(Effectiveness dates of some of the provisions provided below have been changed per the amendments published in the Official Gazette dated 14 September 2022. Accordingly, our blog article has been updated as well.)
The Regulation Amending the Regulation on Distance Contracts (“Amending Regulation”) has been published in the Official Gazette dated 23 August 2022. With the amendments, parallelism with the Law on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce has been ensured as well as provisions regarding the other important topics have been incorporated into the Regulation on Distance Contracts (“Regulation”).
Accordingly, the most significant changes implemented by the Amending Regulation are as follows:
Definitions of intermediary service provider and platform have been introduced.
Intermediary service providers have been made jointly responsible for the obligations like preliminary information, misinformation, use of the withdrawal right, refund for the consumer with the seller or supplier.
Article 12/A titled “Obligations of Intermediary Service Provider” has been added to the Regulation and various obligations have been imposed to intermediary service providers in accordance with the relevant article.
It has been provided that return expenses will be covered by the consumers in case they use withdrawal rights. However, it the good is delivered defectively, consumers will not be liable for the return expense.
Intermediary service providers have been made jointly liable with the seller or supplier for the return of the fee except in cases where the fee is transferred to the seller or supplier.
The scope of the exemptions to the withdrawal rights of consumers has been expanded with the addition of contracts regarding the cell phones, smart watches, tablets and computers delivered to consumers, contracts drawn up through live auctions, contracts regarding the goods which have guidelines stating that they will be set up and installed by the authorized and unmanned aerial vehicles with the registration requirement.
Intermediary service providers have been made responsible for setting up the required system on the platform for consumers to send withdrawal forms or withdrawal declarations and forwarding confirmation information to the consumer regarding the receiving of withdrawal declaration of the consumer by itself and seller or suppliers.
The term of the consumer to send the good for which the withdrawal right is used to the seller or supplier or authorized person, which was previously determined as 10 days, has been changed to 14 days.
Provisions regarding the obligations of the service provider and provisions regarding the return process within the scope of the withdrawal rights and exceptions of the withdrawal right will enter into force on 1 January 2024 while other provisions will be effective as of 1 October 2022.