This is the English version of a Turkish article. The original, with further detail and linked petition templates, is at Abonelik Sözleşmesi: Fesih, Taahhüt ve Cayma Bedeli.
Being kept on hold to cancel an internet subscription, fobbed off with "campaign" offers, or told to visit a shop in person is a common complaint. The statute is clear: cancellation must be possible by the same means the contract was made.
Below: the right to cancel, the limit on early-exit fees, and where to complain.
What a Subscription Contract Is
A subscription contract lets the consumer obtain goods or a service continuously or at regular intervals: internet, telephone, television, electricity, gas, water, a gym, digital content.
It is concluded in writing or on a durable medium, and a copy is given to the consumer. A durable medium is anything the consumer can store and access unaltered — e-mail, SMS, a memory stick.
Failure to provide a copy is a defect that counts against the supplier in any later dispute.
Cancellation Cannot Be Obstructed
A consumer may cancel an indefinite-term subscription, or a fixed-term one longer than a year, at any time and without giving a reason.
The most practical provision in the statute is this: notice of cancellation must be capable of being given by the same means as the contract was concluded. If you subscribed online you must be able to cancel online; you cannot be made to attend a shop or wait on a call centre line.
The supplier must stop the service within the statutory period of receiving the cancellation. Charges accruing after that period cannot be claimed.
Record your cancellation: ask for a reference number on a call, and keep the screenshot and confirmation e-mail if you did it online. Most disputes turn on the claim that "the request never reached us".
Early-Exit Fees on a Committed Term
On a campaign subscription, the consumer commits to taking the service for a period in return for a discount, a device or free installation. Cancelling before the term expires brings a charge into play.
But it is not unlimited. The amount that may be claimed is limited to the part of the benefit provided to the consumer that has not yet been recouped. Not the whole of the remaining monthly charges, but the unrecovered portion of the discount and advantages you received.
The common error in practice is billing the whole of the remaining months as a "penalty". That demand is excessive and open to challenge.
Where the service cannot be supplied at all — after a move, for example — charging an exit fee is contestable in itself.
Disputing a Bill
- Written objection to the supplier, stating the cancellation date and the reference number.
- Complaint to the sector regulator. For electronic communications, the telecommunications authority.
- Consumer arbitration committee. Compulsory below the statutory threshold, free, and available through the e-government portal.
- Consumer court. For disputes above the threshold and for challenges to committee decisions.
If an unpaid bill becomes the subject of enforcement proceedings, the objection period is seven days from service; miss it and the proceedings become final.
Auto-Renewing Digital Subscriptions
Digital content and app subscriptions are subject to the same rules, and two problems recur.
Automatic renewal: the consumer must be told about it clearly and cancellation must be easy. A failure to notify before renewal founds an objection.
A free trial converting to a paid subscription: if charging follows automatically at the end of a free trial, that must be stated clearly and intelligibly when the contract is concluded. If it was not, the consumer is not bound.
If your card has been charged without authority, open a dispute with your bank; that record becomes evidence in an application to the arbitration committee.
Most subscription disputes meet the defence that "your request never reached us". Always ask for a reference number on a call, and keep a screenshot of the confirmation if you cancelled online. Charges after the cancellation date cannot be claimed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I cancel by telephone?
Cancellation must be possible by the same means the contract was made. A subscription taken out online must be cancellable online; you cannot be required to attend a shop.
How much will I pay if I leave before the committed term ends?
Only the unrecovered part of the benefit you received. Demanding the whole of the remaining months' charges is excessive.
I was billed after cancelling. Must I pay?
Charges accruing after your cancellation reached the supplier cannot be claimed. Object in writing and, failing that, apply to the arbitration committee.
Where do I apply?
Below the statutory threshold, to the consumer arbitration committee — compulsory and free; above it, to the consumer court.
Can an auto-renewing digital subscription be cancelled?
Yes. You must have been clearly informed of the renewal and cancellation must be easy; otherwise there is a ground for objection.