Like in Europe: Ukraine is developing a system of out-of-court consumer dispute resolution
9 May 10:56
The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine has submitted for public discussion the draft Law of Ukraine on Out-of-Court Settlement of Consumer Disputes. This is reported on the ministry’s website, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
The draft law provides for the creation of an effective, fast, and affordable system of out-of-court dispute resolution (ODR) between consumers and business entities, including online commerce and cross-border cases. It is based on the provisions of Directive 2013/11/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council and is part of our country’s obligations under the Association Agreement with the European Union.
What could the system of out-of-court dispute resolution look like?
The draft law provides that this system will include:
– contact point: State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection,
– competent authorities in the relevant area: public authorities, including collegial state bodies that carry out/implement/ensure consumer protection in the relevant area,
– out-of-court dispute resolution bodies: legal entities, public consumer associations or associations of legal entities,
– persons responsible for out-of-court dispute resolution,
– parties to the dispute: consumer, business entity.
Clear requirements will also be established for the ODR bodies and dispute resolution procedures. It provides for the possibility of appealing against decisions of ODR bodies and the introduction of cost thresholds that should not restrict consumers’ access to the ODR system, etc.
Consumer rights are also planned to be expanded
It is proposed to amend the Law of Ukraine “On Consumer Protection” and, in particular, to determine that a consumer will be able to return or exchange goods of good quality under additional conditions specified in the contract or agreement with the seller.
It will also define a list of cases where the consumer will not be able to unilaterally withdraw from the contract, for example, when providing urgent services, supplying products to individual orders or digital content without a physical medium.
The draft law is open for discussion
The drafters call on all interested business representatives, human rights organizations, experts, and the public to actively participate in the discussion of the draft.
An electronic version of the draft law and an explanatory note are available on the website of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine in the section “Discussion of draft documents”.
Comments and suggestions on the draft law can be sent to the following addresses:
Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, 12/2 M. Hrushevskoho Str., Kyiv, 01008.
E-mail: [email protected]
Comments and suggestions are accepted within a month.
Out-of-court consumer dispute resolution is a common practice in the EU
This system has been in place in the EU for 10 years. An extensive network of ODR bodies offers simple, fast and inexpensive out-of-court dispute resolution between consumers and business entities. This access is especially important for consumers shopping abroad.
Each ODR body has its own procedures, which vary both across the EU and within Member States. For example, the number of ODR bodies in the EU varies from 2 in the Principality of Liechtenstein and Romania to 82 in the French Republic.
All the IPOs are included in the list published on the official website of the European Commission. In order to ensure the necessary credibility of ODR procedures, persons responsible for out-of-court dispute resolution have the necessary experience, sufficient general knowledge of legal matters to understand the legal consequences of a dispute, but are not necessarily qualified lawyers.
In each EU country, the ODR authorities prepare an annual report on the consideration of both domestic and cross-border disputes and post it on their website, and every two years inform the competent consumer protection authority about the effectiveness of their work. The competent authority or the Contact Point established in the EU country shall report to the European Commission every four years on the development and functioning of the listed ODR bodies.
The ODR bodies are subject to regular assessments of their compliance with the quality requirements set out in the EU Directive, including specific additional requirements to ensure their independence and impartiality. If an ODR body included in the list does not meet such requirements, it is removed from the list and the European Commission is informed.
