Mediation
Competence
FINSOM (the Ombudsman Office or Mediation Body) is competent to deal with mediation requests concerning companies affiliated to Commercial Mediation/FinSA or Workplace Mediation.
Access conditions
To be admitted, mediation cannot appear from the outset to have no chance of success and the mediation request must meet the following conditions:
- If no conciliation authority, court, court of arbitration or administrative authority is or has been seized of the case, and if mediation has not already been conducted in the same case, the request can be unilateral or joint.
- If a conciliation authority, a court, a court of arbitration or an administrative authority is or has been seized of the case, or if mediation has already been conducted in the same case, the request must be joint. Ongoing civil or criminal proceedings must be suspended or replaced by mediation.
If the Commercial Mediation request is unilateral, the requesting party must credibly prove that they have previously informed the other party of their point of view and attempted to reach an agreement with them.
Requests that do not meet the above conditions or that are obviously vexatious are refused.
Preliminary review
Mediation procedure
The mediation procedure must be fair, quick, objective, impartial and unbureaucratic. It is confidential. The appointed mediator attempts to conciliate the parties and can perform an independent material and/or legal assessment of the case, but does not issue a decision or propose a judgment. The outcome of the procedure depends on the willingness of the parties. FINSOM’s rules of procedure apply.