Facilitating cross-border e-commerce, in particular for SMEs, and strengthening consumers' trust when shopping online is an important part of the Commission's Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy, one of the European Commission's top ten political priorities. Promoting access to efficient and effective redress mechanisms through alternative dispute resolution procedures has been identified as a way to achieve this goal. The 2017 edition of the Consumer Conditions Scoreboard1 shows that more and more EU consumers are shopping online and that their trust in e-commerce has increased. It is the first time consumers have expressed a strong increase in trust in buying goods and services from other EU countries. This is a significant development since a lack of trust in cross-border e-commerce has, for a number of years, been the main barrier to tapping the full potential of the DSM.
The present Communication complies with the obligation laid down in Article 21 of the ODR Regulation to report on the functioning of the ODR platform. It details the steps taken for the establishment of the ODR platform and provides the European Parliament and the Council with an overview of its first year of operation. It also describes the actions planned by the Commission to ensure the platform's continued proper functioning and to further enhance its contribution to the development of the Digital Single Market.
Link to publication