Half of the requests from consumer arbitration commissions were concluded in favor of the citizens.

Although in 2022 a total of 635,363 applications were submitted to consumer arbitration committees, decisions were made regarding 601,961 of them. About 50 percent of the disputes were resolved in favor of the consumers.

The total monetary value of applications submitted to consumer arbitration committees in 2022 was approximately 1.5 billion lira.

62 PERCENT OF ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT REQUESTS

While it was possible to submit applications to consumer arbitration committees through e-government, consumers easily made their applications in an electronic environment through the Consumer Information System.

In this context, in 2022, 390,673 applications were submitted via e-Government. Approximately 62 percent of the requests made to consumer arbitration committees last year were requests made in an electronic environment through e-Government.

THE MOST COMPLAINTS ABOUT SHOES

In the distribution of requests based on products and services, it was observed that most of the complaints were made about shoes. Approximately 11.2 percent of the total requests (71,333 requests) were made in relation to footwear.

They were followed by Internet subscriptions (42,280) with 6.6 percent and mobile phone applications (35,306) with 5.5 percent.

Other complaints are credit card membership fee (33 thousand 326) with 5.2 percent, clothing (26 thousand 173) with 4.1 percent, furniture (20 thousand 407) with 3.2 percent and GSM subscription with 2.9 percent (18,636 ).

At the sector level, the largest number of requests was made for the retail trade sector (334 thousand 23), with 52.6 percent. It was followed by the subscription services sector with 14.7 percent (93,516) and the financial services sector with 12.2% (77,764 requests).

EXTENDED MONETARY LIMIT

On the other hand, with the modifications made to the Consumer Protection Law, the mandatory monetary limit for requests to be made before consumer arbitration committees as of October 1, 2022 was increased to 30,000 liras. to 66 thousand liras by increasing the revaluation rate, effective from January 1.

In this context, applications can be submitted to the consumer arbitration committees in consumer disputes with a value of less than 66 thousand lire by 2023. With this regulation, the scope of consumer protection has been expanded and it has been possible to resolve more disputes without going to court. (AA)