Product liability claims can be brought upon three causes in Turkey:
- Under tort law and contract law provisions of Turkish Code of Obligations, No: 6098 (“TCO”),
- Consumer Protection Law No 6502 (“Consumer Protection Law” or “CPL”), which is an adapted version of EU’s Acquis Communautaire.
- Technical Regulations and Product Safety Law No.: 7223 (“Product Safety Law”), which again is a replica of the EU acquis.
In light of above, Turkish product liability is based on three systems, namely contractual, tortious and strict product liability; each system is implied by courts upon evaluation of the claimant’s claims.
Contractual liability is based due to contractual relationship between two or more parties, i.e. between the manufacturer and the customer who suffered a damage. The liability requires a breach of contract terms, i.e. non-compliance of the product to the contract terms or objective technical regulations. In any case, contractual liability is fault based.
Product liability claims may be based on tort law, especially if there is no contractual relationship between the manufacturer and the claimant. This generally applies if a product causes damage to a property, or to persons in death or injury. In this event, the claimant may directly target the manufacturer (or the importer) to compensate the damages suffered due to the faulty product, together or even without addressing the seller of the product that has likely caused the damage. The burden of proof is on the claimant and the liability is fault based.
A claimant may also address Product Safety Law. In this case, the claimant has to prove the existence of production (or design) defect in the product that caused the damages. The manufacturer (or the importer) would then be held liable to compensate all damages due to product defect.
Liability exclusion or indemnification provided before a damage occurs is prohibited.
Specific regulations as to food, pharmaceuticals and automotive may bring forward strict liability conditions.
In the recent years, the case law has extended the scope of the product liability in favour of consumers / customers. The Court of Appeal in various cases has ruled out the lapse of time in case of hidden defects, automatically extending the lapse of time period to 10 (ten) years commencing with the delivery of the product. Also, the court flipped the burden of proof to the manufacturer in case the claimant proves the damage is due to the defected product, thus the manufacturer should prove that it did not act with negligence.