Peter Causton considers the use of ADR for consumer disputes
It is said that: “God created the world in six days. On the seventh day, he rested. On the eighth day, he started getting complaints.” A package of measures coming into force from July and October 2015 is likely to lead to an upsurge in consumer complaints, but new ways of tackling them.
New rules
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 will change the rules relating to the supply of goods, services and digital content for contracts made from 1 October 2015. It is against this backdrop that the ADR Directive is also being introduced from July 2015, to encourage the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) as a simple, low cost way to resolve sales and service contractual disputes between traders and consumers, out of court. Following a consultation, in April the ADR for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/542) (the Regulations) were laid before Parliament to implement the ADR/ODR Directive 2013/11/EU. Amendments to the Regulations followed this month (ADR for Consumer Disputes (Amendment) Regulations 2015 (2015/1392), extending the time
