미국의 온라인 분쟁해결에 있어서 정부의 역할

The Role of Government for Online Dispute Resolution in America

Online Dispute Resolution(ODR) is a tool on the Internet to solve the disputes arising from e-commerce transactions. It can work on a speedy and cost-saving way compared to the traditional dispute resolution mechanism. Now, ODR is usually deployed in the field of B2C e-commerce transactions. As time goes by, the importance of B2C e-commerce transactions is growing rapidly. But, the disputes are also growing at the same rate. The cause of the disputes is, first of all, the distrust between the Internet merchants and the consumers. The deficit of enforcement on the dispute resolution decisions is also an impediment to B2C ODR. Although the self-regulation by private players is the principle in the B2C e-commerce transactions and B2C ODR, it has a limit to solve these problems. Then, what's the best idea to solve these problems? Perhaps, government is the right answer for that. Even though government intervention is against the Internet. Because government can build trust and assure the enforcement much better than the private players. Thus, this paper suggests three methods in order to eliminate the problems of B2C ODR by the self-regulation: First, bringing parties to use ODR. Second, building trust on ODR through the government control. Third, using cybercourt. However, these government interventions must give way to the self-regulation when it is possible to lift the problems through it. These should be only complementary methods. Because, ODR is based on the Internet, and the Internet is reluctant to be intervened by the government regulation. As a result, this paper explores the role of government in B2C ODR, and tries to find a way to enhance the use of ODR as a much more efficient tool in the world of the online disputes.