Access to Justice, Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms and Consumer Vulnerability in the European Energy Sector

DOI

The data provided are the transcripts of interviews held with NGOs, Ombudsman, energy companies, academics, regulators, and consumers in the UK, Catalonia, Bulgaria, Italy and France. They have all been anonymised, some have been summarised into English. We applied a semi-structured approach to the interviews so the researcher can find similar questions thought all of the different interviews. The interviews provide an interesting picture of different stakeholders perspectives of, and experiences with, energy poverty in their country.Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) bodies for consumers are set up to help resolve problems they encounter with faulty goods and services. ADR is an important additional pathway to access justice and is aimed at making it easier for all of us to feel more confident and empowered as consumers in an ever growing market. A better understanding of these bodies is necessary. This project will generate this understanding through a case study of vulnerable consumers in the energy sector. The research objective of this project is to seek to compare how ADR bodies in the energy sector, in six countries, provide a pathway to access justice for their vulnerable users. With that objective in mind, research questions will aim to elicit data that will show (1) who uses ADR mechanisms and the extent to which users are vulnerable, (2) the way in which vulnerable and non-vulnerable users of ADR mechanisms experience and perceive the process, (3) the extent to which ADR mechanisms are designed to make themselves accessible to vulnerable consumers and meet their needs, and (4) the relationship between the broader consumer protection context and the accessibility of ADR mechanisms. This research will improve understanding of how energy ADR bodies handle and engage with vulnerable users. The research objective will be achieved by collecting qualitative and quantitative data in a cross country comparison.

The provided database consists of transcripts of interviews we held with stakeholders in the UK, Bulgaria, Catalonia, France and Italy. We had a set of questions we asked all participants. Some of the dataset (Catalonia, Italy and France) we provided summaries in English from the recordings as we did not have enough budget to transcribe them and then translate them into English. The population is clearly marked in the documents (consumers, ombudsmen, policy, energy company). The data consist of 94 interviews in total with a different amount per country.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-855031
Metadata Access https://datacatalogue.cessda.eu/oai-pmh/v0/oai?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_ddi25&identifier=844ca26213d5488ecb3789c1c7fefade79f043705551b7d26a907089f93e2e2a
Provenance
Creator Creutzfeldt, N, University of Westminster
Publisher UK Data Service
Publication Year 2021
Funding Reference Economic and Social Research Council
Rights Naomi Creutzfeldt, University of Westminster; The Data Collection is available for download to users registered with the UK Data Service.
OpenAccess true
Representation
Resource Type Text
Discipline Jurisprudence; Law; Social and Behavioural Sciences
Spatial Coverage United Kingdom; Bulgaria; France; Italy; Spain