According to the Provisional Article 1, that is added to the Turkish Code of Obligations with the 4th article of the "Law on Amendments to the Lawyers' Code and the Turkish Code of Obligations" numbered 7409, which was published in the Official Gazette on 11.06.2022 and is valid as of that day residential rent agreements regarding the rental fee to be applied in the renewed rental periods between the date of entry into force of this article and 01.07.2023 (including these dates) are valid, provided that they do not exceed twenty-five percent of the rental fee of the previous rental year. In other words, contracts containing more than a twenty-five percent increase in housing rent compared to the previous year were deemed invalid in terms of the excess amount. 

With its announcement dated 10.01.2024, the Competition Authority imposed an administrative fine of TL 4,796,152.96  per day (on the basis of its gross revenues in 2022) on META Economic Unity commencing from 12.12.2023 until the Final Compliance Remedy is submitted to the Competition Authority. 

Dispute resolution clauses in contracts include arbitration agreements stating that the parties will attempt to resolve their disputes through mutual negotiation before going to arbitration proceedings, and if the dispute cannot be resolved in this way, arbitration proceedings will be resorted to.

On November 21, 2023, corporate/M&A and private equity experts from Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkiye, and Ukraine sat down for a virtual round table moderated by CEE Legal Matters Managing Editor Radu Cotarcea to discuss the key developments in the field over the past decade.

KP Law Managing Partner Onur Kucuk talks about the evolution of the sector and their role as legal advisors in Turkiye over the last 10 years.

Inflation rates, while high across Europe, have been particularly making headlines in Turkiye. Yalcin Babalioglu Kemahli in cooperation with CMS Managing Partner Done Yalcin, Ergun Law Firm Partner Lara Sezerler, Celepci Law in cooperation with Schoenherr Office Managing Partner Levent Celepci, KP Law Managing Partner Onur Kucuk, and Guleryuz & Partners Partner Zahide Altunbas Sancak discuss the current outlook.

In Turkish law, for a representative to be able to enter into a binding arbitration agreement on behalf of a principal, they must be specifically authorized by the principal (Turkish Code of Obligations Article 504/3 and Turkish Civil Procedure Law Article 74). An arbitration agreement made by a specially authorized representative can only become binding with the approval of the principal. For example, the commencement of arbitration proceedings by the principal personally may indicate the granting of this approval.

Cashless and contactless interactions have dramatically increased over the last few years, driven by several factors, such as the increasing adoption of smartphones, the growth of e-commerce, and the need for contactless payments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital transactions have become commonplace and straightforward daily for many users in every field. Most consumers switch from traditional payments with plastic cards to online payments via smartphone apps.

For almost every industry, sustainability involves adopting environmentally and socially responsible practices throughout a company's operations, from sourcing and production to sales and customer engagement. This includes reducing carbon emissions, promoting fair labor practices, supporting the product lifecycle, leveraging blockchain and digital systems, ensuring supply chain transparency, and maintaining ethical governance standards. Therefore, environmental sustainability policies need to be integrated into internal company rules, and, in particular, stakeholders in every sector need to take more responsibility for ESG practices.

One of the important advantages of arbitration proceedings is that the parties can appoint co-arbitrators. Thus, the parties can ensure that those whose impartiality, knowledge and fairness they trust will decide on their dispute. This opportunity raises the question of who the party-appointed arbitrators should be and the criteria by which the parties should appoint the party-appointed arbitrators. 

Former Senior Associate Cigdem Soysal has been promoted to an Associate Partner at KP Law.

Start-up, which was first introduced in Silicon Valley in the US, has started to be more and more involved in our lives with the globalizing world. The main purpose of start-up companies, which are rapidly increasing in number today, is to produce solutions to a specific situation or problem and provide their solutions to people in a short time. They aim to develop rapidly and become one of the most popular companies with these solutions that appeal to a wide audience. While they are mostly focused on software and technology, there are also start-up companies operating in different fields such as banking and finance.

After the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey announced that it will complete the first CBDC tests at the end of 2022, it was announced that the blockchain-based digital identity application would be implemented in the “Digital Turkey 2023 First Meeting” held under the chairmanship of Vice President Fuat Oktay at the Presidential Complex in the first days of 2023. With the login system that will work within the scope of the e-wallet application, it will be possible to log in to the e-Government with digital identities created in the blockchain network.

Following the 7.8. and 7.5. magnitude earthquakes occurred in Kahramanmaraş on 06.02.2023, the Presidential Decree on the declaration of the State of Emergency for 3 months in the cities affected by the earthquakes was adopted by the Turkish Grand National Assembly on 09.02.2023 and was published in the Official Gazette No. 32100 dated 10.02.2023. A number of measures concerning work and social security field were also envisaged in the scope of the State of Emergency.

In these days when 1.4 million workers in active working life in Turkey are expected to retire immediately by benefiting from the legal regulation regarding retirement age victims (“EYT”), it is important to evaluate the effects of this situation on employers, to determine in advance how employers will manage this process and, if necessary, to publish workplace regulations on this issue for the following reasons:

Since the parties cannot resort to state courts as long as there is an arbitration agreement (Article 5 of the ICC and Article 413 of the CCP), the parties may be deprived of the right to resort to state courts if the arbitration proceedings take longer than necessary. On the other hand, one of the most important advantages of arbitration is that arbitral proceedings can be completed in a shorter period of time than state courts. Taking these principles into consideration, the legislator has limited the arbitration proceedings to a time limit in the International Arbitration Law and the Code of Civil Procedure.

Paksoy has advised Dogan Sirketler Grubu Holding and members of the Aytemiz family on the sale of Aytemiz Akaryakit Dagitim to Tatneft.

In judicial proceedings, parties prefer arbitration because it is often faster than state courts. However, arbitration proceedings also require a certain period of time to reach a final arbitral decision. During this period, interim protection measures are needed to ensure that the proceedings achieve the desired goal and to guarantee the rights to be obtained as a result of the proceedings. In case of the protection of monetary receivables, a precautionary attachment is decided, and in case of the protection of rights other than money, a precautionary injunction is decided.