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(BRUSSELS) – Over 24,000 complaints were lodged in the first year of the EU’s Online Dispute Resolution platform, launched in February 2016 to help consumers and traders resolve their disputes out-of-court.
While there are strong rules in place in the EU to protect consumers, in practice consumers sometimes encounter problems getting redress when their rights are violated, particularly cross border.
The Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform enables consumers to solve such such problems online. Examples could be is a seller refusing to repair a defective laptop within the guarantee period, or a travel agent not willing to refund a ruined holiday.
The ODR helps settle such disputes faster and cheaper online and outside the court.
Consumer Affairs Commissioner Vera Jourova said the tool was still at an early stage. However, she said the platform had been well received by consumers, and the mere fact of a consumer using the platform can be 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.”
More than a third of the 24,000 complaints lodged concerned cross-border purchases within the EU. Most complaints were about clothing and footwear, airline tickets and information and communication technology goods.
Examples:
- A consumer from Italy complained about a defective ICT product bought from an online trader in Belgium. The platform sent the complaint to the competent dispute resolution body in Belgium. As a result, the Italian consumer was reimbursed.
- A consumer from Luxembourg complained about a car rented online from a trader in Greece. The platform sent the complaint to the competent dispute resolution body in Greece. The dispute was amicably settled within 60 days. The trader fully reimbursed the additional expenses incurred by the consumer.
- The platform often also works as a channel of first contact between the parties and a solution is often found bilaterally without taking the complaint to a dispute resolution body. For example, A Belgian consumer had been complaining for months about a defective dryer to a Belgian trader, with no success. When the trader received the complaint via the platform, he contacted the consumer and offered to replace the dryer with a new one.
The Commission will now prepare a first detailed report on the functioning of the platform towards the end of 2017. It also says it is planning further activities in 2017 to engage more traders and to further promote the platform amongst consumers. There are plans to improve the platform’s user-friendliness and to monitor whether traders comply with their obligation to put a link to the platform on their website.
Infographic on the ODR platform
