April 3, 2017

The Commission has reported that, in its first year of functioning, 24,000 consumers used the new European ODR platform, which was launched in February 2016.

More than a third of the complaints concerned cross-border purchases within the EU. Most complaints were about clothing and footwear, airline tickets and information and communication technology goods.

Examples include:

• a consumer from Italy complained about a defective ICT product bought from an online trader in Belgium. The platform sent the complaint to the competent dispute resolution body in Belgium. As a result, the Italian consumer was reimbursed;
• a consumer from Luxembourg complained about a car rented online from a trader in Greece. The platform sent the complaint to the relevant dispute resolution body in Greece. The dispute was amicably settled within 60 days. The trader fully reimbursed the additional expenses incurred by the consumer; and
• the platform often also works as a channel of first contact between the parties and a solution is often found bilaterally without taking the complaint to a dispute resolution body. For example, A Belgian consumer had been complaining for months about a defective dryer to a Belgian trader, with no success. When the trader received the complaint via the platform, he contacted the consumer and offered to replace the dryer with a new one.

The Commission will prepare a detailed report on the functioning of the platform towards the end of 2017. It is also planning further activities in 2017 to engage more traders and to further promote the platform amongst consumers. The Commission will also further improve the platform’s user-friendliness and monitor whether traders comply with their obligation to put a link to the platform on their website. To read the Commission’s press release in full, click here.