AUSTRIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Florian Haugeneder, Patrizia Netal, Jurgita Petkutė and Natascha Tunkel, KNOETZL
the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards. Moreover, Austria has ratified the Washington Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States, as well as numerous bilateral investment treaties. 12.2 Enforcement Procedure Arbitral awards are deemed to be equivalent to judg - ments of state courts and thus will be enforced in the same way ‒ ie, by means of an application to the district court ( Bezirksgericht ) of the district where the respondent has its seat or where the object, asset or third-party debtor that will serve to satisfy the claim - ant’s request for enforcement is registered or located. An authenticated original or a duly certified copy of the arbitral award must be submitted together with the application for enforcement. The original or a cer - tified copy of the arbitration agreement need only be presented upon a request from the court. If the arbitration was seated outside Austria, the award must first be formally recognised and declared enforceable (pursuant to the New York Convention or other multilateral or bilateral treaties) by the district court that is competent for enforcement. The appli - cation for recognition can be made together with the request for enforcement and the courts will decide simultaneously on both requests. After being declared enforceable, the foreign award is treated as a domes - tic arbitral award – ie, equivalent to the judgment of an Austrian court. There is no automatic suspension of the enforcement of an arbitral award if setting-aside proceedings have been initiated. However, upon the application of a party (usually the award debtor), the court may – but is not obliged to – stay enforcement proceedings until a final decision is rendered in the setting-aside pro - ceedings. A pragmatic solution employed by Austrian courts in this situation is to make continuation of the enforcement subject to the posting of security by the award creditor. If the arbitral award is set aside, the effects thereof depend on the applicable law and the international treaty governing its recognition and enforcement. An arbitral award that has been set aside by the Aus -
trian courts will not be enforced in Austria. As regards foreign awards, the Austrian courts do not normally enforce arbitral awards that have been set aside under the regime of the New York Convention. However, the Austrian Supreme Court has held (in OGH 3 Ob 2/21x) that it is a precondition that the (foreign) setting-aside proceedings do not violate Austrian public policy. Under the regime of the European Convention, the Austrian courts have also previously recognised and enforced a foreign arbitral award that had been set aside. At the enforcement stage, a state or state entity may attempt to raise the defence of sovereign immunity. However, Austrian courts will only consider sovereign immunity in connection with sovereign acts, but not if the state or state entity acted in a private capacity. The burden of proof for these circumstances lies with the state or state entity invoking immunity. 12.3 Approach of the Courts The general approach of the courts towards the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards is pragmatic and the grounds listed in the applicable conventions are interpreted restrictively. Although the opposing party will be granted the opportunity to raise grounds based on which it believes the recogni - tion and enforcement of the award will be refused, these grounds are interpreted narrowly. This applies to public policy, in particular ‒ where a high threshold must be reached in order to be considered a sufficient reason to refuse recognition and enforcement. 13. Miscellaneous 13.1 Class Action or Group Arbitration In 2020, the EU Directive on Representative Actions for the Protection of the Collective Interests of Con - sumers (EU 2020/1828) came into force. Austria implemented this directive (with the Verbandsklagen- Richtlinie-Umsetzungs-Novelle VRUN) in 2024. In addition, various rules that apply to multiparty pro - ceedings before state courts are used as the basis for group actions. The Austrian Arbitration Act does not contain provi - sions regarding class action or group arbitration. Pro -
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