STRICT LIABILITY OF SENDER ACCORDING TO ARTICLE 864 OF TURKISH COMMERCIAL CODE

Abstract

The provisions of Turkish Commercial Code regarding transportation law are embodied under a separate chapter. Some provisions of this chapter, titled astransportation issues are settled for the first time. One of these new provisions is article 864 regulating the strict liability of the sender in special cases. According to this article the sender may be held liable, even if he is not at fault, for damage and outlays caused by certain reasons such as insufficient packaging or labeling, incorrect or incomplete statements made in the way bill, failure to disclose the dangerous nature of the goods or incompleteness of some documents. However, the lawmaker has foreseen a limitation for the compensation, which the sender has to pay in this context. Furthermore, the joint responsibility of the carrier shouldconsidered while determining the amount of compensation. The mentioned provision defines the consumer and includes also an exception for the case that, the sendera consumer. This provision regulating the strict liability of the sender may leadvarious problems in practice. Especially, it will be significantly difficult for the carrier to prove the existence of reasons for strict liability and that these reasons caused the damage. At this point the certain case study gains more importance for the courts. be is to