Fakty Komentarze Analiza (Facts Comments Analysis) l New act on alternative dispute resolution in consumer cases

What’s new in law, and what should we be aware of?

Facts

Work on the controversial act on the out-of-court resolution of consumer disputes, implementing the directive on alternative dispute resolution for consumer disputes, is currently in progress. 

On 18 June 2013, a legislative package including a directive of the European Parliament and Council, no. 2013/11/EU of 21 May 2013, on alternative dispute resolution for consumer disputes (the so-called ADR directive) and regulation no. 524/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council of 21 May 2013 on online dispute resolution for consumer disputes was published.    

The deadline for implementing the ADR directive for consumer disputes is 9 July 2015, i.e. in eight months’ time.

Comments

The act makes it possible for a business undertaking to select an entity to resolve disputes with consumers. However, business undertakings will have to fulfil a great number of informational obligations towards consumers. What changes in the day-to-day business operations of a company will the new act introduce? 

The act on alternative dispute resolution for customer disputes aims at introducing the possibility for a business undertaking to choose an ADR entity (among ADR entities entered in an appropriate register) competent for resolving disputes which arise between a given business undertaking and consumers. The system of ADR entities is supposed to be open (new entities will be able to join in) and mixed, i.e. involving both commercial and public ADR entities.    

Analysis

The implementation of the ADR directive for consumer disputes will bring additional obligations for business undertakings but also a faster, more transparent and, most of all, cheaper procedure for dispute resolution with consumers.

The directive provides for a three-month period for resolving a dispute in an amicable manner; however, in particularly complicated disputes, the ADR entity selected by the business undertaking may extend the proceeding for another 90 days. This way, the total maximum period for resolving a dispute between an business undertaking and a consumer will be six months, which is much shorter than the average duration of a court proceeding in the EU (500 days). This time constraint introduced under the directive also applies to amicable dispute resolution online conducted by means of an ODR platform.       

The full version of the bulletin can be found here.

If you need tailored advice please contact:

Anna Rak, trainee advocate in the litigation, arbitration and mediation department
T: + 48 22 581 44 41
E: arak@fka.pl