Privilege in dividend in joint stock companies

Article 331 of the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102 states that joint stock companies can be established for any economic purpose and subject, provided that they are not contrary to legal regulations. As it can be understood from the regulation in the law, the ultimate purpose of joint stock companies is to earn profits. Therefore, it would be appropriate to say that the most important financial right of the shareholders is the "dividend right". According to the generally accepted rule, although the shareholders will benefit from the profits of the joint stock company at the rate of their shareholdings, through the provision of privileges to the dividends with the article 478 of the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102, some shareholders may be granted a superior right, in other words, privilege in benefiting from the dividend. On the other hand, since the subject of privilege in dividends is unfortunately very limited in the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102, there are different opinions on many points in the doctrine regarding the application of this subject, and therefore, in this study, the subject has been tried to be clarified with the decisions of the Supreme Court and the views in the doctrine.