Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

Out-Law News 1 min. read

Online dispute resolution tool used by 24,000 EU consumers in first year of operation


More than 24,000 consumers used an online dispute resolution (ODR) platform set up in the EU in the first year of its operation, according to the European Commission.

The ODR platform is designed to steer businesses and consumers towards resolving their disputes through alternative dispute resolution (ADR) schemes, and is provided for under EU law.

The Commission said that more than 24,000 consumer complaints have been lodged via the ODR platform since it began operating in February 2016. It said more than a third of the complaints were from consumers who had bought goods or services from businesses based in another EU country, and that the highest number of complaints concerned clothing and footwear, airline tickets and technology goods.

Věra Jourová, the EU's justice commissioner, said: "While we are still in an early phase of this new tool, we can already say that the Online Dispute Resolution platform has been well received by consumers. We also see that the mere fact of a consumer using the platform often is incentive enough for traders to resolve the dispute. We are giving consumers a practical tool to help them benefit from their rights in practice."

"On the other side, traders also have a lot to gain from this platform and should use it more. Particularly for online traders it is essential to be seen as reliable by potential consumers. Using this tool will help them earn consumer trust, whilst providing them with a simple and fast way of resolving disputes," she said.

EU businesses that sell goods or services online to consumers, as well as online marketplaces, are obliged to provide a link to the ODR platform on their websites. The link must be "easily accessible for consumers" under the terms of the EU's ODR regulation.

The ODR rules supplement other EU reforms on alternative dispute resolution (ADR) which came into force in October 2015 and are aimed at ensuring more disputes are resolved before selected 'ADR approved bodies' than the courts.

Businesses operating outside of regulated sectors are not obliged to engage with the ADR scheme under the rules but they are required to tell consumers about the existence of ADR schemes and whether they intend to use them.

Where businesses are committed to or opt-in to the new dispute resolution regime the ODR regulation requires them to "inform consumers about the existence of the ODR platform and the possibility of using the ODR platform for resolving their disputes".

The Commission said it will publish a report on "the functioning of the platform" towards the end of 2017.

We are processing your request. \n Thank you for your patience. An error occurred. This could be due to inactivity on the page - please try again.