Tüketici Hakem Heyeti Uygulamasında Taraflar Açısından Karşılaşılan Sorunların İncelenmesi

Abstract

Consumers that encountered problems vis-a-vis producers after the industrial revolution took action to protect their rights at the beginning of 20th century. The movement of consumers which started with the attempts of individuals in the United States of America has become a global concept throughout the whole world. Ultimately, the idea of the legal protection of consumers was adopted and the law no.4077 on the protection of the consumer was introduced in Turkey. In the aforementioned law, the arbitration committee for consumer problems was created as a solution for the consumers who encounter problems with the service or production they have bought. According to the latest figures, 561.576 consumers applied to the committee in a year. The figures indicate that consumers consider the arbitration committee as a solution to their problems. Therefore, it is of great importance that the committee should work in an efficient and operative way. The purpose of this study is to identify the problems that occurred between consumers and committee members during the application of the committee. Within this framework, the research was conducted on 116 employees and 190 consumers in the Consumer Arbitration Committee in Istanbul. In the research, the data obtained from the employees of the Consumer Arbitration Committee are given in the form of frequency tables without comparing with any variable. Data were evaluated using quantitative analysis method. The line percentages of each question have been analyzed and interpreted within themselves. The data obtained regarding the knowledge levels and opinions of consumers were evaluated in terms of the education level of consumers. In the analysis of the difference between two categorical variables, “Chi-Square Analysis” method was applied by using SPSS 23.0 package program. In the study; in terms of Consumer Arbitration Committee employees, it is determined that consumer legislation, attitudes of consumers regarding complaint applications, number of rapporteurs, rapporteur’s appointment, legal knowledge and training, legal information of members of Consumer Arbitration Committee and their process of participation in decisions and physical possibilities of Consumer Arbitration Committee; in terms of consumers, it is determined that there is a problem with the consumer knowledge level regarding consumer legislation and consumer arbitration, relations with the consumer arbitration committee and decision-making time of consumer arbitration committees in the application of Consumer Arbitration Committee; suggestions were made regarding the problematic situations.