What to do

Generally speaking, whenever a problem arises in purchasing a product or providing a service, the Consumer is invited to activate the following tools:

File a complaint

In the event of problems related to the purchase of a product or the provision of a service, the Consumer has the first option of submitting a complaint directly to the Professional in order to explain the problem and explore possible solutions.

You should contact the Professional's customer service department, whose contact details are generally listed on the company's website. The Professional is required to provide all information regarding the cause of the problem and, if it cannot be resolved directly, is required to direct the Consumer towards the appropriate action.

Contact a Consumer Association

If the complaint sent to the Professional has been unsuccessful and has not received a response, or if the response received is not sufficient to resolve the reported problem, the Consumer can contact one of the Consumer and User Associations listed in the national register of the Ministry of Economic Development and seek assistance in resolving the problem that has arisen with the Professional.

Consumer Associations are non-profit organizations whose sole statutory purpose is to protect and defend consumer interests. The most representative associations at the national level are registered in the single national register maintained by the Ministry of Economic Development pursuant to Article 137 of the Consumer Code.

Activate an ADR procedure

If, following a complaint, the Professional responds negatively or fails to respond at all, the Consumer can initiate an ADR procedure. These procedures offer the advantage of offering a quick and effective resolution of disputes between Professionals and Consumers (as well as streamlining the legal burden) since they proceed through "alternative" channels without resorting to judicial authorities. Furthermore, they prevent Consumers, discouraged by the costs and length of legal proceedings, from giving up on protecting their rights.

What are ADR procedures?

ADR is the acronym for “Alternative Dispute Resolution”.

These are out-of-court dispute resolution procedures that comply with the requirements set out in Title II-bis of the Consumer Code (Article 141, paragraph 1, letter g).

The matter is regulated by Articles 141-141 decies of the Consumer Code. ADR procedures were introduced into Italian law with Legislative Decree No. 130 of 6 August 2015, which implemented the Consumer ADR Directive 2013/11/EU.

These are voluntary procedures initiated at the request of the Consumer, who will be the plaintiff in the proceedings. They are mostly free of charge or subject to "merely symbolic costs" for the consumer (Article 141-quater, paragraph 3, letter c). It should be noted that in ADR procedures, the Parties are not required to seek legal assistance. The registered ADR Body must have access to dispute resolution mediators with adequate and specific training, demonstrated through educational qualifications and any certifications, as required by the individual competent authorities (Article 141-bis, paragraph 4, letter a).

ADR entities are required to be transparent, impartial, and fair towards the parties to the proceedings and consumers in general. Specifically, ADR entities must inform the public, through annual reports, about the procedures, the types of disputes, the rules governing the submission of complaints, the criteria guiding the adoption of decisions, etc. (Article 141 bis).

Reasons for rejecting a particular dispute

The grounds for refusing to handle a specific dispute are set forth in Article 2 of the Consumer Mediation Regulations. The request to initiate the ADR procedure may be rejected by the Conciliation Body Concordia et Ius srl for one of the following reasons:

• The Consumer did not attempt to contact the Professional concerned to discuss his complaint nor did he, as a first step, seek to resolve the matter directly with the Professional.
• The controversy is either frivolous or reckless.
• The dispute is being examined or has already been examined by another Conciliation Body or by a Judicial Body.
• The value of the dispute is lower or higher than a pre-established monetary threshold at a level that does not significantly impair the Consumer's access to complaint handling.
• The Consumer has not submitted the request to the Conciliation Body Concordia et Ius srl within a pre-established time limit, which must not be less than one year from the date on which the Consumer submitted the complaint to the Professional.
• Handling this type of dispute would risk significantly harming the effective functioning of the Conciliation body Concordia et Ius srl

The decision to reject the initiation of the procedure is left exclusively to the discretion of the designated Mediator, following the effective initiation of the Mediation and the subsequent acceptance of the Invited Party's request. If, in accordance with their procedural rules, the designated Mediator decides to reject a dispute assigned to them, they may provide both Parties who have accepted the Mediation with a reasoned communication explaining the reasons for not considering the dispute within twenty days of the invited Party's acceptance. After this deadline, without further communication from the Mediator, the Mediation will continue as normal.

Operating mode

1. The ADR procedure may be carried out, at the request of the Parties:

Through actual meetings between the Mediator and the Parties at the offices of the Conciliation Body Concordia et Ius srl

Using remote communication tools, in compliance with the rules on the processing of personal data and confidentiality

Conciliation takes place in a simplified form, through a non-simultaneous exchange of communications between the Parties and the Conciliator.

2. The language of the procedure will be Italian or, at the joint request of both Parties, English.

3. In the event that a procedure based on physical meetings between the Mediator and the Parties is requested, the meetings will be held at the headquarters of the Conciliation Body Concordia et Ius srl closest to the Consumer's residence, or at another location jointly chosen by the Parties.

4. The ADR procedure will begin within 30 days of the respondent Party's accession, unless otherwise agreed between the Parties or due to justified organizational needs of the Service.

5. The Parties participate in the procedure personally or, for justified reasons, through their own representative with full negotiating powers.

6. The Parties have the right – but not the obligation – to seek assistance from lawyers, representatives of consumer or trade associations, or other trusted persons.

7. In any case, it is necessary for each Party to communicate to the Secretariat, with sufficient notice, who will participate in the ADR procedure or the Parties thereof, as well as, if assisted by Lawyers, the personal details of the Lawyers assisting them.

8. The procedure is expeditious and will last a maximum of 90 days from receipt of the complete application file; this deadline, if necessary, in the case of particularly complex disputes, may be extended, once only, by an additional 90 days; the Parties must be informed of this extension and of the new deadline for completing the procedure (Article 141-quater, paragraph 3, letter e).

9. The Mediator conducts the meeting without procedural formalities and may hear the Parties jointly and separately.

10. In special cases, upon request of the Parties, the Secretariat may identify a Technical Consultant, following the indications provided by the Mediator, provided that all Parties request it and undertake to equally cover the related costs.

11. The Conciliation Body Concordia et Ius srl has expert consumer mediators responsible for resolving disputes who possess adequate and specific training, in accordance with the provisions of the individual competent authorities (Article 141-bis, paragraph 4, letter a), and complies with the obligations of transparency, impartiality, and fairness towards the parties to the proceedings and consumers in general, informing the Parties, through annual reports, about the procedural methods, the types of disputes, the rules governing the submission of complaints, the criteria guiding the adoption of decisions, etc. (Article 141-bis).

12. The quality of the procedure is guaranteed by compliance with the ADR legislation on consumer matters contained in the Directive and by the monitoring of the activities of registered bodies carried out by the competent Authority. In particular, the registration of the Body in the list managed by the competent Authority provides registered ADR bodies with a quality certification, thus giving them visibility at the European level through inclusion on the ODR platform.

13. Recourse to an ADR procedure does not affect the Consumer's or Professional's right to appeal to the competent judicial authority (Article 141, paragraph 10). Regardless of the outcome of the ADR procedure, the Consumer retains the fundamental right to appeal to the competent judicial authority (this is a fundamental right established by the European Convention on Human Rights).