Distinguishing Actual Loss from Loss of Profit

Legal Article · 12 November 2026
Av. Thomas Andreas Di Constantinople

Loss means a diminution resulting from infringement of a legally protected interest. For pecuniary loss, the financial position after the harmful event is compared with the position that would have existed without it. This comparison includes not only expenditure but also unrealised profit where the conditions are met.

Actual Loss and Lost Profit

Actual loss is an existing reduction in assets; repair or treatment expenses are examples. Lost profit concerns an expected increase that did not occur because of the event. Not every expectation of profit is compensable loss. The expectation must rest on concrete data, and adequate causation with the event must be established.

Article 50 of the Turkish Code of Obligations allows the judge to make an equitable assessment where the amount of loss cannot be proved precisely. This power does not, however, require direct acceptance of hypothetical and unsupported amounts. The type of loss and facts suitable for calculation must first be established.

Non-pecuniary loss is not identical to a reduction in assets; it has separate conditions in the context of infringements of personality interests or bodily integrity. The same event may cause both pecuniary and non-pecuniary loss. They must be treated separately according to their protected interests and remedial purposes, rather than as repetition of the same amount under different names.

Source

Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098, Articles 50–58.

This article has been prepared for general legal information purposes.