The rapid growth of electronic commerce increases the potential for conflicts over contracts which have been entered into online (e.g. about price, late delivery, defects, specifications ...). Thus, the use of online dispute resolution (ODR) mechanisms to resolve such e-commerce conflicts is...

ODR systems can be considered to be a very specific kind of Web services, requiring the support of new types of communication adapted to dispute resolution processes (negotiation, mediation, and arbitration) and corresponding to security mechanisms such as integrity and confidentiality of data....

This report seeks to assess both legally and technologically the first experiments in online dispute resolution and to formulate, on this basis, recommendations for the improvement of dispute settlement mechanisms using information technology. It involves, first, a review of the existing...