Litigation 2025

AUSTRIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Bettina Knoetzl, Katrin Hanschitz, Dr Kirstin McGoldrick and Natascha Tunkel, KNOETZL HAUGENEDER NETAL GmbH

law of the Austrian Supreme Court that there is no révision au fond of the merits of the case. An action to set aside an award is filed with the Austrian Supreme Court, which decides as first and last instance (ie, without possibility of a further appeal). Practice has shown that a well-reasoned decision will be rendered within a comparatively short period of six to eight months on average. 13.4 Procedure for Enforcing Domestic and Foreign Arbitration Jurisdiction on Enforcement Under Austrian law, arbitral awards are deemed equivalent to judgments of state courts and will be enforced the same way by means of applica- • the object, asset or third-party debtor, which shall serve to satisfy the award creditor, is reg- istered or located. Prerequisites 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 certified copy of the arbitration agreement must only be presented upon a request by the court. If the seat of arbitration was outside Austria, the award will first require formal recognition and be declared enforceable by the District Court that is competent for enforcement. The applica- tion for recognition can be made together with the request for enforcement, and the courts will decide simultaneously on both requests. After tion to the District Court where: • the award debtor has its seat; or

being declared enforceable, the foreign award is treated as a domestic arbitral award – ie, equiva- lent to the judgment of an Austrian Court. Recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards (ie, where the seat of arbitration was out - side Austria) is governed by international treaties to which Austria is a party, including: • the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards; • the Geneva Convention on the Execution of Foreign Arbitral Awards; • the European Convention on International Commercial Arbitration; and • the Washington Convention on Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States. 14. Outlook 14.1 Proposals for Dispute Resolution Reform Currently there are no proposals for dispute res- olution reform. Elections for a new government took place in September 2024 and currently the efforts to form a new government are underway. 14.2 Growth Areas Please refer to the Austria Trends & Develop- ments chapter in this guide. Insolvency-related litigation is on the rise, as large insolvencies are currently driving the legal market. AI-supported services are also expected to boom. Whether the new reform of collective redress will lead to growth remains to be seen.

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