The Ministry of Economy issued a press release to announce that this institution would act as competent authority and single point of contact with the European Commission for alternative resolution of disputes between consumers and traders.

The release can be read here:

http://economie.gov.ro/ministerul-economiei-devine-autoritate-competenta-in-materia-solutionarii-alternative-a-litigiilor-transfrontaliere

Please note that this is the first step towards inclusion of the Alternative Banking Dispute Resolution Centre (ABDRC) in the European out-of-court alternative dispute resolution platform. The next step requires the single point of contact from Romania, that is the Ministry of Economy, to submit the documents to the European Commission, and register ABDRC as the ADR entity in the banking field from our country.

Once all of these requirements have been met, ABDRC shall appear on the single ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) platform as ODR (Online Dispute Resolution) entity. Nevertheless, these pending procedures do not prevent in any way operation of ABDRC, including online. Approximately 75% of the consumer applications received by the Alternative Banking Dispute Resolution Centre are emailed.

BENEFITS FOR CONSUMERS

Once all the formalities have been completed, any consumer in any Member State shall be able to file a complaint with an ODR entity via the European platform to have a dispute with a trader in a given country resolved, provided that an alternative resolution entity in the field of the complaint operate in that country. For instance, when a consumer reports an improper practice of a bank or NBFI and claims compensations from this trader established in Romania, they approach ABDRC. When, for instance, the complaint regards a trader in the gas, energy, phoning, etc. industry, a check needs to be run to see whether ADR Centers are established for these industries.

Similarly, Romanian consumers who have a dispute with a commercial bank established in another EU country, or when their loan agreement, for instance, was assigned to branch of the bank from another EU country, they can approach, via the ODR platform, the alternative dispute resolution entity in that country.

Dedicated ODR website in the EU, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, together with the list of dispute resolution entities reported by the Member States:  

https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/main/index.cfm?event=main.adr.show