Within the scope of compliance with the amendments made in the Law No. 585 on the Regulation of Retail Trade, the “Regulation Amending the Regulation on the Principles and Rules to be Applied in Retail Trade” (Regulation) was published in the Official Gazette dated 14 December 2023 and numbered 32399 to enter into force on 01/01/2024. With this regulation, regulations were made regarding the commercial relations between producers, suppliers and retail businesses.
With the regulation, activities that significantly disrupt the commercial activity of the other party in commercial relations between manufacturers, suppliers and retail businesses, reduce the ability to make reasonable decisions or cause the other party to be a party to a commercial relationship that it would not normally be a party to, are defined as “unfair commercial practice” and prohibited.
Moreover, with the regulations stipulated by the regulation, payment periods were shortened in the supply of agricultural and food products between producers, suppliers and retail businesses. With this scope, the payment period was determined as 45 days regardless of the scale of the parties in the supply of agricultural and food products that can deteriorate within 30 days from the date of production. In the supply of products, in cases where “the creditor is small, the debtor is medium or large scale” or “the creditor is medium, the debtor is large scale”; In case the scale of the creditor is smaller than the debtor, this period was determined as 30 days in order to protect the small-scale enterprise.
In addition, with the regulation, in the supply of agricultural and food products that do not deteriorate within 30 days from the date of production, the payment period was determined as 60 days in cases where “the creditor is small, the debtor is medium or large scale” or “the creditor is medium and the debtor is large scale”.
In accordance with the Regulation, in order to facilitate the access of citizens requiring medical nutrition treatment to gluten-free, lactose-free and similar products, the Ministry of Commerce was authorised to impose a food product sales obligation for diseases requiring medical nutrition treatment to be applied to the sale of fast-moving consumer goods and to chain stores with more than 200 branches and branches with a sales area of more than 250 square metres.
