Privatising Consumer Complaints: An analysis of a patient’s complaints procedure in the Netherlands

Abstract

This article analyzes a type of ADR seeking to resolve complaints of consumers and in particular of hospital patients. In doing so, it aims to establish how this type of procedure differs from “normal” litigation and why it proves to be successful. It aims to show that its success is not only due to practical considerations, such as time, money and informality but that there is also a more principled reason. This reason relates to the appeal of the citizen’s self-empowerment in an age where individuals constantly move from the public realm as citizens towards the private realm as consumers.