4.4.1    Introduction

4.4.2    Discussion

4.4.3    Conclusions

25 persons representing ministries, industry, and consumer associations attended workshop IV. The workshop started with a brief introduction by the moderator, followed by two discussion sessions in three groups.

4.4.1    Introduction

Consumer protection as well as the active engagement of consumers’ organisation in a modern society is of paramount importance for its function. As shown in the figures above, consumers form the third corner of the triangle that consists of legislation, producers, and consumers, which create a frustrated consumers’ situation with their work in disharmony, whereas the situation is much improved when they work together.

In Turkey, consumer associations have existed since 1990, when TükoDer was founded; but it was not until 1995 that the legal basis for consumer associations was approved by Parliament. The “Law on the Consumer Protection” No. 4077 of 1995 was amended by Law 4822 of 2003; the latter law entered into force on 14 June 2003 and has since been detailed in 16 implementing regulations. Today, Turkey has adopted a regulation in compliance with relevant directives, and which is fully harmonizes with the legislation of the EU.

The Directorate General for Consumers’ protection and Competition in the Ministry for Industry and Trade has set up a legal system for the protection of the consumer. It involves a complaints procedure, which is connected to market surveillance and a system of arbitration courts where conflicts related to the consumer can be tried legally.

The status for the implementation of relevant new approach directives, notified bodies and Market surveillance at the time of the workshop was the following:

As is seen, all relevant directives have entered into force, and the two involved ministries, Ministry for Industry and Trade as well as Ministry of health have both started market surveillance activities. But no Turkish notified bodies have been fully approved and are operating.

The Ministry for Industry and Trade have disclosed the following results of their market surveillance activities in 2005 in terms of number of products inspected in some product groups and the percentage of product that are non-compliant with the directive. As it appears the state of compliance varies significantly from product group to product group, leaving the consumers’ protection difficult to assess.

The consumer organisations are gathered under the umbrella of TÜDEF, Tüketici Dernekleri Federasyonu, Consumer Rights Federation of Turkey, which is a new organisation established on 25 September 2003. It is a federation of five major consumer protection and rights organisations:

TükoDer, Tüketiciyi Koruma Dernegi (started in 1990, 26 000 members)

THD, Tüketici Haklari Dernegi

Tükder (1992)

Estükder, Eskisehir Tüketiciler Dernegi

ADANA, Tüketici Dernegi

4.4.2    Discussion

The discussion was concentrated around the following issues:

THE SITUATION OF CONSUMERS

Laws are OK, but implementation is the problem

The situation is complex and should be simplified

The Arbitration courts are not well known

Poor statistical knowledge on complaints and market surveillance

Has improved through laws and support from MEDA project

The security provided by insurance should improve

COMPLAINTS FROM CONSUMERS

There are lots of complaints to Tükoder; but people refrain from complaining to official or public bodies.

Statistics on complaints should be available from ministries.

Complaint mechanisms must be functional.

Consumers should understand the system.

The Turkish system is not an easy system. It is quite complicated with EU directives, transition rules etc.

We should simplify the system. A short term, EU funded project to speed up the system would be beneficial.

CONSUMER AWARENESS

It is very successful to raise the awareness, and better awareness is required.

The consumers need training as a high priority issue.

COOPERATION BETWEEN PLAYERS

Better cooperation between ministries, Industry, and the Consumer Associations is needed.

MARKET SURVEILLANCE

Inspectors are not at the required level.

Consumers should be involved in market surveillance.

CONCRETE PROPOSALS

1. A certain share should be deduced form the price of a product to establish a fund for consumer associations.
2. Testing at accredited laboratories should be financed through taxes.
3. The coexistence between MIT (the consumer ministry) and TÜDEF (the consumer associations) and producers should improve.
4. Consumers should be more educated and proactive.
5. Participation in European organisations should be funded.

4.4.3    Conclusions

Consumer affairs in Turkey are in a relatively early state compared with the situation in Europe. Exchange of experiences with European national organisations as well as participation in European events would be very helpful.