Vitarendezés az online térben – régen és ma

The study presents the institutional transformation of dispute resolution in the online space in parallel with the expansion of digital markets and provides a legal-dogmatic assessment based on a specific binary dominance matrix.
With the discontinuation of the European Union’s Online Dispute Resolution Platform, the focus of online consumer dispute resolution has shifted to national conciliation bodies and to the DSA‑certified out‑of‑court dispute settlement bodies. On 19 December 2024, the European Parliament and the Council, acting on a proposal from the Commission, decided that submissions of complaints to the Online Dispute Resolution platform must cease on 20 March 2025. 
By the time the Union’s Online Dispute Resolution platform was fully discontinued on 20 July 2025 through the deletion of the data stored on the platform, the procedures of the conciliation boards had become electronic and more efficient. As of 1 January 2024, online hearings became the default, and the Hungarian legislature mandated that the conciliation board shall issue a decision containing an obligation even if the business has not made a declaration of submission, provided that the application is well‑founded and the consumer’s claim to be enforced does not exceed two hundred and fifty thousand forints.
In the world of online platforms, the DSA has established a new channel of redress: mandatory internal complaint handling and, as the next step in the process, certified out‑of‑court dispute settlement. In Hungary, the NMHH, designated as the Digital Services Coordinator, has certified the Online Platform Dispute Resolution Council until 29 August 2029. The advantages of procedures under the DSA are expertise, accessibility and cost effectiveness; however, as a rule, their decisions are non‑binding, sanctions are typically reputational, and recourse to the courts remains open at any stage of the process.

Keywords: conciliation boards, internal complaint handling, Online Platform Dispute Resolution Council, Online Dispute Resolution Platform