AUSTRIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Bettina Knoetzl and Katrin Hanschitz, KNOETZL
filed in summer and autumn 2025; the focus is on data protection, unfair competition practices/advertising and incorrect disclosure of price discounts for con- sumer goods. Other qualified entities are announcing claims for injunctions and/or damages in respect of bank fees, investment in insurance products, unlawful price increases for electricity and gas and cybercrime and regarding data protection issues. As AI training with large language models gains pace, this is becoming a focus of data protection litigation. Consumer and data protection organisations have announced class actions for injunctive relief, inter alia to forbid large language models from being trained without express consent of Austrian data subjects. Freedom of Information Instead of Official Secrecy The new Freedom of Information Act that replaces Austria’s tradition of Amtsverschwiegenheit (official secrecy) came into effect in September 2025. In essence, Austria’s new IFG creates broad public rights to access information and sets a proactive publica- tion duty for governmental entities. The changes allow for more strategic and aggressive discovery tactics, bringing Austria’s litigation environment more into line with transparency-driven systems in other European countries: • Access to evidence and information Litigants previ- ously struggled to obtain information from public bodies due to Austria’s tradition of official secrecy. Parties in litigation – particularly against govern- ment entities – can now request much broader access to public documents, contracts, stud- ies, expert opinions, and other materials held by governmental institutions. This can be strategically leveraged for evidence gathering and case prepa- ration, as authorities must respond within four to eight weeks. • Proactive publication Key decisions, expert opinions, and contracts (especially those over EUR100,000) must be proactively published by authorities. This enables litigants, lawyers, and the public to discover relevant materials without initiat- ing requests, aiding claims and defences in ongo- ing or prospective litigation. • Limits and exceptions Authorities retain the right to refuse disclosure for legitimate confidentiality,
security, or privacy reasons. Fishing expeditions (exploratory requests) and requests that are mani- festly unfounded can still be denied. • Impact on representative actions and collective redress The new rules support collective actions (as part of recent litigation reforms), as qualified entities and groups of affected parties can use transparency requests to substantiate claims or demonstrate unlawful conduct impacting large groups – thereby increasing the effectiveness of mass litigation and consumer collective redress. Digitalisation of the Justice System Austria’s highly successful digitalisation allows the judiciary to remain effective, despite staffing issues, with major elements of its court system now digital- ised, advanced AI applications in use, and ongoing expansion of online services and compulsory digital transparency. The country has fully rolled out the “Justiz 3.0” digital transformation across all court levels, with completely digital case management for civil and criminal cases. The digital workflow enables electronic file manage- ment, automated processes, and digital handling of almost all major case types. In practice, all hearings are handled electronically and without a paper file. Documents to be shown to witnesses or discussed at the hearing are displayed to all on a screen. The judge has various electronic tools to facilitate his or her work, including a separate electronic notebook, voice recognition tools and various AI tools. Notably, a focus of training justice professionals is on the benefits, risks and challenges of AI in the future of justice. Currently, AI applications are used in digital file systems, for example to support legal research in documents of a proceeding by recognising legal citations and providing links to the relevant sources in legal databases. AI support is also used to analyse text fragments and suggest relevant legal literature. In addition, an AI-based solution is used to anonymise court decisions so that they can subsequently be published in the federal legal information system in accordance with legal requirements and made acces- sible free of charge.
36 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook