Activation of Dispute Resolution under UNCITRAL Technical Notes on Online Dispute Resolution

Abstract

To reduce the number of e-commerce disputes is very difficult because the risks involved in e-commerce transaction are fairly various and serious. However, effort has been made to make users allow easier access to ODR to give the ways to resolve those disputes at a quicker and cheaper way, that is, Online Dispute Resolution. UNCITRAL finalized and adopted the Technical Notes on Online Dispute Resolution at its forty-ninth session in 2016. The Technical Notes on Online Dispute Resolution are non-binding, and take the form of a descriptive document, reflecting elements of an online dispute resolution process. Under the Technical Notes, the process of an ODR proceeding consists of three stages: negotiation, facilitated settlement, and a third (final) stage. ODR platform can provide an accessible method of resolving disputes for the large number of parties for whom traditional courts are now too expensive. ODR platform provides a modern and cost effective process to resolve e-commerce disputes to the parties’ best interest. ODR platform is a platform that is sophisticated and best designed to maximise the opportunities for e-commerce dispute resolution and minimise the access to justice. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the activation of ODR platform by studying three stages of ODR process such as negotiation, facilitated settlement, and a third (final) stage.