WHAT IS THE MONETARY LIMIT REGARDING THE SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURE APPLIED IN COMMERCIAL CASES? 12 November 2020

Article 4 of the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102 regulating the simplified procedure has been amended with the Law No. 7251, which entered into force after being published in the Official Gazette dated 28.07.2020 and numbered 31199.

The simplified procedure is a trial procedure which is faster and simpler according to the ordinary trial procedure. The parties do not submit their second petitions in the simple trial procedure. The response period is also 2 weeks as in the ordinary trial procedure, however, in cases where the preparation of the reply petition is very difficult or impossible, this period may be extended by the Court for once only for a maximum of 2 weeks, upon the request of the defendant.

In the simplified procedure, along with their petitions of claim and defense, the parties are obliged to declare all their evidences clearly and indicating which evidence is for which matter of fact, along with their petitions and add the evidence they have to their petitions and include information that enables the documents and files which will be brought from other places to be found.  The prohibition on the extension and change of claims in the simplified procedure starts after the filing the lawsuit and the prohibition of extension or change of defense begins with submission of the reply petition to the court.

In the simplified trial procedure the court makes a summary judgment without a hearing if it is possible. If it is not possible to make a summary judgment according to topic and concrete case, a hearing day is given. As the preliminary examination and investigation hearing can be made together, it is aimed to conclude the case with a maximum of 3 hearings in total. The period between these hearings cannot be more than 1 month.

In addition to the simplification of the trial phase, the principle of simplicity has not been abandoned when it comes to the judgment phase in the simplified procedure. After the completion of the investigation, the court receives the final statements of the parties and notifies the conclusion of the trial and the decision. At this stage, the parties are not given any time to make a statement on the merits. As a rule, while the decision is made, its justification is explained together with the provision. However, in cases of necessity, the judge can make the decision just by writing the summary of the judgment in the report by recording the reason for this situation. In this case, the justification must be written and communicated within one month at the latest.

The issue of applying the simplified procedure in which of the commercial disputes arising from the commercial enterprises of both parties is regulated by Article 4 of the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102.

Before the Law No. 7251 entered into force, Article 4 of the Turkish Commercial Code regarding the simplified jurisdiction procedure to be applied in commercial disputes has been regulated as;

“Regardless of whether the parties are merchants or not, civil lawsuits and non-contentious jurisdiction arising from matters related to the commercial operation of both parties;

1. In this law,
2. In Articles 962 to 969 of the Turkish Civil Code regarding those dealing with loan on pawn,
3. In articles 202 and 203 of the Turkish Code of Obligations dated 11/1/2011 and numbered 6098 on the acquisition of assets or business and the merger and change of shape of businesses, Article 444 and 447 regarding to prohibition of competition, Article 487 to 501 regarding to publishing agreement, Article 515 and 519 regulating credit letter and loan order, Articles 532 to 545 regulating the commission contract, Articles 547 to 554, prescribed for commercial agents and other merchant assistants, Articles 555 to 560 on remittance, Articles 561 to 580 regulating custody agreements,
4. In the legislation on intellectual property law,
5. Special provisions regarding stock exchanges, exhibitions, fairs and markets, warehouses and other places specific to commerce,
6. Regulations regarding banks, other credit institutions, financial institutions and lending transactions,

civil lawsuits and non-contentious judicial affairs arising out of the foregoing matters are deemed to be commercial lawsuits and non-contentious judicial proceedings of a commercial nature. However, the lawsuits arising from the rights of money order, transfer and intellectual and artistic works that do not concern any commercial enterprise are excluded from this.

Evidence in commercial cases and their presentation are subject to the provisions of the Civil Procedure Law No. 6100 dated 12/1/2011; Simple trial procedure is applied in commercial cases whose amount or value does not exceed one hundred thousand Turkish Lira.”
 

By Article 58 of the Law No. 7251, which entered into force on 22.07.2020, the monetary limit of "one hundred thousand Turkish liras" in the second paragraph has been changed to "five hundred thousand Turkish liras”.

As it is seen, the legislator has increased the monetary limit of the cases subject to the simplified procedure from one hundred thousand Turkish liras to five hundred thousand Turkish liras, while keeping the nature of these cases same.

Thus, from the date of 22.07.2020, which Law No. 7251 entered into force, the simplified procedure will be applied to the civil cases and non-contentious judicial affairs up to five hundred thousand Turkish liras which the Turkish Commercial Code states are subject to a simplified procedure. It can be said that the legislator aims to facilitate access to legal remedies by speeding up and simplifying legal proceedings in our law with this amendment.