On Wednesday 25 September, the Council of the European Union adopted its negotiating mandate on the modernisation of the ADR Directive, which concerns the alternative dispute resolution of consumer disputes.
The Commission presented its proposal for modernisation last October (see EUROPE 13273/6) with the aim of “adapting these alternative methods of recourse to the courts to the digital age and speeding up procedures by simplifying them”.
The EU Council’s position limits the scope of the directive to contractual disputes and within European territory, rather than extending it to non-contractual disputes, as proposed by the Commission.
However, the mandate specifies that contractual obligations include the stages prior to the conclusion of a contract (for example advertising or the provision of information) and after the end of a contract (the use of digital content).
The EU Council also gives Member States the option of deciding, on the basis of their national legislation, to apply this regulation to disputes with traders from third countries.
For its part, last March the Parliament adopted its position, which extended the scope of application to all aspects of European consumer law and, therefore, to a greater number of disputes: misleading advertising, manipulative interfaces, geo-blocking problems and roaming charges (see EUROPE 13370/27).
According to the 2021 consumer survey published by the Commission, only 5% of consumers who encountered a problem when buying a product and who took action afterwards reported it to an alternative dispute resolution body, i.e. around 2.25 million people. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)