Commercial Law

General Concepts of Commercial Law:

Merchant: A person who operates a business, even partially, on his own behalf.

Commercial Business: Commercial business is an enterprise in which activities are carried out continuously and independently, aiming to generate income exceeding the limit set for artisan business. The border between the commercial enterprise and the artisan enterprise is determined by the decision of the President.

Trade Title: Each trader has to carry out transactions related to his commercial enterprise with his trade name and sign the promissory notes and other documents related to his business under this title.

Unfair Competition: Deceptive or otherwise contrary to the rules of good faith and commercial practices that affect the relations between competitors or between suppliers and customers are handled within the scope of unfair competition provisions.

Commercial Books: Every trader is required to keep commercial books and record his commercial transactions, economic and financial status of his commercial enterprise, debt and credit relations and in each accounting period. According to the TCC, the results must be clearly visible.

Current Account Agreement: Two persons mutually refuse to claim their receivables one by one and separately, arising from any legal reason or relationship, and take them pen-by-item and form a debt. The contract that they can ask for the increased amount to be issued after the account is deducted by converting them is the current account contract.

Agency: A specific location or location based on a contract, without having a legal position attached to the business, such as a commercial agent, commercial agent, sales officer, or employee of the business. It is a person who makes it his profession to act as an intermediary in contracts that involve a commercial enterprise in the region or to make them on behalf of that trader.

Companies Covered by Commercial Law:

  Sole Proprietorships: Companies with legal personality and unlimited liability of their partners.

•       Collective Company: A commercial enterprise, a trade name It is a company established between real persons for the purpose of operating under the company, and the responsibility of any of the partners is not limited to company receivables.
•     Commandite Company: at least one unlimited against creditors, It is a commercial partnership with legal personality and must have two partners, one with limited liability.

Capital Companies: Companies that derive their strength and value from their capital and management style.

•     Joint Stock Company: One or more natural or legal entities It is a company, by the person, whose capital is determined and divided into shares, for which the partners are responsible only for the amount they have committed to the company.
•       Limited Company: One ​​or more real or companies established by a legal person under the name of a trade name. The basic capital of this type of companies is certain and this capital consists of the sum of the basic capital shares. Limited companies, which can be established for any economic purpose and subject that are not prohibited by law, cannot operate only in the fields of insurance and banking
•     Cooperative Company: To ensure that human needs are met through mutual assistance and economic institutions created to protect the interests of the partners.

The Cases Before the Commercial Court of First Instance:

Commercial courts of first instance hear cases that are considered to be commercial cases in the TCC and related laws.

Some of the cases falling under the jurisdiction of the court are listed as follows;

• No competition lawsuit
• Cases related to cheques, promissory notes and bills
• Bankruptcy lawsuit
• Litigation regarding the acquisition, merger and conversion of business or assets
• Litigation regarding commission contract
• Litigation involving commercial agents and commercial proxies
• Fuse related cases
• Cases related to letter of credit and order of credit
• Litigation related to lending money to banks and other financial institutions
• Cases with a case value of 300.000 TL in cases whose subject can be measured in money
• The cases that the judge is expected to decide definitively in the Turkish Commercial Code
• Litigation in arbitration proceedings
• Litigation arising from bankruptcy and concordat
• Litigation regarding the bodies, liquidation and dissolution of companies

In cases handled by commercial courts of first instance, the party must be the merchant. In addition, the case concerns the commercial enterprises of both parties.

   The way of appeal is also open for the decisions given by the commercial courts of first instance. Decisions that can be appealed are limited to final decisions, precautionary attachments and injunctions. For this reason, there is no way of appeal for the interim decisions given during the trial period. In addition, in order to appeal, the case must be more than a certain value, this value is determined and published by the Ministry of Justice every year.