Dispute Resolution for Cloud Services: Access to Justice and Fairness in Cloud-Based Low-Value Online Services

The traditional concepts of practicing the law do not follow the pace of the development of the new technologies. Faced with inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the courts regulators are constantly looking into alternatives to increase access to justice and improve efficiency of the dispute resolution mechanisms. The EU has recently enacted ADR and ODR regulations for consumer cross-border disputes. At the same time, we have witnessed parallel attempts from several public bodies and international organisations to introduce the legal framework for the resolution disputes coming out of online transactions. These proposals are in principle focusing on e-commerce aspects of dealing with low-cost consumer/seller disputes. The development of cloud computing services, as a form of e-commerce last decade, raised new issues of applicable law, jurisdiction, access to justice, the legal nature of the disputes, consumer protection etc. To obtain cloud computing services users generally accept a predefined contract of adhesion, where the terms should be accepted on “as is” basis. Non-negotiable predefined terms often tend to be in favor of providers. This research answers do the currently available dispute resolution mechanisms provide adequate means to resolve cross-border low-value disputes between cloud providers and users, and if not, what legal measures can be taken to improve access to justice and fairness in this domain.