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Global ADR Agreement
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Agreement on Global ADR 
An agreement on Global ADR was announced in November between Consumers International [CI www.consumersinternational.org ] (representing 250 consumer groups based in 115 countries), and the Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce [GBDe www.gbde.org ] (an organization of 35 multinational corporations based in Asia/Pacific. Europe/Africa and the Americas. The ADR agreement can be viewed on the GBDe site (listed above) under the results of the NYC plenary meeting (pp 54-61).
This ADR agreement consists of guidelines for merchants who want to sell to consumers in a global market, prescriptions for ADR organizations as to what consumers and businesses will expect from dispute resolution providers, and recommendations to governments on what they need to do to ensure that their citizens will be protected in cross-border transactions.
As can be imagined, coming to an agreement between consumer organizations and global businesses on the 'rules of the road' for consumer protections in the global marketplace was not easy. The process took two years, thru multiple voice & video conferences, endless e-mail traffic, and 17 separate drafts of the final document. Both sides felt however, that the goals were important and that the process was successful. However, as the "Joint Statement" (below) makes clear, the CI/GBDe agreement on ADR are "still just words on paper" until global ADR programs are in place to resolve real disputes for actual consumers.
Comments and critiques on these documents, and thoughts and suggestions on how to move forward on the development of reciprocal ADR programs in the global B2C marketplace would be most welcome.
Scott Cooper
Hewlett-Packard
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Joint Statement:
Consumers International and the
Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce
On Alternative Dispute Resolution Guidelines
November, 2003
We are pleased to announce an agreement between our two organizations on the Alternative Dispute Resolution guidelines (or 'rules of the road' regarding Alternative Dispute Resolution), that should be followed by merchants who want to sell in the global electronic marketplace. As stated in the document, global electronic commerce will only grow and flourish "if consumers feel confident that their interests are sufficiently protected in the case of disputes."
The "Guidelines" make a number of specific recommendations to merchants, encouraging them to set up in-house customer satisfaction systems, to utilize Trustmark programs, and to offer their customers the right (not the obligation) to utilize ADR.
The "ADR Guidelines" also offer recommendations to ADR providers, on the need for speed, accessibility, impartiality and transparency of the ADR process. ADR providers, when they discover potential cases of fraud, deceit or patterns of abuse, should also have the obligation of reporting such cases to legal authorities.
We recommend that governments play an important and constructive role to "promote and facilitate the development of high quality ADR services that are independent, transparent, cost-effective, flexible and accountable to the public..."
While we believe that this global agreement between representatives of consumers and businesses is an historic milestone in the growth of the global electronic marketplace, these are still just words on paper unless actual ADR programs are developed that resolve real disputes for consumers seeking resolution. Consumers must feel confident that they will have rights of redress if a cross-border dispute should arise. As well, governments must feel confident that their citizens will not suffer a falling-off of consumer protections when they transact business online.
Therefore, CI and GBDe will continue to work together to ensure the creation of ADR programs that will meet the obligations described in these "Guidelines". We welcome the constructive support of global policymakers, businesses and consumers in realizing this goal.
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