Includes bibliographical references / The absence of appropriate and effective mechanisms for consumer disputes in a legal system can result in a denial of access to justice. Consumers struggle to have their disputes settled because most of their claims are of small value and some consumers are low-income earners. Costs of litigating a claim in the formal court system are very high and the procedural formalities involved hinder consumers‟access to justice. As a result, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) seems to address that challenge as an appropriate approach to consumer disputes because it promises cost effective, efficient and fast mechanisms of resolving disputes. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of alternative dispute resolution in Lesotho in consumer protection. This is achieved by examining the available dispute resolution processes and how they function. Also, this study makes a comparison with the South African law regulating consumer protection in particular dispute resolution. It discusses ADR in consumer protection at international level as contained in the OECD report and EU Directives. The problem that exists in the market place is that bargaining power favours the sellers. As a result there are laws in place that protect consumers against manipulative or fraudulent sellers, but those laws do not mean anything to consumers if they cannot be enforced through proper channels for their benefit. Therefore, there have been various ADR mechanisms adopted by different legal systems in order to assist consumers to fully realise their rights. Some of these ADR mechanisms might be appropriate for consumer disputes but are very advanced and are not appropriate for a country like Lesotho due to the nature of consumers there and the country‟s economy. Despite South Africa being more economically developed compared to Lesotho it has introduced some of the ADR procedures which are easy to establish and seem to be working well to address consumers‟ claims. As a result, this study would recommend Lesotho to amend its laws in relation to consumer dispute resolution and revise Consumer policy which has been adopted recently.

The arbitration in consumer disputes ABSTRACT The topic of this thesis is especially arbitration in consumer disputes. The general part of work dedicates the historical progress of arbitration and common attribute of arbitration and also takes into account the role of the courts in arbitration proceedings with respect to some aspects of consumer disputes in particular. A special part of this work deals with advantages and disadvantages of arbitration from the point of view of consumer and special legislation in arbitration in consumer disputes as well. The aim of the work is to evaluate if the arbitration is suitable way to decision making in the area of consumer disputes in comparison with functionality of arbitration in commercial disputes, and also the aim is to find an appropriate way to settlement of consumer disputes in arbitration, if there is one.

RESUMÉ Legal status of an Arbitrator Arbitration especially in 20th century developed into a fully qualified alternative instead of solving property disputes by means of general Courts. It is necessary to point out that the aspects which differ it from civil process and frequently targets of polemics. Even though the development of the arbitration in the Czech Republic has been considerable in the last decade and both general Courts and Constitution Court has responded with sufficient intensity, there are still some areas of unstable arbitration. Arbitration comes with considerable amount of advantages in comparison with general Courts, but also it brings some topics which are often criticized. That is often caused by a specific point of view not regarding every aspect. In arbitration there is a possibility to influence composition of arbitrary forum, which is a typical example of problems coming from different adaptations. This adaptation is absolutely different from the one of trials, where on the contrary there is the rule of regular judge, which is warranted by exact definition of the matter, place and function. In arbitration both parties to a contract are allowed to choose an arbitrator regarding his qualification, specialization, professional skills and reputation which is an advantage for the...

The purpose of my thesis, which is named "Arbitration clauses in consumer disputes", is to confirm or rebut the hypothesis that valid pre-dispute arbitration agreement can be concluded with a consumer, and if the hypothesis is confirmed, what requirements have to be met. The text is composed of five chapters, the introduction, and the conclusion, and each of the chapters deals with different aspects of arbitration clauses in consumers' disputes. Chapter One is introductory and defines the terminology used in the thesis, such as the consumer dispute, the arbitration clause, and the protection of the consumer as the weaker party. Chapter Two concerns the admissibility of an arbitration clause for the settlement of consumer disputes. This chapter is subdivided into three parts. The first part describes the European and the American points of view of pre-dispute arbitration agreements. The second part examines the arbitration clause as an unfair term according to the Council Directive 93/13/EEC of April 5th , 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts and with regard to the related case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and its implementation into the Czech legal system. This part describes the personal applicability, non-individual negotiation, non-fulfillment of the requirement of...

Based on the analysis of legal regulations, data and other information regarding consumer protection, it is proposed to establish a specific system of out-of-court settlement of consumer disputes. The settlement is proposed in three variants, showing the best variant, and meets the basic principles and objectives for this type of settlement of consumer disputes -- transparency, better efficiency and low cost. The system was proposed based on information obtained from international studies, documents, national sources -- the market surveillance authority, non-governmental consumer associations, etc. as well as on experience with preparing and implementing the recent pilot project of out-of-court settlement of consumer disputes.

The aim of the thesis is an analysis of ADR among Czech consumers and consumer Czech and Czech dealer. ADR System Analysis is performed using a questionnaire survey among respondents - consumers and controlled depth interviews with the staff of ADR. Based on analysis of collected data will be provided suggestions for improvement.

Dans son sens le plus courant, mais aussi le plus étroit, la résolution des conflits en ligne (RCL) réfère à la migration, vers Internet, des modes alternatifs de règlement des conflits. Notre mémoire se concentre sur la transposition, en ligne, des seuls modes amiables de règlement des différends, dont font notamment partie la négociation et la médiation. La question guidant notre étude consiste à savoir si la résolution en ligne permet d’accroître l’accès du consommateur québécois à la justice. La première partie répond par l’affirmative, en démontrant en quoi la RCL permet de surmonter plusieurs obstacles à la fois objectifs et subjectifs auxquels se heurte le consommateur québécois souhaitant obtenir justice. Nous y présentons également certaines critiques récurrentes en matière de RCL et y répondons. Si cette première partie aborde essentiellement la question du pourquoi il est opportun de recourir au règlement électronique des litiges de consommation dans une perspective d’accès à la justice, la seconde s’intéresse à celle du comment. Notre hypothèse est que si le recours à la RCL est souhaitable pour améliorer l’accès du consommateur québécois à la justice, ce mode de règlement ne pourra véritablement porter ses fruits que s’il est encadré par l’État. Nous démontrons ainsi l’opportunité d’une intervention étatique en matière de règlement en ligne des différends de consommation. Selon nous, seule l’institutionnalisation de la RCL permettra de lever, en partie du moins, les barrières qui ont freiné, jusqu’à maintenant, le déploiement à grande échelle de ce procédé de règlement novateur. / According to its most common, but also most narrow definition, Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) refers to the electronic form of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). Our master’s thesis focuses on the online version of consensual dispute resolution processes, among which negotiation and mediation are found. The question underlying our research is the following: does ODR increase Quebec consumers’ access to justice? The first part of our study gives a positive answer to this question, by demonstrating how ODR can tackle many obstacles, both objective and subjective, to Quebec consumers’ access to justice. It also provides answers to the most frequent criticisms of ODR. This first part essentially addresses the question of why ODR can enhance consumers’ access to justice, while the second part focuses on the how. Our hypothesis is that ODR’s numerous advantages with regards to consumers’ access to justice will only truly materialize in practice if the government intervenes to regulate this dispute resolution method. We therefore demonstrate the opportunity of a State involvement in the field of consumer ODR. In our opinion, institutionalizing ODR will lift, partially at least, barriers that have hindered, to this day, the large-scale deployment of this innovative dispute resolution process.

The aim of this work is to analyze the system alternative dispute resolution of cross-border consumer disputes within the EU, Norway and Iceland and the proposal to improve the system. To create this work was done study of theoretical perspectives on alternative dispute resolution of consumer disputes and consumer protection. It was implemented the managed-depth interviews, the analysis of secondary data and the case study. The conclusion was to evaluate all of the data and defined a proposal to improve cross-court resolution of consumer disputes.

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