EU Parliament Approves Online Transaction Dispute Resolution Platform

European Union

On March 12, the European Commission announced that the European Parliament voted to support new legislation governing the out-of-court resolution of contractual disputes resulting from online transactions for the sale of goods or services, referred to as Online Dispute Resolution (ODR). The ODR legislation establishes a single EU-wide platform to handle disputes between traders and consumers arising from cross-border online transactions. The platform, which would not be applicable to offline transactions, will:  (1) allow consumers and traders to electronically submit complaints related to online transactions along with related documents to an alternative dispute resolution entity; (2) allow alternative dispute resolution entities to receive and transmit information electronically; and (3) allow the parties to conduct and resolve the dispute resolution process via the platform. The platform is intended to be operational by 2015.