Extract

European consumer protection law is currently being widened to add Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) into the toolbox of European consumer redress. The European institutions are currently adopting a Directive on ADR and a Regulation on ODR based on Article 169 (1) and 169 (2) (a) of the TFEU. The proposed Directive on ADR is discussed further in Chapter 10. Cross-border Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) has extensively been discussed since at least 2000 in academic, theoretical literature as a kind of magic bullet solution for redress in international e-commerce, particularly for consumer disputes at the lower value end. Now, some 12 years later ODR has been firmly entrenched on the agenda of policy makers: both the EU and UNCITRAL have recently issued proposals on creating ODR systems for solving e-commerce disputes. The main focus of this chapter is to analyse the new proposed EU regime supporting and regulating ODR. However, this has to be placed in the context of the discussions of and proposals for ODR at UNCITRAL, which this chapter will discuss first. By comparing and contrasting the UNCITRAL proposals with those of the EU, the differences in approach will become evident.