ANTITRUST LAW IN AUSTRIA
Good morning and welcome to our presentation on Austrian Antitrust Law.
In our presentation, we will cover the following aspects:
First of all, we will give you an overview on the legal basis of Cartel prohibition in Austria.
Secondly, we will present to you the relevant institutions in charge of the execution of the legal
provisions.
After that, we will discuss the provisions on Cartels and market dominance. In addition, we will
cover the Investigation process and procedural steps. Moreover, we will talk about mergers, and
last but not least, we will deal with the fines for infringements.
1. RELEVANT LEGISLATION
The most important piece of legislation with respect to antitrust law is the Cartel Act, which
contains provisions on restrictions of competition, including cartels, abuse of market dominance
and mergers, as well as provisions on public & private law enforcement and fines. The provisions
of the Cartel Act widely correspond to its equivalent statutes in EU law, namely Art. 101 & 102 of
the TFEU.
Moreover, the Austrian de minimis exception is very similar to the de minimis notice of the
European Commission. As a consequence, Austrian court decisions are often influenced by the
practices of the European Commission and the decisions of the European Courts.
(It is also important to mention that according to Sec. 24 of the Cartel Act, its provisions are only
applicable to circumstances affecting the domestic market, irrespective of whether they arose in
Austria or abroad.)
The Cartel Act was most recently amended in 2017, mainly in order to implement the EU damages
directive. As this amendment has not yet been included in the book, we are going to talk about it
in more detail in the course of the presentation.
Another important piece of legislation is the Competition Act, as its provisions establish the
Federal Competition Authority and the Commission on Competition, which both have important
competencies when it comes to executing antitrust law.
Some individual provisions related to competition are stipulated in other statutes, for example in
the Neighbourhood Supply Act or the Telecommunications Act.
Moreover, the minister of Justice is empowered to issue ordinances in order to exempt certain
groups of cartels from the Cartel Prohibition.
With regard to provisions in the criminal code, certain infringements of antitrust law also may be
prosecuted by the criminal courts as bid rigging actions in public procurement proceedings, which
is prohibited under Sec. 168b or as fraud or serious fraud, which are criminal offences according to
Sec. 146 & 147.
