AUSTRIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Oliver Völkel and Philipp Ley, CERHA HEMPEL
12.3 Responsibility for Losses A fintech service provider may be responsible for customer losses if the loss results from negligence, breach of contract, regulatory non-compliance or security failures (eg, weak authentication or system flaws). Under PSD2, liability rules apply for unauthor - ised payment transactions. Under these rules, unless the customer acted fraudulently or with gross negli - gence, the provider must typically reimburse the loss. Under MiCA, specific rules apply for CASPs providing custody services. Under these rules, clients have to suffer a crypto-asset loss as a result of an incident that can be attributed to the CASP.
Another major concern is cold calling, where fraud - sters pose as financial advisers to pressure victims into investments (often in crypto or high-risk prod - ucts). This practice is illegal in Austria. In addition, impersonation of authorities is a grow - ing issue. Scammers pretend to represent the FMA to extract payments or sensitive data. The FMA stresses that it never contacts individuals to request money or personal information. Lastly, the FMA specifically warns about crypto-fraud, including unlicensed providers, fake wallets and investment offers involving non-existent or mislead - ing crypto projects. These scams often target inexpe - rienced investors and operate across borders, making enforcement difficult.
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