English »法律研究
The Addressee of an administrative ruling stays the same
In a recent ruling, the Supreme Administrative Court clarified that the firm of an individual enterprise is merely a name and that it is not regarded as a legal entity. Therefore, the firm is only used for the identification of an enterprise whose legal entity is a natural person. An administrative ruling which was addressed to the meanwhile deleted firm is therefore directed to the individual entrepreneur. The obligations which derive from the ruling are fully binding and the deletion of the firm has basically no effect (Ra 2015/08/0127).
2016年10月6日
Juristiction in cartel law matters
A bank customer sued an international bank for damages which were caused by the manipulation of the LIBOR. He claimed that because of this manipulation he had to pay higher interest for a loan which he took from an Austrian bank. The damage was caused in Austria. Case law of the ECJ allows companies to sue at their place of business in cases of infringements of cartel law. The infringement of cartel law had already been established by the European Commission. The Austrian Supreme Court for Civil Matters ruled that in this type of situation, bank customers shall also be allowed to sue at their place of residence. (4Ob120/16z)
2016年9月20日
Personal Liability
The Supreme Court for Civil Matters recently stated his case law on the liability of managing directors of a GmbH more precisely: The managing director of a GmbH shall only be liable where the law specifically stipulates such liability and if he personally acted culpably and unlawfully. This restriction of liability shall also apply to damages caused by oral agreements and by acts or omissions of assisting persons. For such cases the GmbH itself is liable for the caused damage. (8Ob62/16z)
2016年9月16日
De-merger is not a good reason to terminate
In a recent case, the Supreme Court for Civil Matters had to interpret the Austrian Demerger Act in accordance with a European Directive. The Supreme Court for Civil Matters ruled that the issuer of a bond shall not terminate a legal relationship which is otherwise valid for an indefinite period of time with investors in these bonds. A termination for cause is only available to the issuer, if maintaining the legal relationship is not reasonable for him anymore. (1Ob93/16g)
2016年8月30日
Liability issues
Payments via credit cards are conducted as “pull-payment-transactions”, which are payments initiated by or via the recipient of the payment. The bank of the recipient of the payment is initially liable for “pull-payment-transactions” until the bank of the payer is informed of the payment order. From this point on the bank of the payer is liable for all errors which occur until the payment is received by the bank of the recipient. This liability applies regardless of fault for the amount of the omitted or incorrectly transacted payment as well as fees and interests.
2016年8月1日