TITLE IV ‘RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS IN RELATION TO THE PROVISION AND USE OF PAYMENT SERVICES’, CHAPTER 6 ‘ADR PROCEDURES FOR THE SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES’

The ODR regulation established an ODR platform, a clearing house where consumers can file complaints against traders that should be consecutively taken up by an ADR provider complying with the ADR Directive. However, the EU ODR platform has not really been a success. Websites should refer to the platform, but are not obliged to submit to an ADR scheme. Lack of awareness is another reason for the lack of success of the ODR platform. Information society service providers are required to refer to the platform, but hardly any do. Among the top 100 e-commerce websites in some countries, not a single one referred to the platform, and even in the best scoring countries fewer than 20 out of 100 websites referred to the platform.5 If you ask an audience6 if anyone is familiar with the EU ODR platform, at best one or two will be. The failure of the ODR platform means we must continue to wait to experience successful uptake of ODR. The PSD2 Directive, however, may lead to more use of ADR and ODR, for it is obligatory for payment service providers to apply ADR. This is the main difference from the PSD. If we compare Article 83 PSD with Article 102 PSD2, apart from different terminology the articles are largely the same, but a very important difference is that it is compulsory for payment service providers to use ADR. The other major difference is Article 101 on dispute resolution, which is totally new – there is no similar Article in the PSD. Articles 80 and 81 PSD are almost identical to Article 99 and 103. Finally, Article 82 is largely similar to Article 100, expect that Article 100 has some additional subparagraphs. The additions are not very interesting, though: Article 100(2) determines that competent authorities should possess powers and resources, Article 100(3) that they should act in accordance with national law and Article 100(5) that the Commission should be notified of the designated competent authorities. Article 100(6) is the most interesting, requiring the EBA to issue guidelines.