Monday 19 October 2015

Mapping the new world of accredited ADR schemes

The following blog first appeared on the UKAJI website on 19 October 2015. 


The ADR Directive is now fully operational in the UK. As of 1 October 2015, traders are required to notify their consumers as to their opportunities to pursue ADR and whether the trader chooses, or is bound, to adopt an accredited ADR process when complaints are received.  The focus of this blog is on the early results of the new regulatory arrangement put in place by the Directive, with a view to raising some likely issues of concern for the future.

Although the ADR Directive is primarily a consumer law issue, the overlaps in this area with administrative justice concerns are multiple, especially where ombudsman schemes are concerned (eg see Walter Merricks). Not only does the work of several accredited ADR schemes cover services which would once have been considered as essential public services, but some of the ombudsman schemes affected by the Directive are subject to judicial review. Moreover, in the medium term, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ (Bis) approach to encouraging the sector will likely have an influence on the Government’s parallel efforts to upgrade the role of ADR in the traditional public sector.