The function of an ombudsmann, which has its origin in the Swedish legal tradition, is to provide citizens with an institution that considers their complaints against state, government or commercial enterprises.

Ombudsmann.de is a neutral and independent alternative dispute resolution provider regarding consumer-to-business disputes arising from online shopping transactions.

Ombudsmann.de is a project of the federal association, the VERBRAUCHER INITIATIVE e.V. (CONSUMERS INITIATIVE e.V., a registered association), Elsenstrasse 106, 12435 Berlin (www.verbraucher.org), and is funded by the European Commission and the Federal Ministry for Consumer Protection, Nutrition and Agriculture.

Everyone can use ombudsmann.de, if he or she is a consumer and has his or her residence in Germany. Furthermore, the seller must be a commercial seller (retailer) with its place of business in a member state of the European Union. Notably, consumer-to-consumer disputes are not covered by ombudsmann.de. Therefore, consumers of Internet auctions, such as ebay transactions, can only request the service of ombudsmann.de when the seller is a retailer.  Finally, it is required that no legal claim is pending in the civil court.

Firstly, the consumer needs to register in order to gain access to the system of ombudsmann.de.  The consumer will then be provided with a personal access code and an explanation of the dispute system procedure via email.  As a first step, the consumer needs to log into the system to change his or her personal access code.  Upon doing so, the consumer can log into the system at anytime.

Ombudsmann.de makes every effort to process each case as soon as possible.

For each individual case, ombudsmann.de sets up an electronic file, which will include the entire correspondence and documents of the case.  This file is accessible by both parties through their personal access code at any time during the procedure.

The information provided by the parties and all other information in the course of the case, will be kept confidential by ombudsmann.de, while following the data protection regulations.

If all involved parties interact cooperatively, the dispute settlement can be terminated very fast.

No costs! The parties only have to cover their own expenses.

Contact is exclusively made through e-mail and through the personal access code, which is received after registration.

Data transmission is secured by a 128Bit-Secure Socket Layer (SSL). SSL is an encryption technology that prevents unauthorized individuals accessing the data. This technology was introduced by Netscape and is now a standard form of secured data transmission.