Practice Area
Consumer Law
Defective goods and services, distance contracts and the right of withdrawal, consumer arbitration committees and consumer courts.
Consumer law governs relationships between natural or legal persons acting for non-commercial or non-professional purposes and the sellers and providers who supply goods or services. The main legislation in this area is the Consumer Protection Law No. 6502 and the regulations issued under it.
The scope of consumer law is much broader than often assumed: a defective phone, returning a product bought online, buying a home, subscription contracts, bank loans, package tours, education and healthcare services may all qualify as consumer transactions.
For consumers
- Exercising elective rights for defective goods and services (withdrawal from the contract, price reduction, free repair, replacement with a non-defective equivalent)
- The right of withdrawal and delivery problems in purchases made online or via other means of distance communication
- Disputes arising from sales of residential and holiday properties
- Disputes arising from subscription, instalment sale, financial service and loan contracts
- Applications to consumer arbitration committees, objections to their decisions and proceedings before consumer courts
- Mandatory mediation in consumer disputes
For sellers, providers and e-commerce businesses
- Preparing distance sales contracts, pre-contractual information forms and terms of use in line with legislation
- Establishing internal policies on warranty, returns and withdrawal
- Representation in consumer complaints, arbitration committee applications and lawsuits
- Compliance with legislation on commercial advertising and unfair commercial practices
Avenues of recourse
| Body | When? |
|---|---|
| Consumer arbitration committee | Application is mandatory for disputes below the monetary threshold set in the Law and updated annually by the revaluation rate (Law No. 6502, Art. 68). |
| Mediation | For disputes heard by consumer courts, applying to a mediator before filing suit is a precondition, subject to statutory exceptions (Art. 73/A). |
| Consumer court | Competent for disputes above the arbitration committee threshold and for objections to committee decisions; the case may also be filed at the consumer's place of residence (Art. 73). |
Mind the time limits
Liability for defective goods is, as a rule, subject to a two-year limitation period from delivery; for residential or holiday properties the period is five years. The withdrawal period for distance contracts is, as a rule, fourteen days. Early assessment of the dispute is important to avoid missing these deadlines.
The information on this page is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.