Constitutional Court Decided to Annul the Provision on Extension of the Term of Port Privatization Contracts

The Constitutional Court’s decision dated 18.01.2024 and numbered 2023/12 E., 2024/12 K. (Decision) has been published in the Official Gazette dated 05.03.2024 and numbered 32480. The Constitutional Court decided to annul the provisional Article 31 of the Law on Privatization Applications (Law).

• With the decision, the provisional Article 31 of the Law, which regulates the procedures and principles regarding the extension of the duration of privatization contracts of less than forty-nine years signed as a result of the privatization of some ports through the method of granting/transferring operating rights, up to forty-nine years, was annulled.
• The annulment lawsuit regarding this provision was filed because a similar provision was previously annulled by the Constitutional Court, but the same rule was added to the Law without meeting the grounds of the annulment decision, that changing the duration and conditions of the contract by law without a tender would lead to inequality in terms of the exercise of the freedom of contract and cause damage to the state, and that the obligation to primarily consider the public interest in the utilization of coastlines was violated.
• Previously, the Constitutional Court annulled the first paragraph of the provisional Article 30 of the Law with its decision dated 20.07.2022 and numbered E. 2022/22, K. 2022/92, and a similar regulation was added to the Law as provisional Article 31 with the Law dated 22.12.2022 and numbered 7429.
• The Constitutional Court annulled the provision in question because the grounds in the annulment decision regarding the provisional Article 30 of the Law were not met in the regulation of the provisional Article 31, therefore, it disproportionately restricted the freedom of contract on the grounds of the previous decision and violated the principle of equality.