AUSTRIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Michael Rohregger, Rohregger Rechtsanwälte
advantage (Section 307a of the Austrian Crimi - nal Code). Acceptance of an Advantage for the Purpose of Exerting Influence (Section 306 of the Austrian Criminal Code) and Offering an Advantage for the Purpose of Exerting Influence (Section 307b of the Austrian Criminal Code) If a public official or arbitrator demands, accepts, or accepts the promise of an advantage not related to a specific official act, but rather with the intention of allowing themselves to be influ - enced thereby in their activity as a public offi - cial, they are committing the offence of accept - ing an advantage for the purpose of exerting influence. With this provision, too, cases are excluded in which the public official or arbitra - tor merely accepts or accepts the promise of a minor advantage; where a demand is made, here again, there exists no marginality threshold. A person who offers, promises or grants to a public official or arbitrator an undue advantage for themself, or a third party with the intention of thereby influencing the public official or arbitra - tor in their activity as a public official, shall render themself liable to prosecution for the offence of offering an advantage for the purpose of exerting influence (Section 307b of the Austrian Criminal Code). Illicit Intervention (Section 308 of the Austrian Criminal Code) Section 308 of the Austrian Criminal Code pro - hibits the demand, acceptance, promise or acceptance of a corresponding promise, offer and grant of an advantage for the purpose that the person who receives the advantage exerts undue influence on the decision-making of a public official or arbitrator. Such undue influ - ence is given if it is aimed at the exercise or the
refraining from the exercise of an official act in violation of duties or is associated with the offer, promise or grant of an undue advantage. Thus, this particular offence is based on a three-person relationship: the perpetrator offers an advantage to someone who then exerts undue influence on the public official. Acceptance of Gifts and Bribery of Employees or Agents (Section 309 of the Austrian Criminal Code) An employee or agent of a business undertak - ing who, in the context of business dealings, demands, accepts, or accepts the promise of an advantage for themself, or a third party, from another person in return for the exercise of, or the refraining from the exercise of, a legal act in violation of their duties, shall be committing the offence of acceptance of gifts and bribery of employees or agents (Section 309 of the Austrian Criminal Code). Under the terms of the same offence, any person who offers, promises or grants an advantage to an employee or agent of a business undertaking in the context of busi - ness dealings in return for the exercise of, or refraining from the exercise of, a legal act shall also render themself liable to prosecution. Section 309 of the Austrian Criminal Code is intended to prevent corruption in the private sector and thus relates to such conduct in the private economic sector, whereby employees or agents of another business undertaking seek to obtain preferential treatment, constituting a vio - lation of duty through promises or the granting of gifts or other advantages. A similar criminal pro - vision may be found in Section 10 of the Austrian Federal Act against Unfair Competition.
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