Online Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes provides important and timely interdisciplinary insights into the creation of a public consumer ODR system that is normatively compelling and contextually appropriate. It analyses the potential integration of an ODR system within judicial institutions to provide consumers with an avenue to resolve their disputes and obtain redress in a fair and efficient manner.
The book focuses on the unique design challenges that will need to be addressed if courts and tribunals decide to integrate an ODR system into their existing processes. Such integration is compatible with a broader conceptualization of access to civil justice that recognizes both the practical barriers for consumers in accessing justice and the need for any reforms in this area to be cognizant of the experiences of consumers, characteristics of consumer disputes, goals, and objectives of consumer protection policy and, fundamentally, civil justice values.
Vivi Tan argues that there is significant scope for judicial institutions as well as dispute resolution bodies to exploit innovations in information and communications technology, especially given the rapid innovation in dispute resolution technology including in relation to the various AI applications. Properly designed, developed, and deployed, a public ODR system should be capable of assisting consumers more effectively to access redress for contraventions of their rights under statute, and businesses' breaches of consumer laws will appropriately result in adverse consequences.
