Law No. 7531 on the Amendment of Certain Laws, referred to as the 9th Judicial Package was published in the Official Gazette dated 14 November 2024 and numbered 32722!

Recent development

Law No. 7531 on “The Amendment of Certain Laws” (“Law No. 7531”), referred to as the 9th Judicial Package was published in the Official Gazette dated 14 November 2024 and numbered 32722. The Turkish version of the Law No. 7531 is available here.

The Law No. 7531 introduced certain substantial amendments to various laws. All of the following amendments entered into force on 14 November 2024.

Amendments to the Law on Enforcement and Bankruptcy

Amendments have been made to certain articles of the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law No. 2004 (“EBL”).

• The amendment made to the sixth paragraph of Article 111/b of the EBL titled “Sale by auction in electronic environments”, provides that if a new bid is submitted within the last ten minutes of the auction period, the auction will be extended by three minutes. In case a new bid is submitted within the extension period, the auction period will be extended by three minutes from the submission of each new bid. If no new bid is placed within the last extension period, the goods will be awarded to the highest bidder. The total duration of the extension periods will not exceed one hour.

The amendment will also apply to auctions that were announced before the effective date of the amendment and whose auction period has not expired.

• The amendment to the third paragraph of Additional Article 1 of the EBL, clarified which date will serve as the basis for determining the monetary thresholds for appeal applications before the Regional Court of Appeal and/or the Court of Cassation for the decisions given after lifting or reversal decisions.

Pursuant to the amendment, the increase in the monetary threshold for appeal applications before the Regional Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation due to revaluation shall not apply to decisions re-issued following the lifting or reversal decisions of the Regional Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation. Instead, the monetary threshold valid on the date of the original decision shall be used as the basis. This amendment shall apply to decisions re-issued upon the lifting or reversal decisions of the Regional Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation as of the date this article comes into force.

Amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure

The amendment to third paragraph of Additional Article 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure No. 6100 (“CCP”), clarified which date will be used as the basis for determining the monetary threshold for applications to the Regional Court of Appeal and/or the Court of Cassation for the decisions given after lifting or reversal decisions.

Pursuant to the amendment, the increase in the monetary threshold for applications to the Regional Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation due to revaluation shall not apply to decisions re-issued following the lifting or reversal decisions of the Regional Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation. Instead, the monetary threshold valid on the date of the original decision shall be used as the basis. This amendment shall apply to decisions re-issued upon the lifting or reversal decisions of the Regional Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation as of the date this article comes into force.

Amendments to the Law on the Establishment, Duties and Powers of the Courts of First Instance and Regional Courts of Appeal

Pursuant to Article 35/A titled “Examination of the separation of civil chambers’ scope of duties” added to Law No. 5235 on the Establishment, Duties and Powers of the Courts of First Instance and Regional Courts of Appeal (“Law No. 5235”), time limitations have been imposed on the decisions of civil chambers regarding their duties related to the separation of scope of work.

According to the amendment, if the relevant civil chamber assigned to review an appeal does not deem itself competent in terms of scope of work following a preliminary examination to be conducted within one month, it shall send the file to the relevant civil chamber it considers competent, along with a justification. After the one-month period expires or after a hearing date has been set, a referral decision cannot be issued. If the civil chamber that receives the file upon the referral decision concludes that it is not competent as a result of the preliminary examination to be carried out within two weeks, it will decide on requests for temporary legal protection measures, if any  and send the file to the board of the civil chamber presidents. After the two-week period expires, a referral decision cannot be made. The board’s decision on the scope of work at the end of the preliminary examination is final.

Amendments to the Law on Mediation in Civil Disputes

Law No. 6325 on Mediation in Civil Disputes (“Mediation Law”) has been amended. Accordingly:

• Pursuant to Article 17/B titled “Mediation in disputes regarding the transfer of immovable property or the establishment of a limited right in rem on immovable property”, added to the Mediation Law, one of the parties to the mediation protocol may request registration from the land registry directorate after an enforceability annotation has been issued. The land registry office will fulfill the registration request without issuing an official deed after conducting the necessary examination and evaluation regarding the immovable property under the applicable legislation.

The regulation clarifies that a registration request in the title deed can be made based on the mediation agreement document, that has an annotation of enforceability.

• Pursuant to paragraph 11 of Article 18/A of the Mediation Law titled “Mediation as a condition for litigation”, in the event that the mediation is terminated due to the failure of one of the parties to attend the first meeting without a valid excuse, the party who did not attend the meeting will be held liable for half of the legal expenses that the other party is obliged to pay, even if (the absentee) party is partially or fully justified in the case. In addition, half of the attorney fee determined in accordance with the Attorney Minimum Fee Tariff shall be awarded in favor of this party. Thus, the former provision stating that the party that did not attend the mediation meeting would be held liable for all judgement expenses and would not be entitled to any attorney fee has been amended.

Conclusion

Law No. 7531 introduced important amendments to many laws, clarified controversial issues in various laws, and introduced new regulations.