.eu claims an 80% increase on ADR cases because of reduced fees

The Czech Arbitration Court (CAC) and .eu registry EURid have been running a special fee reduction to make the .eu Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process more affordable. The cost of a basic proceeding has been cut by more than 50% since July 2012.

The .eu registry EURid and the Czech Arbitration Court (CAC) just announced that the fee for a basic .eu Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedure will continue to be cut by 50% until the end of 2013. They also claim that since the introduction of the reduced fee in July 2012, the average number of ADR cases filed per month has risen by 80% but that is not reflected on the ADR stats.

I looked at the stats from years 2011 and 2012 and there is only a slight year to year, for the first 11 months of each year, increase of ADR fillings:
# Fillings (Months 1-11 of 2011): 41
# Fillings (Months 1-11 of 2012): 48 (17% increase)

The stats since the introduction of the ADR cost cut in July 2012 show a 50% increase but the sample is very small. (And it is not 80% as claimed)
# Fillings (Months 7-11 of 2011): 16
# Fillings (Months 7-11 of 2012): 24

The small sample together with the small year to year increase of 17% doesn’t tell us if the cost cut was successful or not. I believe that such a significant cost cut should result in at least a 100% increase in ADR fillings in order to be a success. 2013 will gives us more data to judge.

Here is the complete announcement:

Fee reduction extended for .eu dispute proceedings

Brussels and Prague, 18 December 2012 – The fee for a basic .eu Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedure will continue to be cut by 50% until the end of 2013, announced the .eu registry EURid and the Czech Arbitration Court (CAC), the institution appointed to rule on .eu domain name proceedings.

Since the introduction of the reduced fee in July 2012, the average number of ADR cases filed per month has risen by 80%.

“This increase does seem to indicate that there was some sort of financial barrier that prevented some parties from claiming their rights through .eu ADR proceedings,” commented Czech Arbitration Court Board Member, Petr Hostas.

“Lowering this barrier was a good step that enabled those parties to access the ADR procedure and I sincerely hope that this trend will continue going forward.”

EURid’s General Manager Marc Van Wesemael added, “At EURid, we want anyone with a legitimate prior rights claim to be able to challenge a .eu registration. Making the .eu ADR process more affordable, and therefore accessible, is one way of doing this.”

Why ADR
People can challenge a .eu registration if they believe they have a prior right to the domain name and the current holder has registered the name for speculative or abusive purposes. Although they can do this through a European court, EURid offers the fast and convenient .eu ADR procedure through the independent CAC. No travel is required as all cases are conducted online and by email, and in 21 official EU languages. Cases take an average of four months to resolve.

EURid appointed the CAC in 2005 as its ADR provider. In order to make .eu ADR decisions, the CAC selects one or more panellists from its list of 136 accredited international experts.

In numbers
For the first three quarters of 2012, 35 .eu dispute resolution cases were filed. The Czech Arbitration Court published 25 ADR decisions, of which all were in favour of the complainant.

More information about the new .eu ADR price structure is available at eu.adr.eu.