Conciliation Board for Consumer Affairs

Conciliation Board for Consumer Affairs pursuant to Art. 4 AStG - Gesetz über alternative Streitbeileigung in Konsumentenschutzangelegenheiten (AStG; Act on Alternative Dispute Resolution in Consumer Affairs)

The Office of Economic Affairs supports consumers and companies in settling disputes quickly and cost-effectively. In doing so, the Office acts neutrally and independently. This Conciliation Board is considered a notified ADR entity under the AStG.

Contact details:

Office of Economic Affairs

Bureau of Consumer Protection 

P.O. Box 684

9490 Vaduz

Law:

Gesetz über alternative Streibeilegung in Konsumentenschutzangelegentheiten (AStG; LR 944.1)

Information on the Conciliation Board:

The Conciliation Board for Consumer Affairs offers free, non-compulsary conciliation proceedings to help resolve problems between consumers and businesses. In doing so, the Conciliation Board is neither on the consumer side nor on the company side, but acts neutrally and supports both sides in reaching an agreement. Thus, we are not a consumer protection but a service institution for consumers and companies.

The Conciliation Board is not a consumer protection institution. Therefore, we cannot offer individual legal advice to consumers, file lawsuits, or represent them against companies or in court. Our task is to mediate neutrally between consumers and companies and to support both sides in finding solutions.

Mediation Team:

Legal Department at the Office of Economic Affairs

Procedure of the conciliation proceedings (Rules of Procedure):

For information on the procedure, please refer to here. (in German)

Competence

The Conciliation Board at the Office of Economic Affairs may be invoked when:

• there is a dispute between a consumer and a business;
• consumers are domiciled in Liechtenstein or an EEA member state;
• the company has an affiliate in Liechtenstein (e.g. registered office, branch, etc.);
• the dispute does not fall within the jurisdiction of another conciliation board prsuant to Art. 4 AStG.

In Liechtenstein, there are currently 4 conciliation boards pursunat to Art. 4 AStG, which are responsible for various disputes between consumers and businesses. The conciliation board at the Office of Economic Affairs handles all those cases for which none of the other conciliation boards is responsible. You can find out what the other bodies are responsible for on the homepage of the respective institution.

Reasons for refusal

Applications for conciliation must be refused if:

• it is not a consumer dispute, but a dispute between two or more consumers or between two or more companies among themselves;
• the claimant is not domiciled in Liechtenstein or an EEA member state;
• the company does not have an affiliate in Liechtenstein (e.g. registered office, branch, etc.);
• it is not a claim arising from ancontract for economic consideration;
• it is a claim arising out of contracts for health services, disputes with public providers of further or higher education, non-economic services of general interest or contracts of sale of immovable property;
• another conciliation board is competent.

Applications for conciliation will be refused if:

• the complaint is malicious or vexatious;
• the complaint is or has already been before a court or other conciliation board;
• the claimant does not credibly demonstrate that he/she has attempted to reach an agreement with the company prior to submitting the application for conciliation and does not make up for this attempt to reach an agreement within a period of two months;
• no specific claim is raised, but only general information is requested.

Applications

Applications for conciliation can only be submitted in German.  Before submitting a request, you must already have confronted the company with your complaint. Furthermore, you should read through the information regarding "procedures"  . This will help you avoid submitting inadmissible applications. 
The form can be found here.

ODR Platform

If you have a problem with a company established in Liechtenstein or another EEA member state and the contract was concluded online, you can also submit a dispute resolution request via the European Commission's ODR platform. ODR stands for "Online Dispute Resolution" and correspond to "online dispute settlement". Your complaint is then automatically sent to the company concerned, which in turn proposes a conciliation board. If you agree to the company's proposal, the complaint will be forwarded to the relevant body, which will carry out the conciliation proceedings. You can reach the ODR platform via:

https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/odr/main/index.cfm?event=main.home.chooseLanguage