As as the new year approaches what next for ADR? It will be an exciting year with Court reforms and the introduction of the Online Dispute Resolution Platform from 15 February. Not many businesses realise but they will be obliged to provide a link to the platform on their websites from that date, so IT consultants/departments are going to be busy, unless smaller businesses are able to amend their websites themselves.
The platform will allow consumers to log their complaints online, much as with Amazon or Ebay, except that the complaint is then dealt with externally by an ADR entity like ProMediate, if the business consents. In fact, Amazon and EBay will have to provide a link to the Platform themselves, even though they already have a complaints resolution process.