Conciliation

(1) A consumer who asserts that an economic operator infringes a provision of this Act or of the statutory instrument to be issued under section 3(2), and that the consumer is as a result unable, or able only in a limited manner, to use the product or service concerned, is entitled to apply, at the conciliation body under section 16(1) of the Act on Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, for the opening of conciliation proceedings. The conciliation body involves the market surveillance authority as a party to the conciliation proceedings on the consumer's application. It transmits a copy of the application for conciliation to the economic operator and the market surveillance authority for the conduct of the conciliation proceedings.
(2) An application may also additionally be made to the conciliation body under subsection (1) for the opening of conciliation proceedings for the out-of-court settlement of a dispute arising from a consumer contract, or concerning the existence of such a contractual relationship.
(3) Subsection (1) applies accordingly to associations recognised under section 15(3) of the Act on Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities and to bodies under section 3(1), first sentence, no. 1 of the Injunctions Act that assert that a provision of this Act or a provision of the statutory instrument issued under section 3(2) is infringed and that the infringement concerns their statutory area of responsibility.
(4) A procedure under section 32(1) or (2) must be stayed until the conciliation proceedings have concluded.
(5) In other respects, section 16(4) to (7) of the Act on Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities and the Ordinance on Conciliation under the Act on Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities of 25 November 2016 (Federal Law Gazette I, p. 2659), as amended by Article 2 of the Ordinance of 21 May 2019 (Federal Law Gazette I, p. 738), apply.