Although micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) account for over 97% of APEC businesses they continue to face significant hurdles when it comes to access to justice in cross-border transactions. Dispute resolution remains one of the main challenges for trading, while sustainability and growth of MSMEs is very much dependent on the culture of dispute resolution and the way they interact with their counterparties.

In order to build trust in e-commerce, providing sufficient instruments to solve complaints, contradictions, and disputes online, in 2019 APEC agreed to the APEC Collaborative Framework for Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) of Cross-Border B2B Disputes. The ultimate goal of the Framework is raising businesses’ awareness of platforms offering online negotiation, mediation and arbitration in the APEC region and giving them an idea of how they may ensure the smooth online resolution of business-to-business claims, if any. One step towards such a goal is understanding what ODR solutions are currently in place, whether there is a favorable legal framework for their functioning and what are the obstacles for their further development and application.

This report offers an overview of trends regarding ODR technologies’ application in the APEC region as well as provides more detailed economies’ profiles based on the responses received to the survey conducted as part of the project.