I am afraid the answer from Mr Atceken is irrelevant. The question from Manu was; (i) how to end a verbal contract, (ii) if any penalties may be imposed on his company.

Therefore, it is necessary first of all to determine whether the contract was valid and binding under Turkish Law. Assuming that it was a valid contract, either parol or written, then it would be necessary to determine whether any penalties were imposed in the contract, save that any penalties exceeding the limit indicated in Turkish Law of Civil Procedure can be challenged by relying on the rule of "written evidence", in which case the party demanding penalty has to prove his right to penalty by a written agreement or written covenant. However, even if there was no provision in the written contract with regard to penalty, the distributor is entitled to ask for his damages under Turkish Law, because of the termination of the distributor agreement. Whether the distributor may be successful in this claim is another issue, which I do not wish to discuss here.

In this regard, a lawyer should check out the provisions relating to consequences of termination of agent agreements without just reasons under Turkish Law. Thus,the statement from Mr Atceken as "If any penalties were not made clear to you when the agreement was made, then the contract itself could be invalid." is irrelevant. In other words, even if the penalties were not made clear in the contract, this would not lead to determine the agreement "invalid" as alleged by Mr Atceken. In my opinion Manu was not asking merely the penalty in the sense of penalty clause in the Turkish Law of Obligations but any financial burden on his side which may arise from termination of the distributor contract by him. Even if this is not the case, it is a lawyer's professional duty to remind him that he may be subject to payment of damages because of unjust termination of the distributor agreement by him even if there was no provision in the contract in connection with payment of penalty or damages. Furthermore, it would be wise to remind him that even if it was agreed in the distributor contract that no damages would be payable to the distributor in case of termination of the contract by the principal, irrespective of whether such termination was unjust, this provison might be deemed null and void. Consequently, such statement from Mr Atceken that "the contract itself could be invalid if any penalties were not made clear to Manu (the principal) when the agreement was made" is, dare I say it, totally irrelevant and untrue.(I.C.H.)