Releasing the Potential for a Value-Based Consumer Arbitration under the Consumer ADR Directive

This article identifies the tension between the public and the private nature of arbitration and analyses how this tension prevents consumer arbitration of fulfilling important public functions. We conclude that the EU should thrive to introduce a system which facilitates justice for consumers, i.e., a system of dispute resolution which is committed to procedural and substantive public policy. The latter should be preferred over a system which is primarily concerned with the resolution of disputes between businesses and consumers however efficient and fair that system may be.