Some articles of the “Price Label Regulation” (“Regulation”) published in the Official Gazette dated 28 June 2014 and numbered 29044 have been amended by the “Regulation Amending the Price Label Regulation” published in the Official Gazette dated 18 February 2022 and numbered 31754.The amendments entered into force on 1 March 2022 and are expected to take affect, especially the e-commerce and retail sales industries.

New Amendments:

The following paragraph has been amended to the first paragraph of Article 4, titled Definitions, of the Regulation:

“b) Ministry: The Ministry of Commerce,

c) Price tag: The label used by the seller to inform the consumers about the mandatory issues determined by the Regulation regarding the goods offered for retail sale,

g) Unit price of the good: The price of a good, including all taxes, expressed with the net amount of the unit of measurement suitable for the type of the good in terms of quantity, length, weight, area, or volume, according to the commercial practices and established sales methods and forms,

h) Sales price: The cash price including all taxes calculated on the net amount of a good sold or the cash price of the service provided including all taxes,

n) Net quantity: The quantity of the packaged goods excluding the packaging material and other materials packaged together with the goods,”

Thus, the unit price of the good and the scope of the selling price have been determined and it has been clearly stated that it should be calculated on the net quantity including taxes.

Another amendment is the addition of the phrase “…it must be written in Turkish” to the second paragraph of Article 5 of the Regulation, which regulates the obligation to have a label. Accordingly, it has become obligatory to write in Turkish the obligatory matters to be included in the labels and lists, namely the place of manufacture of the goods, their distinctive features, the sales price including all taxes, and the unit price.

By adding subparagraph (f) to the same article, if there is a deposit fee for the delivery and return of the packaging, apart from the sales price of the packaged goods, the quantity of the said deposit is counted among the mandatory elements in the labels and lists.

The phrase “…on its packaging or containers” has been added to the first paragraph of Article 7 of the Regulation, and it has been imposed that the mandatory labels to be placed on the goods offered for retail sale can be placed on the packaging or containers as well as the goods.

The most important amendment by the Ministry of Commerce is the amendment of the first paragraph of Article 11 on discounted sales of the Regulation. The previous version of this article is that only the “sales price before the discounted sales price” will be taken as a basis for determining the sales price before the discount of the goods or services offered for sale at a discount. The new version is as follows;

“The sale price of the good or service subject to discounted sale, the price before the discount, tariffs, and price lists are shown on the tags of the goods or services. In the determination of the sales price of the goods or services subject to discounted sale before the discount, the lowest price is applied within thirty days before the discount is applied. When calculating the discount amount or rate on the tags of perishable goods such as fruits and vegetables, the price before the discounted price is taken as a basis. The burden of proof regarding these matters lies with the seller or supplier.”

Thus, the sales price before the discount will be determined as the lowest price applied within thirty days before the discount is applied, not the sales price before the discount sales price. Pursuant to this amendment, it is aimed to prevent fake discounts and protect the consumer.

In addition, pursuant to Article 3 of the Regulation Amending the Regulation on Commercial Advertising and Unfair Commercial Practices published in the Official Gazette dated 1 February 2022 and numbered 31737, the third paragraph of Article 14 of the Regulation on Commercial Advertisement and Unfair Commercial Practices has been amended as follows:

“In the determination of the sales price of a good or service before the discount, the lowest price is applied within thirty days before the discount is applied. When calculating the amount or rate of the discount in advertisements for perishable goods such as fruit and vegetables, the price before the discounted price is taken as a basis. The burden of proof regarding these matters lies with the advertiser.”

Since the basis of the Commercial Advertisement and Unfair Commercial Practices Regulation is Articles 61, 62, 63, and 84 of the Law No. 6502 on the Protection of the Consumer, but the basis of the Regulation is Articles 54 and 84 of the Law No. 6502 on the Protection of the Consumer, question marks arose at the point of whether this amendment includes the price labels or not. In order to eliminate this problem in practice and to harmonize the legislation, the Regulation was amended in the same direction.

Problems in Practice:

With the latest amendments, it has become a matter of debate in practice which price should be taken as a basis for price determination before the discount, in conditional discounts and sellers selling the same goods on different online platforms.

Conditional discount means that a certain amount of discount is applied to certain products if a certain amount of shopping is done. It is argued that the discount amount to be applied here should be based on the lowest price of the product in the previous thirty days.

If the same product is sold at different prices on different online platforms, it is considered that the sellers should take the lowest price applied within thirty days before the discount, over the price they have determined for each platform. In other words, the lowest price of the same product on different platforms will not be the criteria for price determination before the discount.