Topic Consumer protection Dispute resolution
Article from the Annual Report 2016 of the BaFin
Consumer Dispute Resolution Act and Regulation on Financial Dispute Resolution Entities
The German Consumer Dispute Resolution Act (Verbraucherstreitbeilegungsgesetz)1, which implements the European provisions of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Directive and sets new standards for independent, transparent arbitration proceedings, entered into force on 1 April 2016. The arbitration board at BaFin is now an official consumer dispute resolution entity, and a large number of long-established private dispute resolution entities have been recognised as consumer dispute resolution entities by the Federal Office of Justice (Bundesamt für Justiz). By the same token, the responsibilities of the arbitration board at BaFin have been expanded through section 14 of the German Injunctions Act (Unterlassungsklagengesetz). The dispute resolution procedure is governed by the German Regulation on Financial Dispute Resolution Entities (Finanzschlichtungsstellenverordnung), which entered into force for the arbitration board at BaFin on 1 February 2017.2
Cooperation with other dispute resolution entities
The arbitration board at BaFin has been a member of the financial dispute resolution network (FIN-NET)3 at the European Commission since 2012, which helps customers resolve cross-border disputes out of court. In September 2016, the arbitration board at BaFin, together with the other national members of FIN-NET and with the support of the Federal Ministry of Finance, hosted a plenary meeting in Berlin, the first such meeting to be held in Germany.
On 8 September 2016, BaFin hosted a meeting of representatives of the financial sector's dispute resolution entities for the fifth time.
Footnotes:
- 1 See 2015 Annual Report, page 65.
- 2 See 2016 activity report of the Arbitration Board of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (only available in German).
- 3 The website of the financial dispute resolution network can be found here.
