As a proving ground for online dispute resolution, there is no better venue than eBay. Transactions there give rise to some 60 million disputes a year. Virtually all are handled through eBay’s own ODR process. Ninety percent of the disputes are resolved through the software alone, without a need for human intervention.
Of course, eBay and ODR are a natural fit. Buyers and sellers make their deals entirely online, so it makes sense for them to handle their disputes there. But what about brick-and-mortar disputes? Can eBay’s style of ODR work to resolve them?
For one decidedly brick-and-mortar type of dispute—property tax appeals—the answer is turning out to be yes.
In 2011, the man who designed and ran eBay’s ODR system, Colin Rule, left eBay and partnered with Chittu Nagarajan, the woman who formerly ran the largest ODR system in Asia. Together they founded Modria, where they assembled their own ODR platform, which was based on technology they licensed from eBay.
