Deadline: 2-Sep-21
The European Commission (EC) has announced a call for proposals for the Action Grants to provide Financial Contributions to Organisations Representing Consumer Interests in Members States or offering assistance to consumers in Member States in the form of Alternative Dispute Resolution.
The aim of this Call for proposals is to facilitate the consumers’ access to alternative dispute resolution entities compliant with Directive; including protection to vulnerable consumers, networking of national alternative dispute resolution entities, promoting monitoring activities on the functioning and the effectiveness of dispute resolution mechanisms.
Activities
A wide range of activities are eligible to be supported by grants provided that they can be linked to the expected results. Such activities may include for instance (nonexhaustive list):
- Awareness-raising on consumer ADR, including ADR networks, bringing knowledge on ADR to a wider groups of consumers and traders.
- ADR networks support: meetings, conferences, development of common tools and common knowledge to improve networking and sharing of best practices.
- Case handling: development of case management systems, including information technology tools, for instance, online migration of the case handling process to facilitate better screening and assessment of cases, communication with the parties to the disputes, case tracking, etc.
- ADR operational capacity: staff training on the relevant European legislation, mentoring, study visits, data sharing with other stakeholders, and consulting to allow ADR entities to implement working methods and organisational models to better fulfil their mission.
- Prototyping or purchasing tools based or artificial intelligence to assist decision-making.
- Performing statistical analysis of complaints and request by consumers to determine common problems.
Funding Information
- The available call budget is EUR 1 000 000.
Eligibility Criteria
- be legal entities (public or private bodies)
- be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)
- non-EU countries:
- EEA countries and countries associated to the Single Market Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature (participating countries).
- The applicants must be, on the date of the submission of the proposal, an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) entity notified to the European Commission pursuant of Directive on consumer ADR. Applicants are advised to verify their status by consulting the public list of ADR entities registered on the European ODR platform, and to contact their national competent authorities in case they are not listed in the platform or their details are incorrect.
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3yw8B2t