S.L. 378.18 Art. 6Grounds on which anADRentitymay refuse to deal with a given dispute.

(1) An ADR entity may, with the prior written consent of the Council, maintain or introduce procedural rules that allow it to refuse to deal with a given dispute on the grounds that:

(a) the consumer did not attempt to contact the trader concerned in order to discuss his complaint and seek, as a first step, to resolve the matters directly with the trader;

(b) the dispute is frivolous or vexatious;

(c) the dispute is being or has previously been considered by another ADR entity or by a competent court or tribunal;

(d) the value of the claim falls below or above a pre-specified monetary threshold;

(e) the consumer has not submitted the complaint to the ADR entity within a pre-specified time limit, which shall not be set at less than one year from the date upon which the consumer submitted the complaint to the trader; and

(f) dealing with such a type of dispute would otherwise seriously impair the effective operation of the ADR entity: Provided that the Council shall determine whether to give its consent or not within seven working days from the receipt of a request from the ADR entity. In doing so, the Council shall in writing inform the ADR entity concerned of the reasons for its decision.

(2) Subject to the provisions of sub-regulation (1) where, in accordance with its procedural rules, an ADR entity is unable to consider a dispute that has been submitted to it, that ADR entity shall provide all the parties to the dispute with a reasoned written explanation of the grounds for not considering the dispute within three weeks of receiving the complaint file: Provided that such procedural rules shall not significantly impair consumers’ access to ADR procedures, including in the case of cross-border disputes.

(3) Where in accordance with sub-regulation (1)(d), an ADR entity is permitted to establish pre-specified monetary thresholds in order to limit access to its ADR procedures, those thresholds shall not be set a level at which they significantly impair the consumers’ access to complaint handling by the aforesaid ADR entity.