COVID-19 Briefing on Force Majeure in Commercial Contracts
A livecast on Force Majeure in Commercial Contracts during COVID-19, organized by International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), was held on Friday, 10 April 2020.
In this free Livecast that thousands of people attended from all over the world, Prof. Dr. H. Ercüment Erdem, Founder & Senior Partner of Erdem & Erdem and Chair of the ICC Commercial Law & Practice Commission; Abhinav Bhushan, Director, South Asia, ICC Arbitration and ADR; and Angelika Zoder, Expert in International Contract Law, ICC Austria, discussed common features of force majeure clauses, as well as ICC’s revised Force Majeure Clauses for 2020.
During the livecast, the speakers focused on how force majeure clauses can be interpreted and implemented to reflect the current environment and they discussed whether COVID 19 will trigger force majeure, or not. Moreover they explained contentious situations regarding force majeure clauses in contracts, and what parties can do if there is no force majeure clause.
You may see the video of the livecast please click here.
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'Economic Stability Shield' package aiming to take control of Covid-19 Epidemic’s impact on the Turkish economy is announced during the meeting held on 18th March 2020.
Through the Statement Regarding the General Assembly Meetings of Companies dated 20.03.2020 (“Statement”), the measures taken regarding the company meetings in order to prevent spread of the Coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak were declared via website of the Ministry of Trade of Republic of Turkey.
On March 25, 2020, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) published the new force majeure and hardship clauses (ICC Force Majeure and Hardship Clauses 2020).
Pursuant to letter dated 31 March 2020 sent by the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Trade (“Ministry”) to the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, numerous chambers of commerce throughout Turkey published an announcement regarding dividend distributions on their websites starting from 2 April 2020 (“Announcement”).
The Presidential Circular on the “Effect of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Public Procurement Contracts” dated 01.04.2020 and numbered 2020/5 (“Circular”) was published in the Official Gazette dated 02.04.2020 and numbered 31087.
Important amendments are made in the Law on Regulation of Retail Trade numbered 6585 (“Law No. 6585”) through the Law No. 7244 Amending the Certain Laws to Minimize the Economic and Social Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic (“Law”) which is published in the Official Gazette dated 17 April 2020 and numbered 31102. The principal issues regarding the amendments are summarized below.
The Communiqué (“Communiqué”) on Procedures and Principles of Implications of Provisional Article 13 of Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102 entered into force through publication in the Official Gazette dated 17.05.2020 and numbered 31130.
The Communiqué (II-23.2.b) (“Communiqué”) on the Amendment to the Communiqué on the Mergers and Spin-offs (II-23.2) entered into force through publication in the Official Gazette dated 30.05.2020 and numbered 31140.
In workplace rents, where the lessee is a person deemed as merchant under the Turkish Commercial Code or a private or public legal entity, pursuant to Provisional Article 2 of the Law No. 6217 on the Amendment of Certain Laws for the Acceleration of Judicial Services dated 31.03.2011 (“Law”), it was regulated that certain provisions of the Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098 (“TCO”) regarding lease agreements shall not apply for a period of 8 years starting from 01.07.2012, the date when the TCO came into force. With the expiry of the period specified under the article, such provisions will come into force as of 01.07.2020.
With the Presidential Decree dated 17.09.2020 and numbered 2948 (“Presidential Decree”) published in the Official Gazette dated 18.09.2020 and numbered 31248, it has been resolved to extend the period specified in the first paragraph of the Provisional Article 13 of the Turkish Commercial Code numbered 6102 (“TCC”) for three months.