Study on the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution for Business to Business disputes in the European Union

In the EU there was an absence of uniformity in legislation across the Member States, particularly when it came to mediation. The different individual frameworks failed to fully address the increasing levels of cross-border Business to Business (B2B) disputes.

At the request of the European Commission Directorate General for Justice, a study was carried out by ADR Center jointly with Ecorys , as part of the preparation of possible new initiatives dealing with ADR in B2B disputes, complementing the instrument on ADR for B2C disputes, and complementing the Mediation Directive and the Brussels I Regulation.

The general policy objective of this study was to provide the European Commission with an accurate and comprehensive view of European businesses’ use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). To achieve this, the study had the following specific objectives:

• An overview of the B2B ADR legal frameworks in the EU;
• An overview of existing ADR schemes and their main characteristics;
• An analysis of the problems encountered by businesses which face a B2B dispute;
• An estimate of the use of B2B ADR schemes;
• A review of costs and savings of ADR schemes;
  › demand (businesses and particularly SMEs);
  › supply (State and private providers)