El marco regulador en proyecto en España para la resolución alternativa de conflictos: ¿nuevas perspectivas para las reclamaciones de consumo?

Abstract

With Law 7/2017, the legislator intends to favor the development and qualification of alternative consumer dispute resolution systems to promote consumer confidence, although this task has not yet finished. Proof of this is the legislative initiative presented by the Spanish legislator for conflict resolution in the field of air transport and in which an ad hoc procedure is designed for this type of claims. Its general assessment, although positive, is susceptible to improvement for its complete adaptation to European Law and Law 7/2007. However, we believe that it is necessary for the Spanish legislator to bet on the development of joint and coordinated channels of action between the RAL entities and the judicial system. Consumer confidence would be greater if the RAL entities help facilitate the resolution of litigation in the judicial process, and the new Draft Law to promote mediation seems to be the opportunity to materialize this purpose, by opting in this area for a change of model oriented towards the «mitigated mandatory mediation». A model of mediation that, as we have shown, does not violate either the principle of autonomy of the will or that of effective judicial protection. In addition, we believe that this legislative initiative could be a great opportunity to help facilitate the resolution of litigation arising in the field of consumer law. However, it is an initiative in which there is scope for improvement.