The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is hosting a "Private-Public Dialogue on Promoting Consumer Protection in the Dispute Resolution and Redress Mechanisms in e-Commerce" from 27 to 29 April 2021.
Consumer confidence in the marketplace depends on a reliable and fair system to resolve disputes. This is especially true with e-commerce, where the consumer and merchant may be located in distant regions or foreign economies. Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) systems offer a solution to this challenge. As governmental bodies and private industry build platforms to help consumers resolve disputes with vendors, it is essential that these ODR systems and rules meet consumers' needs and bolster trust in the marketplace. This is especially critical as consumers rely less on brick-and-mortar and move to online vendors for both products and services.
Many economies and online vendors have established online platforms for dispute resolution. At best, these systems are easy-to-access and avoid costly and burdensome court proceedings. However, not all of these systems are designed or managed with consumer protection principles of fairness, accessibility and low cost in mind. Without these protections, consumers may lose trust in these systems, leading to a lack of confidence in online commerce and ODR in general.
UNCTAD contributes to this event during the panel on how to improve consumers' confidence in cross-border digital trade through best practices, self-regulation and compliance policies in dispute resolution and redress mechanisms processes. In particular, UNCTAD will present its technical cooperation project on "Delivering Online Dispute Resolution for consumers as a part of a digitalized trading infrastructure to improve international trade and electronic commerce," funded by the China Silk Road Group (CSRG). The project aims to identify best practices and policy options to promote consumer online dispute resolution and to define the legal, technical and infrastructure requirements for the development of online dispute resolution systems, including through the use of emerging digital technologies.
