Author: Yağmur Zeytinkaya
Pursuant to the Law on the Amendment of the Consumer Protection Law and the Property Ownership Law published in the Official Gazette dated April 1, 2022 and numbered 31796, various amendments were made to Consumer Protection Law No. 6502 (“Law”). This newsletter reviews the important changes made in the Law.
Amendments regarding Intermediary Service Providers
In accordance with the amendments made in the Law; various obligations are imposed on intermediary service providers. Accordingly, intermediary service providers (for example: e-commerce platforms and marketplaces) that mediate the establishment of distance contracts are obliged to establish a convenient system for consumers to submit their requests and notifications and to keep the system open without interruption.
Moreover, new liability regimes are regulated in which intermediary service providers will be responsible for the distance contracts they mediate. Accordingly, the intermediary service providers are responsible
- jointly with the seller/supplier for providing, confirming and proving preliminary briefing,
- except for the cases where the data entry is made by the seller/supplier, for the deficiencies in the mandatory issues under the preliminary briefing determined by the regulation,
- for keeping records of the transactions of consumers with the sellers/suppliers due to the issues defined in Article 48 of the Law and for providing this information to the relevant public institutions and organizations and consumers if requested,
- for transactions in which they cause the seller/supplier to act in violation of the provisions in Article 48 of the Law due to activities that breach the intermediary services agreement that they have executed with the seller/supplier,
- jointly with the seller/supplier for their liabilities,
- jointly with the seller/supplier for the cases where the payment is made to the seller/supplier after the goods or services are delivered or performed to the consumer and for the liabilities arising from delivery, performance and withdrawal except for the rights under Article 11 and 15 of the Law,
- for non-performance or inadequate performance of distance contracts, where they have arranged campaigns, promotions or discounted sales without obtaining the seller’s/supplier’s approval,
- for the compliance between the matters in preliminary briefing and the information in advertisements and also their proving.
