28/01/2025 (Agence Europe) – Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) have voted to open inter-institutional negotiations on the modernisation of the ‘ADR’ Directive on the alternative dispute resolution of consumer disputes. The MEPs approved their position last March (see EUROPE 13370/27) and the Council of the EU approved its position at the end of September (see EUROPE 13490/2) on this proposal presented by the Commission in October 2023 (see EUROPE 13273/6) in order to “adapt these alternative methods of recourse to the courts to the digital age and to speed up procedures by simplifying them”. Parliament wants to extend the scope to all aspects of European consumer law, and therefore to a greater number of disputes. The Council had restricted the scope of the directive in its mandate, going back on the inclusion of non-contractual and pre-contractual situations sought by the Commission. (IS)