According to § 11 paragraph 1 point 3 IVS-G BGBl. I Nr. 38/2013 AustriaTech – Federal Agency for Technological Measures Ltd. (henceforth referred to as AustriaTech) i.a. is the competent conciliation board in the field of ITS services and applications.
Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS):
ITS means systems in which information and communication technologies are applied in traffic, including traffic infrastructures, vehicles and users, and in traffic management and mobility man¬agement, as well as for interfaces between modes of transport.
ITS applications:
ITS application means an operational instrument for the application of ITS.
ITS services:
ITS service means the provision of an ITS application through a well-defined organisational and operational framework with the aim of contributing to user safety, efficiency, comfort and environmental protection, and/or to facilitate or support transport and travel operations.
ITS service provider:
An ITS service provider means any provider of an ITS service, whether public of private.
Only cases relating to the Austrian territory in the field of ITS services and ITS applications, in the field of transport including its infrastructures, vehicles, and users, as well as in the field of traffic and mobility management, and for interfaces between modes of transport may be cause for a complaint to the conciliation board.
Complaints may only be addressed to companies – in accordance with ECJ jurisdiction – that are economically active in Austria and furthermore either provide ITS applications and/or ITS services relating to the Austrian territory, or provide data for such "Austrian" services and/or applications, or use such "Austrian" services and/or applications.
Complaints brought in to the conciliation board must refer to contractual relationships, specifying pecuniary or other consideration, either between ITS service providers and their (business) customers or between ITS service providers and their data suppliers. As to the content any complaint has to refer to the following:
Scenarios:
Situations dating back more than two years
Complaints may only be brought in by companies – in accordance with ECJ jurisdiction – that use or provide ITS applications and/or ITS services relating to the Austrian territory, or provide data for these.
The following are not eligible for application
As the conciliation proceedings start, the parties involved (complainants and parties addressed by a complaint) are obliged to contribute to the conciliation proceedings and submit to the conciliation board all information and documents necessary for assessing the facts and demanded by the conciliation board. Any deadlines set by the conciliation board must be observed.
Complaints may only be brought in in written form through the online complaint form. All information and documents relevant to the respective case must be mentioned in the online complaint form respectively uploaded in PDF format.
The template "Letter of attorney & privacy policy" must be filled in, affixed with signature and company stamp, scanned, and uploaded in PDF format in all cases. The original document must be provided by mail on demand of the conciliation board. If the completed document "Letter of attorney & privacy policy" is not attached to a complaint, the complaint is considered void.
Any statements as well as information and documents demanded by the conciliation board must be submitted by in written form by e-mail resp. in PDF format to the address kontakt(at)ivs-stelle.at unless stated otherwise.
Those responsible at the conciliation board as well as possible further persons (external experts, mediators, etc.) involved in the decision of the conciliation board are bound to independence and impartiality. In this sense, all circumstances that could call independence and/or impartiality into question must be revealed to the participants prior to the conciliation proceedings.
In case there are any doubts as to the independence and/or impartiality of the persons in charge, different persons will be entrusted with handling the conciliation proceedings including a possible decision.
Together with the online complaint form the complainant submits one "Letter of attorney & privacy policy". The latter legitimates the conciliation board to obtain (also from third parties if necessary), use, and process all data, information, and documents necessary for the conciliation proceedings unless anyhow permitted by the Austrian data protection act (BGBl. I Nr. 165/1999) in its up-to-date version.
The conciliation board and the persons in charge are obliged to maintain secrecy about data and/or information disclosed in the course of the conciliation proceedings unless these are public data and/or information or they have been released from the duty of secrecy by the parties concerned. This duty is also imposed upon external experts, mediators, etc.
It is hereby expressly stated that the conciliation board might have to undergo a review. In the course of this entities and commissioned persons of the Austrian Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology, the Austrian Court of Auditors (especially § 3 par. 2, § 4 par. 1 and § 13 par. 3 of the law governing the Court of Auditors (BGBI Nr. 144/1948) in its up-to-date version) and/or the Austrian Ministry of Finance (especially §§ 43 to 47 of the Austrian Act on Federal Budgets (BGBI. Nr. 213/1986) in its up-to-date version) may have to be provided with data, information, and documents according to EU legislation or national legal provisions.
After the conciliation proceedings have either been concluded or discontinued respectively terminated all data and/or information received will be deleted irretrievably and all documents will be destroyed unless legally prescribed otherwise.
The following data will be collected and saved for statistical purposes and thus will not be deleted:
Furthermore conciliation proceedings can lead to decisions which will be published in the form of general recommendations of the conciliation board on the website of the conciliation board and brought to the knowledge of further actors. Such recommendations will however only contain anonymised data and statements.
In the course of bringing in a request for conciliation the complainant in any case has to pay a non-refundable lump-sum reimbursement of € 1,000.00 to the conciliation board. Requests will be processed upon receipt of payment.
Upon examination as to formal requirements the conciliation board decides on the next steps to be taken in the proceedings and provides the complainant with a cost estimate for the conciliation proceedings.
Procedural costs are basically calculated according to the following benchmarks:
Additionally to the lump-sum reimbursement of € 1,000.00 that must be transferred to the conciliation board in any case the complainant has to bear all further actual costs of the conciliation proceedings at its own expense, even if the proceedings are terminated and no settlement is achieved.
The conciliation board provides the complainant with the related and relevant invoices. In their internal relationship the parties considered in the conciliation proceedings can agree upon sharing the costs of the conciliation proceedings. The complainant is however solely liable to the conciliation board.
Each party concerned in conciliation proceedings invariably has to bear all costs that may arise in the course of the initiation, the preparation, the procedure itself, and the follow-up of the conciliation proceedings at its own expense.
The parties considered in the conciliation proceedings each must name one person acting as an official contact person to the conciliation board who is authorised to conduct the procedure, to negotiate, and to bring the proceedings to a mutually agreed solution.
The complainant names the authorised representative in the online complaint form and in the completed template "Letter of attorney & privacy policy" attached to the online complaint form. In case there are different authorised representatives named in the online complaint form and the uploaded PDF file "Letter of attorney & privacy policy" the person named in the uploaded PDF file "Letter of attorney & privacy policy" is considered the authorised representative. All further parties considered in the conciliation proceedings each submit a letter of attorney, affixed with signature and company stamp, in PDF format via e-mail.
The conciliation board endeavours to inform the complainant within six weeks as of receipt of the full complaint and the lump-sum reimbursement whether the complaint will dealt with or not. The duration of the conciliation proceedings depends on the nature of the procedure, but in case of a shortened procedure should not exceed three months upon receipt of the full complaint and the lump-sum reimbursement.
Upon receipt of the lump-sum reimbursement the conciliation board in a first step examines the completeness of the complaint. If all required information (including the completed online complaint form and the completed document "Letter of attorney & privacy policy") have been submitted the conciliation board will proceed to examination of the content, otherwise the complaint will be considered void.
In the course of examining the content the conciliation board determines if all relevant information are available and may obtain additional information as appropriate. The conciliation board may consult external experts in case its own substantial expertise turns out to be insufficient. In parallel to the content examination those parties directly affected by the complaint will be informed about the presence and content of the complaint.
Until the end of the proceedings the conciliation board may demand statements from all parties considered in the conciliation proceedings at any time. Statements submitted to the conciliation board without request may find consideration in the course of the proceedings.
The conciliation board may decide on a case-by-case basis if a shortened procedure is to be applied. If the conciliation board considers the submitted information (description of the facts, documents, statements, etc.) sufficient it may directly take a decision in the form of a recommendation which in the best case is a compromise reasonable for all parties considered in the conciliation proceedings.
The conciliation board may conduct verbal conciliation proceedings if the submitted information and documents indicate a level of complexity of the situation that makes a shortened procedure seem inadequate.
Verbal conciliation proceedings are convened with invitation of one or all parties considered in the conciliation proceedings. The conciliation board may abstain from verbal conciliation proceedings if it is rejected by the parties considered in the conciliation proceedings.
In this case the conciliation board upon request of the complainant may take a decision in written form or may terminate the conciliation proceedings. The situation will be discussed in the verbal conciliation proceedings where all parties considered in the conciliation proceedings will have the opportunity to make oral statements. By moderating and, if necessary, mediating the verbal conciliation proceedings a representative of the conciliation board will endeavour to achieve a settlement for the benefit of all parties considered in the conciliation proceedings. The exact progress of the conciliation proceedings has to be agreed upon with all parties considered at the very beginning. The verbal conciliation proceedings are non-public unless stated otherwise.
The costs of the proceedings depend on the actual overall costs. In case of a verbal conciliation proceedings the parties considered should be led to a settlement directly achieved by them. Such a settlement must be minuted and signed by the parties considered. The signed minutes constitute an out-of-court settlement which is as such actionable before ordinary courts.
If it becomes apparent that verbal conciliation proceedings will not lead to any kind of settlement the conciliation board may discontinue the proceedings and take a decision in written form based on the information collected so far. Such a decision constitutes a recommendation which in the best case is a compromise reasonable for all parties considered in the conciliation proceedings. If the conciliation board considers it impossible to take a decision for whatever reason it may discontinue the proceedings without taking a decision. Any costs that may have arisen in the course of the initiation, the preparation, the procedure itself, and the follow-up of the conciliation proceedings are non-refundable.
Any decision taken by the conciliation board must be based upon all available information, documents, expert opinions, statements, etc. as well as upon possible verbal representations made by the parties considered in the conciliation proceedings.
Such a decision constitutes a recommendation in written form which in the best case is a compromise reasonable for all parties considered in the conciliation proceedings. The conciliation board must sufficiently justify any decision in order to ensure comprehensibility.
Any decision will be delivered to the authorised representatives of the respective parties considered in the conciliation proceedings in PDF format via email.
The proceedings before the conciliation board may either be discontinued, or concluded with a non-binding and non-appealable decision of the conciliation board, or an out-of-court settlement between the parties considered. It is neither possible to resume the conciliation proceedings nor to object against the conciliation proceedings however it is open to the parties considered to take legal action. In this case the conciliation proceedings will be discontinued without a decision.
Furthermore the complainant may terminate the conciliation proceedings unilaterally in written form at any time and without stating reasons.
The conciliation board is a legally dependent facility of AustriaTech. AustriaTech and all persons acting on its behalf are liable to the parties considered on the conciliation proceedings only for intentional and grossly negligent acts.
The conciliation regulations enter into force as from 1 January 2014.