Consumer Dispute Resolution (CDR) in Europe

This paper is a combination of the ‘Oxford study 2012’ (C. Hodges, I. Benöhr & N. Creutzfeldt-Banda, Consumer ADR in Europe, Oxford: Hart Publishing 2012) and subsequent publications about consumer dispute resolution in Europe. Recent EU legislation aims to establish a EU-wide framework for consumer alternative dispute resolution (CADR or CDR) schemes and a platform for online dispute resolution (ODR). This forces member states to revisit their existing CDR models and in some cases, to modernize their structures. Many member states face challenges of reform of existing systems by the directives implementation date of 2015. This paper will provide an overview of CDR, the development of current legislation and discuss some national examples. The paper concludes with comments about implementation of the directive and potential future direction.