ODR for consumers

The Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform is provided by the European Commission to allow consumers and traders in the EU or Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein to resolve disputes relating to online purchases of goods and services without going to court.

The service is free of charge, and provides translations in all EU languages and Norwegian.

ODR platform  General questions 

• You live in an EU country or in Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein.
• The trader is based in an EU country or in Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein.
• Your complaint is about a good or service you bought online.
• You have the right email address for the trader.
• You have already contacted the trader about your complaint.
• This is the first time you are trying to reach an out-of-court settlement with the trader.
• You have not previously taken the trader to court over your complaint.

1. Make a complaint

Start by filling in the online complaint form. Enter a few details about yourself, the trader, your purchase and what your complaint is about. Upload any relevant documents (e.g. invoice, purchase order).

You can submit your complaint right away, or save it as a draft.

You have 6 months to submit your complaint if you do save it as a draft. After that, all drafts are automatically deleted for data protection reasons.

2. Choose a dispute resolution body

Once the trader has agreed to use the dispute resolution procedure to address your complaint, you will have 30 days to agree on the dispute resolution body that will handle your dispute.

The trader will send you, via the platform, the name(s) of one or more dispute resolution bodies able to deal with it. It is advisable to read the information provided about these dispute resolution bodies (fees, geographical coverage, procedures, etc.) to make sure they handle complaints like yours.

You can agree to one of them to handle your complaint or request a new list. If you created your complaint without registering, you must now sign into the system to register. If necessary, create an ODR account.

If you cannot agree on a dispute resolution body within 30 days, your complaint will not be processed further through the platform.

3. Resolve your complaint

Once the dispute resolution body reaches an outcome on your complaint it will indicate this in the ODR platform.

You will receive an alert that your complaint has an outcome. You will need to log into your account to read the outcome.

You can view our detailed user guide for a step-by-step tutorial for using the ODR platform.