Publications

The Insolvency Act provides insolvency administrators with tools to challenge any actions committed by a debtor during a crucial period prior to the opening of insolvency proceedings. Recent Supreme Cour decisions regarding § 31 IO now clarify existing judicature regarding avoidance of overdraft payments due to preferential treatment and set the bar very high regarding the (un)avoidability of overdraft payments in the 12 months before the opening of insolvency proceedings. .. more

The Austrian government has reached a compromise in response to the ECJ’s ruling that the former regulation was discriminatory. While introducing a paid holiday over Good Friday for all employees (Levelling-up) would have been complied with the ECJ’s decision, the Austrian government went with a different approach by abolishing Good Friday altogether (Levelling-down), to avoid employers having to provide double pay. Instead they’ve decided on the introduction of a personal holiday for everyone, which is also to replace the former Good Friday provision in collective labor agreements. This personal holiday will be counted as a regular leave day. However, if economic reasons deem it necessary that an employee works on his/her personal holiday, then extra holiday payments have to be made. In effect, the Evangelical Church Augsburg Confession, the Evangelical Church Helvetic Confession, the Old Catholic Church and the United Methodist are losing a public holiday, while nothing changes for everyone else. .. more

In a recent decision, the Supreme Court provided clear guidelines regarding the evaluation whether a creation (here: a newspaper dispenser) has to be regarded as a work of (visual) art and is therefore protected under the Copyright Act. .. more

Ferdinand Graf and Marija Križanac are part of the authoring team of Thomson Reuters „Data Privacy Advisor“ and in charge of “Q&A for Austria” (last update: 28.12.2018). The “Data Privacy Advisor” provides an overview on world wide data protection law.The “Data Privacy Advisor” is constantly revised – it is available online under https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/products/data-privacy-advisor. .. more

Marija Križanac is part of the renowned author team of the recently published practice commentary Knyrim (ed.), The DatKomm – the new standard reference work for data protection law (GDPR and DSG [Austrian Data Protection Act]). .. more

Before the most recent update to the online FAQ section by the responsible authority, the answer to this question was unknown. Due to the tight timeframes for complying with the Beneficial Ownership Register Act (BORA) and the range of practical problems arising from it, the question has caused headaches for insolvency law practitioners in Austria. .. more

Under Austrian law, Good Friday is a paid public holiday only for members of the Evangelical Church Augsburg Confession, the Evangelical Church Helvetic Confession, the Old Catholic Church and the United Methodist Church. .. more

Earlier in 2018 the City of Vienna announced its intention to reform the building code. One of the aims of the reform is to protect the city's historic buildings. .. more

In a recent decision the Supreme Court gave clear guidelines as to the circumstances in which the burden of proof regarding the exhaustion of trademark rights shifts from the defendant to the trademark owner. .. more

The General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union denied in the case T-776/16 (Isocell GmbH v. iCell AB) a likelihood of confusion between the earlier word mark ISOCELL and the word part of the younger figurative/word mark “iCell” for identical and similar goods. Considering the low level of distinctiveness of the word elements of the marks and the high attention that would be paid by the relevant consumers, the figurative elements of the mark “iCell” distinguish it clearly from the earlier mark. In this context, the court stated that the word elements of a figurative/word mark must not automatically always be regarded as the dominant element. .. more