First Annual Oxford Consumer ADR Conference

Thursday 26th and Friday 27th September 2013. Sponsored by Swiss Re

Lecture Notes the_first_oxford_annual_consumer_adr_conference_-_lecture_notes.pdf

 

Summary Note the_first_oxford_annual_consumer_adr_conference_-_summary_note.pdf

Post-conference news article- FLJS

Consumer ADR (CDR) has taken a central place on the European landscape, and is the subject of harmonising EU legislation in 2012. But how will/should things develop now?

  • How should Member States implement the ADR Directive and conform to the ODR Regulation?
  • Will the legislation be implemented on a “tick box” approach nationally, or on a wider basis?
  • Every Member State faces challenges in developing its CDR system: How should national systems be reformed?
  • What scope exists for trans-border provision of CDR/ODR services?
  • CDR holds out considerable advantages not only in effective and efficient dispute resolution, in both individual and mass/collective claims, but also in recycling the aggregated data for the benefit of traders and markets: How should this best be achieved, and what are the challenges?
  • What are the implications for realising economies on courts and regulatory enforcement?
  • What is the vision for CDR in Europe, and how should it be achieved?

This conference brought together all the leading viewpoints on how CDR/ODR should be taken forward, the EU legislation implemented, and the benefits achieved and maximised.

The organisers of this conference are regarded as the leading scholars in the field of European CDR. They have researched how CDR systems work in many jurisdictions: see Hodges, Benöhr and Creutzfeldt-Banda, Consumer ADR in Europe (Hart Publishing, 2012) and several articles.

Issues included:

  • How to achieve full coverage and economies of scale for Member States? Development of trans-border CDR providers?
  • How will CDR be funded?
  • What will be the effects of competition between CDR and Small Claims or other judicial tracks? Implications of fee levels, and limitations on legal aid. Should Small Claims be deconstructed?
  • How to avoid the ‘notified body problem’, with variations in quality among CDR providers?
  • How to build consumer confidence in CDR systems, and knowledge of their advantages?
  • How to build business confidence in CDR systems, and support for them?
  • How to use the information from CDR systems to inform traders, markets and consumers about types of disputes and positive or negative trends?
  • What information should be confidential, or accessible to whom?
  • How widespread and realistic is full IT processing of aggregated dispute data?
  • What scope is there for ODR, and when?
  • Development of the ODR platform (Commission)? UNICITRAL rules? ECC Sweden, Ireland, UK, Netherlands and Belgium are participating in a project concerning ODR pilot platform involving these rules.
  • ODR facilitators [ECCs?]
  • What are the implications for realising economies on courts and regulatory enforcement?

 

On this page