Legal Issues Arising in Online Dispute Resolution Systems

These days, the Internet activity has become one of the routines of everyday life of people around the world. Its growth has created an ideal platform for business transactions particularly between the parties far away from each other. Although business to consumer (B2C) e-commerce has been influenced positively by this trend, each online transaction might lead to transaction disputes as their offline versions. It has been recognized that Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) is helpful in solving online disputes. ODR combines the advantages of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and those of the new information technology to reduce the cost. Accordingly, there is no need for traveling and the parties can participate from different locations in ODR and present their documents in a written form including email attachments along with copies fees and postal charges avoidable. Moreover, there is no limitation in terms of time in ODR since it is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week around the world removing the potential problems of time zone descriptions. Although ODR has many advantages over traditional dispute mechanisms, some of its characteristics pose fundamental problems. In this study, in terms of methodology, content analysis as well as comparative and jurisprudence approaches have been used. It focuses on the legal issues in consumer ODR including the enforcement of outcomes, publication and confidentiality, the significance of trust and redress mechanism, and the security and inequality of bargaining power in B2C disputes. Based on the results, this paper will make recommendations on how to improve ODR systems and enhance consumer protection in online transactions.