Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) & Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) of Consumer Disputes

Effective enforcement, including redress, is essential in ensuring that a high level of consumer protection is not just paid ‘lip service’ to and that consumers actually benefit from the rights afforded to them by European or national laws.

Any ADR scheme should:

• Be limited to complaints from consumers about traders;
• Be independent from the influence of industry;
• Base its outcomes on the principle of legality;
• Be compulsory for traders wherever practicable;
• Require decisions made by an ADR body to be binding unless any of the parties decide to continue to courts in the manner available under the provisions of a Member State. In some countries, only procedural appeals against ADR decisions are possible, in others, parties can ask for a full review of the decision – what is important is that a party has to be active and cannot just disregard the outcome of the ADR. Member States can allow non-binding ADR if such systems are long in place in that particular Member State and have proven to be working well;
• Be free or at small cost for consumers;
• Be transparent about the outcomes and the rate of compliance with them;
• Have a wider impact on the market by providing for ‘guiding decisions’.