Introduction

The Regulation on the Amendment of the Regulation on Price Label ("Label Regulation") which has been drafted in order to amend the Regulation on Price Label was published on the Official Gazette on September 18, 2018 to be entered into force 15 (fifteen) days after its publication.

The Scope of the Amendment

The amendments made under the Label Regulation are as follows:

  • Following elements have been added to the content of Article 5(2) of the related regulation which regulates the mandatory content of the labels.
  • "Tariffs and price lists" have been added to the content of Article 9 which regulates that the numbers and letters included on the labels, tariffs and price lists shall be readable, proper, complete, true, in adequate size; not cause any confusion with other numbers, words and marks; not contain any misleading information and the labels, tariffs and price lists shall be presented/located in a way that could be seen, read by the consumer; and the relationship between the goods and labels shall be presented clearly.

Relationship Between Label Regulation and Regulation on the Amendment of the Regulation on Commercial Advertisement and Unfair Commercial Practice and

On the other hand, another crucial amendment has been made on the Regulation on the Amendment of the Regulation on Commercial Advertisement and Unfair Commercial Practice ("Add Regulation"). This amendment has been drafted in order to amend the Regulation on Commercial Advertisement and Unfair Commercial Practice and was published on the Official Gazette on August 31, 2018 to be entered into force on August 31, 2018. The amendment made under the Add Regulation is as follows:

  • Followings have been added to the content the Section A of Annex of the related regulation which lists the misleading commercial practices.
  • Raising the price of the goods and service without any valid reason, by acting as such prices are affected due to the price change factor such as input cost and exchange rate raise, even though there is no such effect.

Conclusion

Since the Label Amendment aims to ensure that the change in the price of the product or service can be easily understood by the consumer and the Ministry, actions breaching Add Amendment can be easily determined. From now on it has become difficult for the goods and service providers to deceive consumers and raise price of the goods and services when there is no valid reason, due to the changes come along with the Label Amendment. Therefore, we may say that the Label Amendment was an efficient regulation to determine the violation of the Add Regulation, because now it can be seen that if the price of a good or a service raise was made as if they are affected by the input cost and exchange rate raise, although they are not affected by such changes.

As is seen, the aim of the abovementioned amendments is to control the price changes to be made due to the exchange rates. With the amendments, it is planned that (i) the presentation of the production place is provided, (ii) the informing of the consumers of the raise in detail is made, and (iii) therefore the price raise to be made, without being affecting due to the exchange rate raise are prevented to the greatest extent.

In this respect, the following operations must be followed due to the abovementioned amendments:

  • The prices may not be raised by alleging the effect of the exchange rate raise, in case there is no such effect,
  • The price raise applied, and the application/effective date must be presented clearly,
  • The figures, logos and marks must be used in order to present the production place of the goods.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.