Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL repealing Regulation (EU) No 524/2013 and amending Regulations (EU) 2017/2394 and (EU) 2018/1724 with regards to the discontinuation of the European ODR Platform
Date: 2023-10-17
Institutions: Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, European Commission
Subjects: Internet site, alternative dispute resolution, consumer protection, digital single market, electronic commerce, provision of services, trade dispute

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 17.10.2023  COM(2023) 647 final 2023/0375 (COD)  Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL repealing Regulation (EU) No 524/2013 and amending Regulations (EU) 2017/2394 and (EU) 2018/1724 with regards to the discontinuation of the European ODR Platform (Text with EEA relevance)  
 
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM 

1. 

CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 

Reasons for and objectives of the proposal 

• 
In  its  Communication  on  long-term  competitiveness  of  the  EU1,  the  Commission  has 
reaffirmed  its  commitment  to  actively  screen  the  EU  legislation  in  terms  of  its  fitness  for 
purpose,  in  particularly  to  reduce  the  compliance  costs  for  businesses  and  public 
administrations.  

The  European  legislation  on  out-of-court  consumer  redress  (the  Alternative  Dispute 
Resolution  (ADR)  Directive2  and  the  Online  Dispute  Resolution  (ODR)  Regulation)3  was 
adopted in 2013 and has not been amended since notwithstanding the drastic changes of the 
consumer market, notably in relation to its rapidly expanding digital dimension. 

While  the  ADR  Directive  establishes  a  general  framework  for  consumer  redress,  obliging 
Member  States  to  ensure  that  consumers  can  submit  their  disputes to  ADR  entities  meeting 
common  quality  criteria,  and  can  resolve  disputes  fairly,  quickly  and  affordably,  the  ODR 
Regulation  was  adopted  for  the  sole  purpose  of  establishing  the  European  Online  Dispute 
Resolution  Platform  (the  ODR  Platform)  where  consumers  and  traders  could  refer  their 
disputes over online purchases to ADR entities. 

The ODR platform has been operating since 2016 as a fully multilingual digital infrastructure 
where consumers can request online traders to solve a dispute using an ADR entity. Despite a 
high number of visits, the ODR platform is only enabling on average 200 cases EU wide to be 
treated by and ADR entity per year. 

This level of performance does not justify the costs incurred by the Commission to maintain 
the tool, nor the cost borne by public administrations and by online businesses to comply with 
their  obligations  under  the  ODR  Regulation.  The  objective  of  this  proposal  is  therefore  to 
repeal the ODR Regulation, thus discontinuing the ODR platform and remove the obligation 
on  the  online  businesses  to  provide  a  link  to  the  ODR  platform  and  manage  an  email  for 
communication.  

• 

Consistency with other Union legal texts.  

The proposal also amends the legislation which currently references the ODR Regulation as a 
possible  communication  means  between  consumers  and  traders,  including  Single  Digital 
Gateway Regulation4. 

1 
Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council the European Economic 
and  Social  Committee  and  the  Committee  of  Regions:  Long-term  competitiveness  of  the  EU:  looking  beyond 
2030, Brussels, 16.3.2023, COM(2023) 168 final, 
https://commission.europa.eu/system/files/2023-03/Communication_Long-term-competitiveness.pdf   
2 
Directive  2013/11/EU  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  21 May  2013  on  alternative 
dispute  resolution  for  consumer  disputes  and  amending  Regulation  (EC)  No 2006/2004  and  Directive 
2009/22/EC (Directive on consumer ADR) 
3 
Regulation (EU) No 524/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on online 
dispute  resolution  for  consumer  disputes  and  amending  Regulation  (EC)  No  2006/2004  and  Directive 
2009/22/EC (Regulation on consumer ODR) OJ L 165, 18.6.2013, p. 1–12 
4 
Regulation  (EU)  2018/1724  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  2  October  2018 
establishing  a  single  digital  gateway  to  provide  access  to  information,  to  procedures  and  to  assistance  and 

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2. 

• 

LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY 

Legal basis 

The legal basis for the proposal (the same as the basis for the ODR Regulation) is Article 114 
TFEU on internal market completion, with due regard to Article 169 TFEU5. It confers upon 
the EU the competence  to  enact measures  for the approximation  of  national rules  regarding 
the establishment and functioning of the internal market.  

• 

Subsidiarity (for non-exclusive competence)  

The  ODR  Regulation  was  justified  out  of  subsidiarity  considerations:  in  2011,  when  it  was 
adopted  by  the  Commission,  digital  markets  were  still  developing,  with  no  assurance  of 
adequate  private  or  public  digital  tools  to  assist  online  traders  reach  out  to  ADR  entities. 
However,  these  considerations  became  irrelevant  due  to  the  rapid  development  of  online 
complaint-handling systems of digital marketplaces, which themselves rapidly became one of 
the main dispute resolution channels for SMEs trading online.  

• 

Proportionality 

The repeal of the ODR Regulation eliminates the existing burden on public and private actors.   

• 

Choice of the instrument 

As the objective of this proposal is to primarily  repeal the ODR Regulation, a Regulation is 
the appropriate choice. 

3. 

• 

RESULTS 
CONSULTATIONS AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS 

EX-POST 

EVALUATIONS, 

OF 

STAKEHOLDER 

Ex-post evaluations/fitness checks of existing legislation 

Article  21  of  the  ODR  regulation  foresees  the  yearly  publication  of  a  report  on  the 
performance of the platform and periodic reports on the application of the ODR Regulation. 
In view of the information contained in these reports demonstrating the very low use of the 
platform  to  promote  the  use  of  ADR  procedures  in  online  markets,  it  was  not  necessary  to 
carry a detailed evaluation. Annex 7 of the Impact Assessment carried out to review the ADR 
directive, however, details the reasons behind the low performance of the ODR platform.  

• 

Stakeholder consultations and studies 

As part of its endeavour to evaluate the ADR Directive, the Commission carried out extensive 
consultations  throughout  2021  and  2022,  where  some  questions  were  relevant  for  the  ODR 
Regulation:  two  multi-lingual  public  consultations  with  a  backward  and  forward-looking 
approach on ADR and Call for Evidence on its Have your Say website.  

In addition, regular discussions with stakeholders were held on the performance of the ODR 
platform including studies for improving the design and functionalities of the platform which 
contained surveys and interviews with the consumers, traders, ADR entities and the national 
ODR contact points. The following events were also opportunities to discuss the performance 
of the platform  such  as  the ODR contact points meeting of 13 September  2022 and  various 

problem-solving services and amending Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 (Text with EEA relevance.) OJ  L 295, 
21.11.2018, p. 1–38 
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level of consumer protection can be achieved through measures adopted pursuant to Article 114 TFEU. 

Article 169 TFEU states that the objectives of promoting the interests of consumers and ensuring a high 

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workshops including the ADR entities assembly held in 2021; a panel discussion at the 2022 
Consumer Summit and a roundtable about Cross-border ADR also held in 2022. 

There was a general  consensus  that the  useful effect  of the  ODR Platform  was very limited 
and thus not cost-effective. The ODR platform however was considered an important source 
of  information  to  obtain  the  list  of  ADR  entities  that  have  been  accredited  by  national 
authorities  in  the  Union  according  to  the  ADR  Directive,  an  obligation  however  stemming 
from this Directive and implemented by the Commission on the ODR platform and which will 
thus  continue  to  be  maintained.  Stakeholders  also  valued  the  advising  role  of  ODR  Contact 
points  in  relation  to  cross-border  purchases.  For  the  majority  of  the  cases,  the  role  of  ODR 
contact points were taken up by the European Consumer Centres. 

The Commission also received internal IT advice on improving the design and functionalities 
of the ODR platform which showed that a very substantial overhaul of the ODR platform was 
necessary to make it up to current IT standards. 

• 

Impact assessment 

An impact assessment was carried out to review the ADR Directive which included a detailed 
analysis of the functioning of the ODR platform in its Annex 6.  

This  Annex  reviews  the  statistics  about  the  use  of  the  ODR  platform  since  its  beginning  in 
2016 in order to understand why so few cases are treated by ADR bodies (less than 200 per 
year  EU  wide).  The  analysis  shows  that  the  platform  receives  between  two  to  three  million 
visitors  per  year.  However,  a  minority  (about  2%)  of  these  visitors  decide  to  contact  the 
concerned trader to propose to launch an ADR process. Most visitors leave the platform after 
a few seconds. Despite improving the home page of the platform (providing information and 
an interactive Q&A system), the number of requests for an ADR process did not increase but 
on  the  contrary  decreased  when  consumers  where  better  informed  of  the  objectives  and 
functioning of the system. Once a request is made by the consumer, the trader has 30 days to 
agree to launch the ADR process. Only 2% agree to do so, about 40% of the traders contact 
the consumers directly outside the platform to settle the matter while the majority of traders 
simply  remain  silent  as  participation  is  not  compulsory.  ADR  bodies,  perform  a  test  of 
eligibility on the cases reaching them (about 400 per year) and on average keep only half of 
the requests. The poor results of the ODR platform is therefore the result of a succession of 
facts linked to the lack of prior information of visitors on how ADR works, the very limited 
interest  of traders and the uneven completeness  or relevance of the  consumer complaints in 
relation with the eligibility criteria set by ADR entities.  

This  limited  use  of  the  ODR  platform  led  the  Commission  to  study  various  solutions  to 
improve the uptake by both traders and consumers, which however were not conclusive on the 
means that would permit to increase the use of the platform.  

On  the  contrary,  discontinuing  the  ODR  platform  would  save  the  European  Commission 
about  EUR  500,000  per  year6,  i.e.  EUR  4.4  million  in  10  years.7  A  behavioural  study 
conducted on ADR information requirements8 showed that the current requirement for traders 

See Annex 7 for more information on the costs of the ODR Platform. This figure also takes into account 

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the costs of replacing the ODR platform with signposting tools, which are estimated to amount 100 000 
maximum. 
7 
year for other developed solutions to redirect consumers to the right ADR entity (e.g. artificial intelligence-
powered lawbots/chatbots).  
8 

Behavioural study on disclosure of ADR information to consumers by traders and ADR entities. 

EUR 600,000 every year saved if the ODR platform stops to be maintained, minus EUR 100,000 every 

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to clearly disclose on their websites the ODR link does not positively impact on consumer’s 
intention  to  use  ADR  procedure.  Thus,  removing  this  link  would  not  produce  any  negative 
consequences on consumer engagement in ADR.  

Impact  on  SMEs:  Businesses  operating  online,  the  majority  of  which  are  SMEs,  would  not 
need to maintain an e-mail address for ODR correspondence, saving EUR 100 per year.9 The 
total benefit for EU businesses would then be EUR 370 million saved per year. 

Social impacts: Replacing the ODR Platform would have no social impact on employment as 
Member  States  contact  points  (about  50  FTEs  throughout  the  EU)  would  be  absorbed  by 
ECCs  or  other  bodies  tasked  to  provide  advice  on  cross-border  ADR  and  other  redress 
possibilities. 

Environmental  impacts:  discontinuing  the  ODR  platform  would  reduce  the  digital  carbon 
footprint of the European Commission.  

• 

Fundamental rights 

The proposal takes due account of the rights related to personal data by providing a clear date 
when the platform is discontinued (and an earlier date when the platform will still operate, but 
no new complaints can be submitted). The proposal ensures that all personal data is deleted as 
soon as the platform is discontinued, to minimise the risk of data breaches. 

4. 

BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS 

As evaluated in Annex 6 of the ADR Directive Impact Assessment, the discontinuation of the 
ODR  platform  would  permit  to  save  costs  for  businesses,  Member  States  and  for  the 
Commission,  while  the  cost  for  ADR  entities  would  not  be  impacted.  Discontinuing  the 
platform therefore does not have any negative budgetary implications.  

OTHER ELEMENTS 

5. 

n/a 

The average cost of maintaining this e-mail address, considering the due diligence of conducting 

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business which would require to read the correspondence on a daily basis, is assumed to amount to EUR 0.5 per 
working day. Prospective ADR dispute requests (400,000 per year) would only occasionally reach the mailbox 
of a business (about 3,700,000 retailers operates online, Eurostat). 

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2023/0375 (COD) 

Proposal for a 

REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 

repealing Regulation (EU) No 524/2013 and amending Regulations (EU) 2017/2394 and 
(EU) 2018/1724 with regards to the discontinuation of the European ODR Platform 

(Text with EEA relevance) 

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, 

Having  regard  to  the  Treaty  on  the  Functioning  of  the  European Union,  and  in  particular 
Article 114 thereof, 

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, 

After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments, 

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee, 

Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, 

Whereas:  

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

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Regulation  (EU)  No  524/2013  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council10 
established,  and  mandated  the  Commission  to  develop  and  maintain,  the  European 
Online  Dispute  Resolution  (‘ODR’)  Platform  at  Union  level,  which  offers  a  single 
point of entry to consumers and traders seeking to resolve disputes arising from online 
transactions out-of-court. 

The  ODR  platform  takes  the  form  of  an  interactive  website  where  consumers  may 
request traders to agree to use an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) body listed on 
the platform, which complies with Directive 2013/11/EU of the European Parliament 
and of the Council11. 

Regulation  (EU)  No  524/2013  requires  online  traders  and  online  marketplaces  to 
provide  an  easily  accessible  link  to  the  ODR  platform  on  their  website.  That 
obligation,  together  with  information  campaigns  made  by  the  Commission  and 
national  stakeholders,  has  brought  between  two  and  three  million  visitors  to  the 
platform’s website every year. 

However, only a minority of visitors use the platform to launch a complaint, and only 
2% of those actually receive a positive reply from traders so that their request can be 
transmitted to an ADR body listed on the platform. All in all, this represents about 200 
cases  across  the  Union.  The  Commission  published  a  call  for  evidence  on  adapting 
out-of-court dispute resolution to digital markets, which ran from 28 September to 21 

Regulation (EU) No 524/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on online 
dispute resolution for  consumer disputes and amending Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 and Directive 
2009/22/EC (OJ L 165, 18.6.2013, p. 1). 
Directive  2013/11/EU  of  the European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of 21  May 2013 on  alternative 
dispute resolution for consumer disputes and amending Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 and Directive 
2009/22/EC (OJ L 165, 18.6.2013, p. 63). 

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(5) 

(6) 

(7) 

(8) 

(9) 

December  2022  and  concluded  that  the  platform  had  been  used  by  only  5%  of 
consumers  who  responded,  while  the  majority  of  respondents  considered  that  the 
platform should be substantially improved or discontinued as it was not cost-effective. 

The  evidence  strongly  suggests  that  further  maintenance  of  the  European  ODR 
Platform with no more than 200 cases transferred per year to an ADR entity does not 
correspond to the principles of efficiency and effectiveness as provided for Regulation 
(EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council12. 

The ODR platform should be discontinued and Regulation (EU) No 524/2013 should 
therefore  be  repealed.  Appropriate  time  should  be  provided  to  ensure  that  ongoing 
cases in the platform can be adequately terminated. 

Article 12 of the Regulation (EU) No 524/2013 establishes the rule for processing the 
personal  data  related  to  a  dispute  and  stored  in  the  database  of  the  ODR  platform 
maintained by the Commission. 

Pursuant to Article 12(3) of Regulation (EU) No 524/2013, personal data related to a 
dispute is kept in the database for the time necessary to achieve the purposes for which 
the data were collected and to ensure that data subjects are able to access their personal 
data in order to exercise their rights. That data should be automatically deleted, at the 
latest six months after the date of conclusion of the dispute which has been transmitted 
to the ODR platform. The Commission should inform users of the platform with open 
ADR cases of the closure of the platform in good time, and in any case at least four 
months before the platform is discontinued. The  Commission should offer assistance 
to those users of the platform who wish to retrieve their case data. 

As  the  ODR  platform  is  referred  to  as  a  platform  that  enables  consumers  to  request 
traders to  agree to  an out  of court dispute resolution  in  other Union legal  acts, those 
acts  should  be  amended  to  remove  references  to  that  platform.  Regulations  (EU) 
2017/239413  and  (EU)  2018/172414  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council 
should therefore be amended accordingly. 

(10)  Certain Directives contain references to Regulation (EU) No 524/2013. Therefore, its 
repeal  makes  it  necessary  to  amend  Directives  (EU)  2015/230215,  (EU)  2019/216116 

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Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2018 on 
the  financial  rules  applicable  to  the  general  budget  of  the  Union,  amending  Regulations  (EU)  No 
1296/2013, (EU) No 1301/2013, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 1304/2013, (EU) No 1309/2013, (EU) 
No  1316/2013,  (EU)  No  223/2014,  (EU)  No  283/2014,  and  Decision  No  541/2014/EU  and  repealing 
Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 (OJ L 193, 30.7.2018, p. 1). 
Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2017 on 
cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws 
and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 (OJ L 345, 27.12.2017, p. 1). 
Regulation  (EU)  2018/1724  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  2  October  2018 
establishing a single digital gateway to provide access to information, to procedures and to assistance 
and problem-solving services and amending Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 (OJ L 295, 21.11.2018, p. 
1). 
Directive  (EU)  2015/2302  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  25  November  2015  on 
package travel and linked travel arrangements, amending Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 and Directive 
2011/83/EU  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  and  repealing  Council  Directive 
90/314/EEC (OJ L 326, 11.12.2015, p. 1). 
Directive  (EU)  2019/2161  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  27  November  2019 
amending  Council  Directive  93/13/EEC  and  Directives  98/6/EC,  2005/29/EC  and  2011/83/EU  of  the 
European Parliament and of the Council as regards the better enforcement and modernisation of Union 
consumer protection rules (OJ L 328, 18.12.2019, p. 7). 

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and (EU) 2020/182817 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which is to be 
done in Directive [xxx/xxx ] of the European Parliament and of the Council amending 
Directive 2013/11/EU on alternative dispute resolution for consumer disputes[18], 

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: 

Article 1 

Regulation (EU) No 524/2013 is repealed with effect [insert date six months after the date of 
entry into force of this Regulation]. 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

The European ODR Platform shall be discontinued. 

Article 2 

The submission of complaints shall be discontinued on [insert date [two months after 
the date of entry into force of this Regulation/ four months before the repeal of this 
Regulation]. 

The  Commission  shall  inform  users  of  the  platform  with  open  ADR  cases  of  the 
discontinuance of the platform by [insert date two months after the date of entry into 
force of this Regulation/four months before the repeal of this Regulation] and offer 
assistance to retrieve case data accessible to them if they wish to do so.  

At the latest as of [dd/mm/yy, i.e. six months after the date of entry into force of this 
Regulation]  all  information  including  personal  data  related  to  the  disputes  in  the 
ODR platform shall be deleted.  

Article 3 
Amendment to Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 

In the Annex to Regulation (EU) 2017/2394, point 22 is deleted. 

Article 4 
Amendment to Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 

In Annex III to Regulation (EU) 2018/1724, point 7 is replaced by the following: 

‘The  list  of  alternative  consumer  dispute  resolution  entities  established  by  the  Commission 
pursuant to Article 20(4) of the Directive 2013/11/EU’19. 

Article 5 
Entry into force 

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in 
the Official Journal of the European Union. 

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Directive  (EU)  2020/1828  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  25  November  2020  on 
representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers and repealing Directive 
2009/22/EC (OJ L 409, 4.12.2020, p. 1). 
[OP: please insert reference to COM(2023) 649] 
Directive  2013/11/EU  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  21 May  2013  on  alternative 
dispute  resolution  for  consumer  disputes  and  amending  Regulation  (EC)  No 2006/2004 and  Directive 
2009/22/EC (OJ L 165, 18.6.2013, p. 63). 

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This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. 

Done at Brussels, 

For the European Parliament 
The President 

For the Council 
The President 

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