Press Release: Electronic commerce: Commission launches ‘e-confidence’ on-line forum to promote alternative dispute resolution

The European Commission has proposed to set up an on-line 'e-confidence forum' for the exchange of information, knowledge and experience in the field of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). The aim of the on-line forum would be to assist in co-ordination between different initiatives to promote rapid and effective redress mechanisms to resolve, at low cost and without legal procedures, potential problems encountered by businesses and consumers when buying goods or services on the Internet (particularly from other countries). The on-line forum was endorsed by participants at a recent ADR Workshop organised by the Commission in Brussels and is the latest in a series of Commission initiatives to promote ADR schemes. The European Commission's eEurope Initiative, announced by President Romano Prodi at the Helsinki Summit last December, and discussed at the extraordinary Lisbon European Council, 23-24.3.00, identified the rapid deployment of ADR schemes as an essential element in creating consumer confidence in electronic commerce.