Dealing With Online Shopping: E-Commerce And New Consumer Legislation

Upon significant improvements in technology and the internet over the last decade, new marketing and sale-purchase techniques, as well as consumer habits with the exclusive use of one or more means of distance communication such as internet, phone, mail order and fax, etc., have become familiar and are frequently used as shopping methods for all. In this context, although consumers deal with and/or invariably concede to be involved in distance and off-premise transactions, the level and strategy of consumer protection has always been in question.

The escalating e-commerce transactions sparked the need for legislation - in this specific field which was first seen on 2003 by the passage of the Law No. 4822 which amended the "Law on the Protection of the Consumer" No. 4077 (the "Law No. 4077"). The Law No. 4077 had introduced the concept of "Distance Contracts" to Turkish law and had almost left the practice and detailed provisions to the Regulation dated 13 June 2003