Online Dispute Resolution

The European Union recently launched a platform that allows you to resolve your online disputes in a practical and quick way, without resorting to courts. Everything that you need to know about this European platform, today on the EscapeShoes blog.

Surely you’ve already had an altercation with someone and wished that there was some impartial entity that served as intermediary to resolve the situation in the fairest way possible. Countless times, this is even truer when we talk about disputes regarding buying and selling transactions.

To be entirely honest, I confess that we’ve already had a few customers that shown a certain distrust to place an online order, because they had already been misled by other mistrusting online stores and they never resolved the situation either because they were never again able to get in touch with the buyer or because the case was taking too long to be resolved in court. But, this type of situations doesn’t only apply to customers. Sometimes, buyers deal with not very honest customers that, while thinking that they’re protected under the motto “the customer’s always right”, try to fool the buyer in some way. For example, by paying with a bounced cheque.

It was with this in mind that in the beginning of this year, the European Commission launched an online platform to resolve disputes connected to e-commerce. Hence, the creation of this platform of online dispute resolution, which works inside the European Union, assumes a vital part to foment the people’s trust to buy online and from companies in other member states.

The entire procedure is done through the website, in conjunction with the national authorities. However, we need to point out that unfortunately there’s no connection to dispute resolution entities in countries such as Croatia, Germany, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania and Spain.

And, what are the steps to present a complaint and thus open a dispute? Well, truthfully it all comes down to 4 simple steps:

Submitting a complaint

You fill in a complaint form and it’s submitted to the website. The other party receives it and you’ll have to come to an agreement within 30 days under the direction of the dispute resolution entity.

Agreement on Dispute Resolution Body

As soon as you reach an agreement, the website automatically sends all the information about the dispute to said entity, which later on will get in touch with you.

Dispute handled by the Dispute Resolution Body

The entity has 3 weeks to analyse the complaint, and it may contact you to ask for additional information. It must have the outcome of the dispute within 90 days.

Outcome of the Procedure

At the end of the procedure, the entity informs you of the outcome, which may vary according to the Dispute Resolution Body.

This platform has even more relevance when you take into account that the number of people buying online increases exponentially during the last few years. As per the data presented by Eurostat, the European average of people that resort to the Internet to make acquisitions reached 53% in 2015.

Furthermore, it was revealed that most Europeans buy clothes and sport items online.

However, even with the existence of this platform, every caution is never too much, and so it’s always wise that you’re aware of possible discriminatory practices and frauds, by always checking the website where you want to buy beforehand. In addition of confirming the contact information of the online store, it’s also a good idea to see the customer’s comments, as we many times recommend at EscapeShoes, to verify the store’s integrity.

You must already know that EscapeShoes’ a trustworthy store, but if you still have any doubts, get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to help you place your online order in the safest and most convenient way for you. We’re always here, just a few clicks away!