Written by Fani Sánchez
As of February 15, 2016 European online stores and market-places operating in the EU will be required to include a link on their websites to the European Commission’s Online Dispute Resolution Platform (Online Dispute Resolution – ODR) according to the Article 14 of Regulation No. 524/2013. The objective is to streamline the processing, arbitration, mediation and resolution of disputes in e-commerce. This is the link that we will have to put in our online store, although the place is not specified(footer, Legal Notice page…).
The article states that sellers must inform users of the possibility of obtaining a complaint remedy (outside the strictly judicial).
As in the offline world, complaints in the world of e-commerce are numerous but often complaints are not formalized due to lack of knowledge, lack of resources, excessive bureaucratization of the process or lack of guarantees. Until today, we relied on organizations such as FACUA or Confianza online to file formal complaints that are usually resolved out of court.
Being transparent about the possibility of complaining is a practice that all ecommerces should exercise and its promotion is a responsibility of all governments. As of today, we will have a new European-level body to turn to exclusively for online disputes and claims.
