional and commercial purpose from the consumer’s point of view. Dec. Consumer transactions in markets for goods or services, including public entities, commercial or professional purposes or for acting on her behalf and any contract between consumers and legal or natural or legal persons who act on behalf refers to the process.
The Limit of the Duty of the Consumer Court in the Cases It is Responsible for
In order for a lawsuit to be filed in consumer court, the dispute must exceed a certain monetary value. If the dispute is below the limits of the duties of the consumer court, first of all, the consumer arbitration committee should be applied for. Monetary limits and procedures on the duties of the consumer court are regulated by Article 68 of law No. 6502. it is renewed every year with the communiqués issued with the authority given by the article.
the monetary duty limit for applications to consumer arbitration committees for 2017 is as follows:
In disputes whose value is below 2.400 TL, the district consumer arbitration committees should be applied to.
In the provinces with metropolitan status, it is mandatory to apply to the provincial consumer arbitration committees in disputes between 2.400TL and 3.610TL. Dec.
In disputes under TL 3.610 in the centers of the provinces that do not have metropolitan status, the provincial consumer arbitration committees should be applied for.
In disputes between TL 2.400 and TL 3.610 in the districts connected to the provinces that are not in metropolitan status, the provincial consumer arbitration committees should be applied Decisively.
For disputes above these values, a lawsuit should be filed directly in the consumer court without recourse to the consumer arbitration committees.
Consumer arbitration committees are obliged to accept the applications made to them in order to do the necessary. Applications can be made to the consumer arbitration committee at the place where the consumer’s place of residence is located or where the consumer transaction is made. Consumer arbitration committees may request all kinds of information and documents related to the dispute from the parties, relevant institutions or organizations.
The decisions made by the provincial and district consumer arbitration committee are binding on the parties. It cannot be decided to pay the proxy fee by the consumer arbitration committees. The decisions of the consumer arbitration committee are carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law on the execution of orders. The parties may appeal against the decisions of the consumer arbitration committee to the consumer court located at the location of the consumer arbitration committee within fifteen days from the date of notification. The decision to be made by the consumer court upon the objection made against the decisions of the consumer arbitration committee is final.
What are the Duties of the Consumer Court?
In order for the consumer court to hear a case as a Decommissioned court, the parties defined in the law (consumer and seller or provider, etc.) are included in the purpose of Law No. 6502. of) there must be a Decriminalization of the sale of goods and services.
A good or service, apart from personal needs, is the performance of a certain profession, use in a certain production, resale, lease, commercial use, etc. since those who purchase for professional or commercial purposes, such as, cannot be considered consumers, the duty to deal with disputes arising in such transactions is also that of the general courts, not the consumer court.
Lawsuits arising from the following contracts established between natural or legal persons acting for commercial or professional purposes or acting on their behalf or account and consumers are heard in the consumer Dec:
Work contract,
Contract of carriage,
Brokerage agreement,
Insurance contract,
Power of attorney agreement,
Banking agreement,
And all kinds of contracts that are similar to the above contracts.
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