Court Provides Guidance on How to Conclude Actions For Undue Receivables
Introduction The potential conclusion of actions initiated for undue receivables has been a controversial issue under Turkish law. There have been several different opinions on how the courts should conclude these cases. Certain courts have dismissed them on procedural grounds, while others have examined the merits. Recently, the Grand General Assembly on the Unification of Judgments of the Court of Cassation rendered a unification decision on how to conclude actions… »
Recent Changes in Relation to Determination of Companies Subject to Independent Auditing
The Presidential Decision No. 6434 on Determination of Companies subject to Independent Auditing (the “Decision”) was published in the Official Gazette on November 30, 2022. The Decision provides significant changes to the independent auditing thresholds compared to the Decision No. 2018/11597 on Determination of Companies subject to Independent Auditing, which will remain in force until January 1, 2023. With the effect of the Decision, publicly-traded companies that exceed… »
Extension of the Deadline Regarding Amendments to the Communiqué With Respect to Capital Loss and Negative Equity
The Communiqué (the “Amending Communiqué”) published in the Official Gazette on November 8, 2022, extended the deadline provided under Provisional Article 1 of the Communiqué on the Procedures and Principles Regarding Implementation of Article 376 of the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6101 (the “Implementation Communiqué”). The Implementation Communiqué was previously amended on December 26, 2020, and certain loss items were excluded from the calculation of capital loss or… »
New Provision Introduced to Decision on Drug Pricing
On 9 November 2022, the Presidential Decree numbered 6365 Amending the Decree on Pricing of Medicinal Products for Human Use (Turkish language) (Decision) was published in the Official Gazette numbered 32008. The following paragraph has been added under Article 2 of the Decision: "Discount practices that cause temporary price changes in the country/countries where the product is offered for sale, special practices related to product classification and taxation practices shall… »
Guidelines on Donation of Non-Approved Drugs
On 28 September 2022, the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (Agency) published guidelines (Turkish language) on donation from abroad of human medicinal products that are not approved in Turkey on its official website. The guidelines have been prepared to determine the procedures and principles regarding donation from foreign companies within the scope of the Regulation on Licensing of Human Medicinal Products. The most significant provisions of the guidelines are… »
Employment and Employee Benefits 2022 in Turkey
1. Do the main laws that regulate the employment relationship apply to: Foreign nationals working in your jurisdiction? Nationals of your jurisdiction working abroad? Laws Applicable to Foreign Nationals Under Article 27 of the Act on Private International and Procedural Law No. 5718, employment contracts with a foreign element are subject to the governing law chosen by the parties, without prejudice to the minimum protection that employees are… »
Guidelines on Use of Cookies in Turkey
The Guidelines on Use of Cookies (the “Guidelines”) was published by the Personal Data Protection Authority (the “Authority”) on June 20, 2022 which outlines good practice examples to guide data controllers. The Guidelines explain principles on use of cookies for data controllers to process data on legal grounds, use appropriate privacy notices and obtain explicit consent from data subject legally. Cookie Types Cookies are defined as low-sized, rich-format texts that allow… »
The Dangers of Basing Preliminary Injunctions on Determination of Evidence
Determination of evidence, which is one of the most important temporary legal protection measures regulated in our law, is an institution that ensures the protection of evidence that will assist the proving of the matter. Considering that the adversarial trial process is adopted in our civil procedure law, the significance of the right holder being able to have the evidence which will help them prove their rightness effectively determined, is clear. However, as will be… »
Turkish Court of Cassation’s Recent Decision on Search and Seizure Orders is Strengthens the IP Owners’ Position
In Turkey, following the criminal complaint route against counterfeits is very effective, yet several criminal courts are becoming rather hesitant to grant search & seizure warrants. The most problematic courthouse in this respect has been Istanbul Courthouse for quite some time and this courthouse is very important as its jurisdiction covers very significant locations for brand owners, such as Grand Bazaar, Taksim, Tahtakale etc.. The criminal courts of Istanbul… »
Amendment on the Decision on Pricing of Medicinal Products for Human Use
The Presidential Decree numbered 6365 Amending the Decision on Pricing of Medicinal Products For Human Use (“Decision”) was published in the Official Gazette numbered 32008 on 9 November 2022. The following paragraph has been added to Article 2 of the Decision: “Discount practices that cause temporary price changes in country/countries where the product is offered for sale, special practices related to product classification and taxation practices shall not be taken into… »
Misbehaviors of Employees, Which Do Not Reach The Level of Bullying Yet Disrupt the Workplace Peace, as Valid Grounds For Termination
According to article 25(2)(d) of the Turkish Labour Act,(1) an employee bullying their employer, one of their family members or another employee constitutes a just cause for termination. Several precedents of the Court of Cassation state that "bullying" refers to threats, insults or battery. That being the case, employers often wonder whether other acts of misbehaviour by employees, which do not technically qualify as bullying yet disrupt workplace peace, may constitute… »
A First for Turkey as Court Decides Preliminary Injunctions Can Apply to NFTs
Despite legal uncertainties, court decisions in various jurisdictions have grasped with the issues of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), digital tokens that cannot be exchanged or replaced and may represent a tangible object in the real world. For the first time, a court in Turkey rendered a preliminary injunction (PI) regarding NFTs on June 21, 2022. In the dispute filed before the Istanbul Third Civil Intellectual Property Court (court), heirs of Cem Karaca, who was an artist… »