Under Directive 2013/11/EU, Member States are able to introduce national legislation to make traders’ participation in ADR compulsory in sectors they consider appropriate, in addition to sector-specific Union legislation which provides for mandatory participation of traders in ADR. In any event, Member States should ensure that once a competent ADR entity decides to consider a consumer complaint in accordance with its procedural rules, that ADR entity contacts and invites the trader concerned to participate in the ADR procedure, irrespective of whether the participation of the trader is mandatory or not. To encourage traders’ participation in ADR procedures and to ensure due and swift ADR procedures, traders established in the Union should be required to reply within a specific period to enquiries made by ADR entities as to whether they agree to participate in the proposed ADR procedure. The aim of the duty to reply is to engage traders in the ADR procedure and to ensure that ADR entities and consumers know whether or not the trader will participate in the ADR procedure in a particular case. However, a trader’s reply should not be required where the applicable law provides for the trader’s mandatory participation in the ADR procedure or where the trader is contractually obliged to participate in the ADR procedure. This is without prejudice to any procedural rules that allow ADR entities to close the case when the trader is not participating in that ADR procedure within the time periods set by this Directive. Similarly, the trader’s reply should not be required where the ADR entity is entitled to reach an outcome even where the trader does not participate in the ADR procedure.
Text as published in the Official Journal, reproduced verbatim (including any typographical quirks of the source). For the authentic version, see EUR-Lex.
