Judicial supervision of the general terms and conditions

The history of contracts, dating back as old as the history of humanity, had commenced with the simple contracts made between individuals; [and evolved] as the contracts became more complex with the complexified production chains following the I ndustrial Revolution. With the accelerating speed of the commercial life, major enterprises that are concerned solely with their production area showed endeavours to minimise the management risks by formulating the contracts in their own favour, using the know how they accumulated in years on their own production area. These enterprises that formulate the contract terms in their own favour have caused the consumers on the other side of the contract become weaker. In response to this situation which under mines the basic principles of the economy, practices towards protecting consumers have made an appearance in the legal world. As a reflection of this movement in our Country, general provisions on general terms and conditions have been regulated between A rticles 20 25 of the Turkish Code of Obligations numbered 6098. Together with these general provisions, additional provisions on general terms and conditions are codified in certain other laws. In Article 5 of the Consumer Law numbered 6502, the provisio ns on general terms and conditions are codified under the name "Unlawful Conditions". In light of the general and specific provisions on general terms and conditions in Turkish Law, the [scope of the] judicial supervision of the general terms and conditi ons is studied hereunder as the subject of this thesis.