Online Dispute Resolution (ODR)

YOUR COMPLIANCE MATTERS:         Online Dispute Resolution (ODR)

Relevance:                 All firms offering purchase of products online.

Action required:       Remove reference to the EU’s ODR from websites and email footers.

The UK has left the EU, and the transition period after Brexit comes to an end this year.

So, from 01 January 2021, a number of things will change, one of which is in the area of “Consumer Rights”.

As a reminder, back in February 2016, the European Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform was introduced by the European Commission to make online shopping safer and fairer through access to easy, low-cost dispute resolution tools. All online retailers and traders in EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway were obliged to provide an easily accessible link to the ODR platform and an e-mail address for the ODR platform to contact the firm.

This facility will not be available after 31 December 2020.

The EU has issued the following statement:

·        Traders established in the UK will no longer be able to access their ODR dashboard.

·        Traders established in the EU or Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein will not be able to act on any ongoing cases concerning UK consumers in the platform or suggest UK dispute resolution bodies.

·        All users can no longer export any relevant complaint data concerning UK consumers or traders from their dashboard. Users have the possibility to export relevant complaint data before 31/12/2020.

·        All users will not be able to contact the UK ODR advisor. Please contact them before 31/12/2020.

Therefore, all links and references to the ODR platform need to be removed from your website and email footers and anywhere else it might be showing, such as Terms of Business with effect from 1st January 2021.

We will continue to review the relevant changes that need to be made from January 2021 as a result of the transition period ending and will advise firms accordingly.

If you need to discuss any aspect of this matter with us, please make contact in the normal way.