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Under Turkish law, vehicles can be confiscated if they are used
during the commission of crimes stated under Anti-Smuggling Law
Number 5607 ("Anti-Smuggling Law"). The
Ministry of Commerce has announced the procedures for seizure,
detention, and liquidation of such vehicles. It has also announced
rules for storing goods which violate intellectual and industrial
property rights.
General Communiqué No. 1 - Communiqué on
Transactions for Smuggled Goods and the Vehicles Used in the
Transportation of Smuggled Goods
("Communiqué") was published in
Official Gazette Number 30578 on 28 November 2018.
Vehicles used for transporting goods which constitutes a crime
under the Anti-Smuggling Law can be confiscated by a judicial
decision, if they are not delivered with consent. Confiscation
decisions will be executed by adding annotations to the registry
where the vehicle is registered.
The Anti-Smuggling Law allows vehicles to be detained by
judicial decision and physically delivered to the Liquidation
Office if they:
Have secret parts to facilitate
committing or hiding a crime.
Are not registered with the related
Turkish registry.
Are re-used for smuggling during the
investigation or the prosecution process.
The Communiqué states that a vehicle must be returned to
its owner if the owner deposits a security which amounts to the
price of the detained vehicle. Otherwise, the vehicle will be
liquidated via seizure then sale.
The Anti-Smuggling Law states that the smuggled goods can be
liquidated within six months by a court or judge decision. For
goods which will cause damages if a delay occurs, the statutory
period was set at one month. If a liquidation decision is not
rendered, the authority would only be able to start the liquidation
process after such statutory period. According to the
Communiqué, a liquidation process can now be initiated
earlier for goods which will cause damages if delay occurs. The
process is now initiated by asking the Criminal Judicature of Peace
within two days of the goods being delivered to the warehouse,
without waiting the statutory periods related to liquidation
proceedings.
The Communiqué also introduces new rules for storing
goods which violate intellectual and industrial property rights.
Accordingly, a good which constitutes a crime under the
Anti-Smuggling Law and is suspected of infringing intellectual
property rights can only be taken to the Customs Authority's
warehouses if it relates to a customs transaction. If the goods are
not related to a customs transaction, they must be delivered to the
Liquidation Office for the rapid destruction procedure determined
under Industrial Property Law Number 6769 to be applied.
Please see this
link for the full text of the Communiqué (only available
in Turkish).
Information first published in the
MA | Gazette, a fortnightly legal update newsletter produced by
Moroğlu Arseven.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.
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