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The three Acts are the result of government bills brought before Parliament in February and June (see IRIS 1999-7: 14). By speeding up its proceedings, Parliament was able to pass the new legislation before the summer recess and before the National Assembly elections due to be held on 3 October 1999. All three Acts are based on European Community law: the Datenschutzgesetz (the Data Protection Act) transposes the Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC); the Fernabsatz-Gesetz (the Distance Marketing Act) is designed to transpose the Distance Marketing Directive (97/7/EC), Directive 97/55/EC on incorporating...

By adopting a Rundfunkgebührengesetz (TV and Radio Licence Fee Act) and amending a number of existing regulations, the legislature has brought in a brand new system of regulating the collection of licence fees (and indirectly, therefore, a new system of programme fees, funding for the arts and various regional taxes). The new regulations will enter into force on 1 January 2000. Of fundamental importance, but also particularly controversial, is the requirement that the company which has recently assumed responsibility for collecting these fees, " Gebühreninkasso Service GmbH" (GIS), may demand...

In a recent case ( jusline.com) involving an application for a temporary injunction, the applicant had failed to assert and prove that the defendant had already acted with an intention to obstruct by acquiring a disputed website name (see IRIS 1998-6: 5). However, in the same case, the Oberste Gerichtshof (Austrian Supreme CourtOGH), in proceedings concerning an action for a permanent injunction and deletion of the site name, ruled in the plaintiff's favour, since new evidence was now at its disposal. These two decisions are the first that the OGH has had to make in the problematic field of website...

In mid-June the Council of Ministers decided to propose bills on distance marketing and electronic signatures; both texts are now before Parliament. Neither of these government bills contains any great surprises: the future law on distance marketing transposes the EC's Directives on distance contracts and injunctions; the law on electronic signatures will transpose the EU's anticipated Directive on electronic signatures.

In the printed media sector there is already a duty to supply and an obligation to deliver: under §43 of the Austrian Media Act ( Mediengesetz - MedG), media owners (publishers) who publish printed matter in Austria or who produce material which is published abroad are obliged by law to offer or deliver immediately a prescribed number of copies to particular libraries. The number of copies sent should not exceed seven, or twelve in the case of periodicals. Reimbursement (at half the retail price) is only made if the retail price is higher than ATS 1,600 (in future: ATS 2.000) (§44 MedG). Infringements...