Issued by the Board of the Chamber of Tax Advisers and Auditors

Preamble and General Information

(1) Engagement within the meaning of these Conditions means every contract for services to be rendered by an authorized practitioner of a public accounting profession in the exercise of this profession (both factual activities and the provision or performance of legal transactions or acts, in each case within the framework of Sections 2 or 3 of the Public Accounting Professions Act 2017 (Wirtschaftstreuhandberufsgesetz 2017 – WTBG 2017). The parties to the engagement shall hereinafter be referred to as “Contractor” on the one hand and “Client” on the other).

(2) These General Conditions of Contract for the public accounting professions are divided into two parts: The Conditions of Part I shall apply to engagements where the assignment of the engagement belongs to the operation of the client’s enterprise (entrepreneur as defined by the Consumer Protection Act). For consumer transactions pursuant to the Consumer Protection Act (Federal Act of 8 March 1979, Federal Law Gazette No. 140 as amended), they shall apply insofar as Part II does not contain any deviating provisions for these.

(3) In the event that an individual provision is ineffective, it shall be replaced by an effective provision that comes as close as possible to the intended objective.

PART I

1. Scope and Execution of the Engagement

(1) The scope of the engagement shall, as a rule, be determined by the written agreement between the Client and the Contractor. In the absence of a detailed written agreement, (2)-(4) shall apply in case of doubt:

(2) When the Contractor is engaged to provide tax advisory services, the advisory activities shall include the following:

a) Preparation of annual tax returns for income tax or corporate income tax as well as value added tax (VAT) on the basis of the annual financial statements to be submitted by the Client or (if agreed accordingly) prepared by the Contractor and other schedules and evidence required for taxation. Unless expressly agreed otherwise, the schedules and evidence required for taxation shall be provided by the Client.

b) Review of assessments (notices) regarding the returns mentioned under a).

c) Negotiations with the tax authorities in connection with the returns and assessments mentioned under a) and b).

d) Participation in tax audits and evaluation of the results of tax audits with regard to the taxes mentioned under a).

e) Participation in appeal proceedings with regard to the taxes mentioned under a).

If the Contractor receives a flat-rate fee for ongoing tax advice, the activities mentioned under d) and e) shall be remunerated separately, unless otherwise agreed in writing.

(3) Insofar as the preparation of one or more annual tax return(s) is part of the engagement, this does not include the review of any special accounting requirements or the review of whether all possible tax benefits, in particular those under VAT law, have been exploited, unless there is a verifiable engagement for this.

(4) The obligation to provide other services pursuant to Sections 2 and 3 WTBG 2017 in any case requires a separate verifiable engagement.

(5) Paragraphs (2) to (4) above shall not apply to expert witness activities.

(6) There are no obligations on the part of the Contractor to provide services, warnings, or information beyond the scope of the engagement.

(7) The Contractor is entitled to use suitable employees and other vicarious agents (subcontractors) to perform the engagement, as well as to be substituted by a professional practitioner in the performance of the engagement. Employees within the meaning of these Conditions means all persons who support the Contractor in their business activities on a regular or permanent basis, regardless of the nature of the legal basis.

(8) In providing their services, the Contractor shall only take Austrian law into account; foreign law shall only be taken into account if expressly agreed in writing.

(9) If the legal situation changes after the final written or oral professional statement has been made, the Contractor is not obliged to inform the Client of changes or consequences resulting therefrom. This also applies to completed parts of an engagement.

(10) (10) The Client is obliged to ensure that the data provided by them may be processed by the Contractor within the framework of the provision of services. In this regard, the Client must comply in particular, but not exclusively, with the applicable data protection and labor law provisions.

(11) (11) If the Contractor submits a request to an authority electronically, they act – in the absence of an express agreement to the contrary – merely as a messenger and this does not constitute a declaration of will or knowledge attributable to them or a submitting authorized representative.

(12) (12) The Client undertakes not to employ persons who are or were employees of the Contractor during the engagement relationship in their company or in an affiliated company during and within one year after termination of the engagement relationship, otherwise they undertake to pay the Contractor one year’s salary of the employee taken over.

2. Client’s Obligation to Provide Information; Letter of Representation

(1) The Client shall ensure that even without special request, all documents necessary for the execution of the engagement are submitted to the Contractor at the agreed time and, in the absence of such, in good time and in a suitable form, and that they are informed of all processes and circumstances that may be of importance for the execution of the engagement. This also applies to documents, processes, and circumstances that only become known during the Contractor’s activity.

(2) The Contractor is entitled to regard the information provided and documents handed over by the Client, in particular numerical data, as correct and complete and to base the engagement on them. The Contractor is not obliged to identify inaccuracies without a separate written engagement. In particular, this also applies to the correctness and completeness of invoices. However, if they identify inaccuracies, they must inform the Client thereof. They must protect the Client’s rights in financial criminal proceedings.

(3) The Client shall confirm in writing to the Contractor the completeness of the documents submitted as well as the information and explanations given in the case of audits, reports, and expert witness activities.

(4) If significant risks have not been disclosed by the Client during the preparation of annual financial statements and other statements, no liability for damages shall exist for the Contractor insofar as these risks materialize.

(5) Dates and schedules specified by the Contractor for the completion of products of the Contractor or parts thereof are best estimates and, unless otherwise agreed in writing, not binding. The same applies to any fee estimates: these are prepared to the best of our knowledge; however, they are always non-binding.

(6) The Client shall inform the Contractor of current contact details (in particular the delivery address). Until new contact details are announced, the Contractor may rely on the validity of the contact details last announced by the Client, in particular have delivery made to the last address provided.

3. Protection of Independence

(1) The Client shall be obliged to take all measures to prevent that the independence of the Contractor’s employees be jeopardized and shall himself/herself refrain from any hazard to such independence. This shall apply in particular to offers of employment and to offers to accept engagements on one’s own account.

(2) The Client acknowledges that his/her personal data required for this purpose, as well as the type and scope including the period of performance of the services agreed between the Contractor and the Client (both audit and non-audit services), will be processed for the purpose of checking for the existence of grounds for bias or exclusion and conflicts of interest in any network to which the Contractor belongs, and will be transmitted to the other members of this network, including abroad, for this purpose. For this purpose, the Client expressly releases the Contractor from his/her duty of confidentiality in accordance with the Data Protection Act and pursuant to Section 80 (4) no. 2 WTBG 2017. The Client may revoke the release from the duty of confidentiality at any time.

4. Reporting and Communication

(1) (Reporting by the Contractor) In the case of audits and expert opinions, a written report shall be made unless otherwise agreed.

(2) (Communication to the Client) All engagement-related information and statements, including reports, (all of them declarations of knowledge) by the Contractor, his/her employees, other vicarious agents or substitutes (“professional statements”) shall only be binding if they are made in writing. Professional statements in electronic file formats which are sent, transmitted or confirmed by fax or e-mail or using similar forms of electronic communication (capable of being stored and reproduced and not oral, i.e. e.g. SMS but not telephone) shall be deemed to be in writing; this applies exclusively to professional statements. The Client shall bear the risk of professional statements being issued by persons not authorized to do so and the risk of them being sent.

(3) (Communication to the Client) The Client hereby agrees that the Contractor may communicate electronically with the Client (e.g. via e-mail) in unencrypted form. The Client declares that he/she is informed about the risks associated with the use of electronic communication (in particular access, secrecy, alteration of messages in the course of transmission). The Contractor, his/her employees, other vicarious agents or substitutes shall not be liable for damage caused by the use of electronic means of communication.

(4) (Communication to the Contractor) The receipt and forwarding of information to the Contractor and his/her employees are not always ensured when using the telephone – in particular in connection with automatic telephone answering systems, fax, e-mail and other forms of electronic communication. Assignments and important information shall therefore only be deemed to have been received by the Contractor if they have also been received physically (not by (tele)phone or electronically), unless receipt is expressly confirmed in individual cases. Automatic transmission and read receipts shall not be deemed to be such express confirmations of receipt. This applies in particular to the transmission of assessments and other information about deadlines. Critical and important messages must therefore be sent to the Contractor by post or courier. Handing over documents to employees outside the office shall not be deemed to be a handover.

(5) (General) Insofar as not otherwise stipulated in Item 4 (2), written shall mean in writing within the meaning of Section 886 ABGB (signature). An advanced electronic signature (Art. 26 eIDAS Regulation, (EU) No. 910/2014) shall fulfill the requirement of writing within the meaning of Section 886 ABGB (signature), insofar as this is within the parties’ power of disposal.

(6) (Promotional information) The Contractor will periodically transmit general tax law and general commercial law information to the Client electronically (e.g. by e-mail). The Client acknowledges that he/she has the right to object to the sending of direct advertising at any time.

5. Protection of the Contractor’s Intellectual Property

(1) The Client shall be obliged to ensure that the reports, expert opinions, organizational plans, drafts, drawings, calculations and the like prepared by the Contractor within the framework of the engagement are used only for the purposes of the engagement (e.g. pursuant to Section 44 (3) EStG 1988). Furthermore, the disclosure of written or oral professional statements of the Contractor to a third party for use shall require the Contractor’s written consent.

(2) The use of written or oral professional statements of the Contractor for advertising purposes shall be inadmissible; a violation shall entitle the Contractor to terminate all engagements of the Client not yet performed without notice.

(3) The Contractor shall retain the copyright to his/her services. The granting of licenses to use works shall be reserved for the Contractor’s written consent.

6. Correction of Defects

(1) The Contractor shall be entitled and obliged to correct any inaccuracies and defects in his/her written or oral professional statement which subsequently come to light and shall be obliged to inform the Client thereof without delay. He/she shall also be entitled to inform third parties who have been informed of the original professional statement of the change.

(2) The Client shall be entitled to the free-of-charge elimination of inaccuracies, provided that these are the responsibility of the Contractor; this claim shall expire six months after the service has been rendered by the Contractor or – if a written professional statement is not issued – six months after the termination of the complained-of activity of the Contractor.

(3) In the event of failure to rectify any defects, the Client shall be entitled to a reduction in price. Insofar as there are further claims for damages, Item 7 shall apply.

7. Liability

(1) All liability provisions shall apply to all disputes in connection with the engagement relationship, regardless of the legal grounds. The Contractor shall be liable for damage in connection with the engagement relationship (including its termination) only in the case of intent and gross negligence. The applicability of Section 1298 sentence 2 ABGB is excluded.

(2) In the event of gross negligence, the Contractor’s liability for damages shall be limited to a maximum of ten times the minimum insurance sum of the professional liability insurance pursuant to Section 11 Public Accounting Professions Act 2017 (WTBG 2017) as amended.

(3) The limitation of liability pursuant to Item 7 (2) refers to the individual case of damage. The individual case of damage includes all consequences of a breach of duty regardless of whether damage occurred in one or more consecutive years. In this context, multiple acts or omissions based on the same or a similar source of error shall be deemed to be a single breach of duty if the matters concerned are legally and economically related to each other. A uniform damage remains a single case of damage, even if it is based on several breaches of duty. Furthermore, except in the case of intentional damage, liability of the Contractor for lost profits as well as collateral, consequential, incidental or similar damage is excluded.

(4) Any claim for damages can only be asserted in court within six months after the person(s) entitled to the claim has/have obtained knowledge of the damage, but at the latest within three years after the occurrence of the (primary) damage after the event giving rise to the claim, unless other limitation periods are mandatorily established by law.

(5) In cases where Section 275 UGB is applicable, its liability norms shall apply even if several persons were involved in the performance of the engagement or several acts requiring compensation were committed and regardless of whether other participants acted intentionally.

(6) In cases where a formal auditor’s opinion is issued, the limitation period shall begin to run at the latest upon issuance of the auditor’s opinion.

(7) If the activity is carried out with the involvement of a third party, e.g. a data processing company, any warranty and damage claims against the third party arising by law or contract shall be deemed to have been assigned to the Client upon notification of the Client thereof. In this case, the Contractor shall – notwithstanding Item 4 (3) – only be liable for fault in the selection of the third party.

(8) Liability of the Contractor towards third parties is excluded in any case. If third parties come into contact with the Contractor’s work because of the Client in any form whatsoever, the Client must expressly inform them of this circumstance. Insofar as such an exclusion of liability is not legally permissible or liability towards third parties was exceptionally assumed by the Contractor, these limitations of liability shall in any case also apply subsidiarily towards third parties. Third parties cannot in any case assert claims exceeding any claim of the Client. The maximum amount of liability shall only apply once in total for all injured parties, including the Client’s own claims for compensation, even if several persons (the Client and a third party or even several third parties) have been injured; injured parties shall be satisfied in the order of their claims. The Client shall indemnify and hold the Contractor and his/her employees harmless from all claims of third parties in connection with the disclosure of written or oral professional statements of the Contractor to these third parties.

(9) Item 7 shall also apply to any liability claims of the Client in connection with the engagement relationship against third parties (vicarious agents and agents of the Contractor) and the Contractor’s substitutes.

8. Duty of Confidentiality, Data Protection

(1) Pursuant to Section 80 WTBG 2017, the Contractor shall be obliged to maintain secrecy about all matters that become known to him/her in connection with his/her activity for the Client, unless the Client releases him/her from this duty of secrecy or legal obligations to disclose exist.

(2) Insofar as it is necessary for the pursuit of claims of the Contractor (in particular claims for fees) or for the defense of claims against the Contractor (in particular claims for damages by the Client or third parties against the Contractor), the Contractor shall be released from his/her professional duty of secrecy.

(3) The Contractor may only hand over reports, expert opinions and other written professional statements on the results of his/her activity to third parties with the consent of the Client, unless there is a legal obligation to do so.

(4) The Contractor is the controller within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) with regard to all personal data processed within the framework of the engagement. The Contractor is therefore authorized to process personal data entrusted to him/her within the limits of the engagement. Materials provided to the Contractor (paper and data carriers) will generally be handed over to the Client or to third parties named by the Client after completion of the respective service or, if separately agreed, will be kept or destroyed by the Contractor. The Contractor is entitled to keep copies thereof insofar as he/she needs them for the proper documentation of his/her services or insofar as it is legally required or customary in the profession.

(5) Insofar as the Contractor supports the Client in fulfilling the obligations incumbent on the Client as the controller towards data subjects, the Contractor shall be entitled to charge the actual expenditure incurred to the Client. The same shall apply to the expenditure incurred for information provided in connection with the engagement relationship to third parties after release from the duty of secrecy by the Client.

9. Withdrawal and Termination (“Termination”)

(1) The notice of termination of an engagement must be in writing (see also Items 4 (4) and (5)). The expiration of an existing power of attorney does not cause the termination of the engagement.

(2) Unless otherwise agreed in writing or mandatorily prescribed by law, the contractual partners may terminate the contract at any time with immediate effect. The claim for fees shall be determined according to Item 11.

(3) A continuous engagement (fixed-term or open-ended engagement for, even if not exclusively, the performance of repeated individual services, also with flat-rate remuneration) may, however, unless otherwise agreed in writing, only be terminated without the existence of an important reason by giving three months’ notice (“termination period”) to the end of a calendar month.

(4) After notice of termination of a continuous engagement, only those individual works are still to be completed by the Contractor (remaining engagement stock) whose full execution is (generally) possible within the termination period, provided that they are notified to the Client in writing within the meaning of Item 4 (2) within one month after the beginning of the termination period. The remaining engagement stock must be completed within the termination period, provided that all necessary documents are provided in good time and provided that there is no important reason preventing this.

(5) If, in the case of a continuous engagement, more than 2 similar works, usually to be prepared only once a year (e.g. annual financial statements, tax returns, etc.), were to be completed, the works exceeding 2 shall only belong to the remaining engagement stock with the express consent of the Client. In the notification pursuant to Item 9 (4), the Client must be expressly informed of this circumstance if applicable.

10. Termination in Case of Default of Acceptance and Lack of Cooperation by the Client and Legal Obstacles to Performance

(1) If the Client defaults in accepting the service offered by the Contractor or if the Client fails to provide the cooperation incumbent on him/her according to Item 2 or otherwise, the Contractor shall be entitled to terminate the contract without notice. The same shall apply if the Client requests (even partial) performance of the engagement which, in the Contractor’s reasoned opinion, does not comply with the legal situation or professional principles. His/her claims for fees shall be determined according to Item 11. Default of acceptance and lack of cooperation on the part of the Client shall also entitle the Contractor to compensation for the additional expenditure incurred by him/her as well as for the damage caused, even if the Contractor does not exercise his/her right of termination.

(2) In the case of contracts for bookkeeping, payroll accounting or tax calculation, termination without notice by the Contractor pursuant to Item 10 (1) shall be permissible if the Client demonstrably fails to fulfill his/her obligation to cooperate pursuant to Item 2 (1) twice.

11. Claim for Fees

(1) If the execution of the engagement is not carried out (e.g. due to withdrawal or termination), the Contractor shall nevertheless be entitled to the agreed remuneration (fee) if he/she was ready to perform and was prevented from doing so by circumstances on the part of the Client; mere contributory negligence on the part of the Contractor shall be disregarded in this respect; in this case, the Contractor does not need to have credited what he/she earns or fails to earn by using his/her and his/her employees’ labor elsewhere.

(2) In the event of termination of a continuous engagement, the agreed remuneration shall be due for the remaining engagement stock, provided it is completed or if this is not done for reasons attributable to the Client (reference is made to Item 11 (1)). Agreed flat-rate fees shall be pro-rated if necessary.

(3) If cooperation by the Client necessary for the execution of the work is not provided, the Contractor shall also be entitled to set a reasonable deadline for him/her to catch up, with the declaration that the contract shall be deemed cancelled after the fruitless expiration of the deadline; otherwise, the consequences of Item 11 (1) shall apply.

(4) In the event of non-compliance with the termination period pursuant to Item 9 (3) by the Client, as well as in the event of termination of the contract pursuant to Item 10 (2) by the Contractor, the Contractor shall retain the full claim for fees for three months.

12. Fee

(1) Unless unremunerated performance is expressly agreed, reasonable remuneration shall be owed in any case pursuant to Section 1004 and Section 1152 ABGB. The amount and type of the Contractor’s claim for fees shall be based on the agreement made between him/her and his/her Client. Unless another agreement has demonstrably been made, payments by the Client shall always be credited against the oldest debt.

(2) The smallest billable unit of service is fifteen minutes.

(3) Travel time is also billed to the necessary extent.

(4) The study of files in the Contractor’s own office, which is necessary for the Contractor’s preparation in terms of type and scope, can be billed separately.

(5) If an already agreed remuneration proves to be insufficient due to special circumstances that subsequently come to light or due to special demands made by the Client, the Contractor must inform the Client thereof and renegotiations for the agreement of a reasonable remuneration must be conducted (also in the case of insufficient flat-rate fees).

(6) The Contractor shall charge incidental costs and value added tax (VAT) additionally. Examples, but not exhaustive, are given in (7) to (9) below:

(7) Billable incidental costs also include documented or flat-rate out-of-pocket expenses, travel expenses (1st class for train travel), per diems, mileage allowance, copying costs and similar incidental costs.

(8) In the case of special professional liability insurance requirements, the relevant insurance premiums (incl. insurance tax) shall count as incidental costs.

(9) Furthermore, personnel and material expenses for the preparation of reports, expert opinions and the like shall also be regarded as incidental costs.

(10) (10) For the execution of an engagement, the joint performance of which has been assigned to several contractors, each shall bill the remuneration corresponding to his/her activity.

(11) (11) Fees and advances on fees are due immediately after they have been asserted in writing, unless otherwise agreed. Default interest may be charged for fee payments made later than 14 days after the due date. In the case of bilateral business transactions between entrepreneurs, default interest shall be in the amount specified in Section 456 1st and 2nd sentence UGB.

(12) (12) The limitation period shall be governed by Section 1486 ABGB and shall begin to run upon completion of the service or upon subsequent invoicing within a reasonable period.

(13) (13) Objections to invoices may be made in writing to the Contractor within 4 weeks of the invoice date. Otherwise, the invoice shall be deemed accepted. The entry of an invoice into the books shall in any case be deemed as acceptance.

(14) (14) The application of Section 934 ABGB within the meaning of Section 351 UGB, i.e. challenge due to lesion beyond moiety for transactions between entrepreneurs, is waived.

(15) (15) If a flat-rate fee is agreed for engagements concerning bookkeeping, payroll accounting or tax calculation, then, in the absence of any other written agreement, representation activities in connection with tax and contribution audits of all kinds, including the conclusion of settlements on tax assessment or contribution bases, reporting, filing of appeals and the like, shall be remunerated separately. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, the fee shall be deemed to have been agreed for one engagement year in each case.

(16) (16) The processing of special individual questions in connection with the activities mentioned in Item 12 (15), in particular determinations on the principled existence of compulsory insurance, shall only take place on the basis of a special engagement.

(17) (17) The Contractor may request appropriate advances and may make his/her (continued) activity dependent on the payment of these advances. In the case of continuous engagements, the provision of further services may be refused until earlier services (as well as any advances pursuant to sentence 1) have been paid. This shall apply mutatis mutandis to the provision of partial services and open partial billing.

(18) (18) A complaint about the Contractor’s work shall not entitle the Client, except in the case of obvious material defects, to withhold even partially the fees, other remuneration, reimbursement of costs and advances (remunerations) due to him/her under Item 12.

(19) (19) Offsetting against the Contractor’s claims for remuneration according to Item 12 is only permissible with undisputed or legally established claims.

13. Miscellaneous

(1) In connection with Item 12 (17), reference is made to the statutory right of retention (Section 471 ABGB, Section 369 UGB); if the right of retention is exercised unlawfully, the Contractor shall generally be liable according to Item 7, but in deviation therefrom only up to the amount of his/her still outstanding claim.

(2) The Client shall have no claim to the delivery of working papers and similar documents prepared by the Contractor in the course of performing the engagement. In the case of performance of the engagement using electronic accounting systems, the Contractor shall be entitled, after handing over all data created by the Contractor in connection with the engagement for which the Client has an obligation to keep records in a structured, common and machine-readable format to the Client or to the subsequent public accountant, to delete the data. For the handover of these data in a structured, common and machine-readable format, the Contractor shall be entitled to a reasonable fee (Item 12 shall apply mutatis mutandis). If a handover of these data in a structured, common and machine-readable format is impossible or impractical for special reasons, they may alternatively be handed over as a full printout. No remuneration shall be due for this in such case.

(3) At the request and expense of the Client, the Contractor shall hand over all documents which he/she has received from the Client on the occasion of his/her activity. However, this shall not apply to correspondence between the Contractor and his/her Client, nor to documents which the Client possesses in the original, nor to documents which are subject to a retention obligation under the legal provisions applicable to the Contractor for the prevention of money laundering. The Contractor may make copies or photocopies of documents which he/she returns to the Client. If these documents have already been transmitted to the Client once, the Contractor shall be entitled to a reasonable fee (Item 12 shall apply mutatis mutandis).

(4) The Client must collect the documents handed over to the Contractor within 3 months after completion of the work. If documents handed over are not collected, the Contractor may, after two verifiable requests to the Client to collect the documents, return them at the Client’s expense and/or invoice a reasonable fee (Item 12 shall apply mutatis mutandis). Further storage may also be carried out by third parties at the expense of the Client. Furthermore, the Contractor shall not be liable for consequences resulting from damage, loss, or destruction of the documents.

(5) The Contractor shall be entitled to offset due fee claims against any deposit balances, settlement funds, trust funds, or other liquid funds in his/her custody, even in the case of express safekeeping, provided that the Client had to expect a counter-claim by the Contractor.

(6) To secure an existing or future fee claim, the Contractor shall be entitled to transfer a tax credit or another tax or contribution credit of the Client to a trust account. In this case, the Client must be informed of the transfer made. Thereafter, the secured amount may be collected either in agreement with the Client or upon enforceability of the fee claim.

14. Applicable Law, Place of Performance, Jurisdiction

(1) The engagement, its execution, and the claims resulting therefrom shall be governed exclusively by Austrian law, to the exclusion of the national conflict-of-law rules.

(2) The place of performance shall be the place of the professional establishment of the Contractor.

(3) In the absence of a deviating written agreement, the place of jurisdiction shall be the court with subject-matter jurisdiction at the place of performance.

PART II

15. Supplementary Provisions for Consumer Transactions

(1) For contracts between public accountants and consumers, the mandatory provisions of the Consumer Protection Act shall apply.

(2) The Contractor shall only be liable for a breach of the assumed obligations caused by intent or gross negligence.

(3) Instead of the limitation stipulated in Item 7 (2), the Contractor’s liability for damages is not limited even in the case of gross negligence.

(4) Item 6 (2) (period for the claim for correction of defects) and Item 7 (4) (assertion of claims for damages within a certain period) shall not apply.

(5) Right of withdrawal pursuant to Section 3 KSchG:

If the consumer has not made his/her contractual declaration in the office rooms permanently used by the Contractor, he/she may withdraw from his/her contract application or from the contract. This withdrawal may be declared until the conclusion of the contract or thereafter within one week; the period begins to run upon the delivery of a document to the consumer which contains at least the name and address of the Contractor as well as information on the right of withdrawal, but at the earliest upon the conclusion of the contract. The consumer shall not have the right of withdrawal:
1. if he/she himself/herself initiated the business connection with the Contractor or his/her representative for the purpose of concluding this contract,
2. if no discussions between the parties involved or their representatives preceded the conclusion of the contract, or
3. in the case of contracts in which the mutual services are to be rendered immediately, if they are usually concluded by contractors outside their office rooms and the agreed remuneration does not exceed € 15.
The withdrawal must be in writing to be legally effective. It shall be sufficient if the consumer returns a document containing his/her contractual declaration or that of the Contractor to the Contractor with a note indicating that the consumer rejects the conclusion or maintenance of the contract. It shall be sufficient if the declaration is sent within one week.

If the consumer withdraws from the contract pursuant to Section 3 KSchG, then concurrently (step by step):
1. the Contractor must refund all services received, including statutory interest from the date of receipt, and compensate the consumer for necessary and useful expenses made on the matter,
2. the consumer must compensate the Contractor for the value of the services, provided that they are to his/her clear and predominant advantage.
Pursuant to Section 4 (3) KSchG, claims for damages shall remain unaffected.

(6) Estimates pursuant to Section 5 KSchG:
For the preparation of an estimate within the meaning of Section 1170a ABGB by the Contractor, the consumer only has to pay a fee if he/she has been informed of this obligation to pay beforehand.
If the contract is based on an estimate by the Contractor, its accuracy shall be deemed guaranteed unless the contrary is expressly declared.

(7) Correction of defects: Item 6 is supplemented:
If the Contractor is obliged under Section 932 ABGB to improve his/her services or to add missing parts, he/she must fulfill this obligation at the place where the matter was handed over. If it is feasible for the consumer to have the works and documents sent by the Contractor, the Contractor may carry out this dispatch at his/her risk and expense.

(8) Jurisdiction: Instead of Item 14 (3), the following applies:
If the consumer has his/her domicile or habitual residence in Austria or is employed in Austria, the jurisdiction of a court in whose district the domicile, habitual residence, or place of employment is located can only be established for an action against him/her according to Sections 88, 89, 93 (2) and 104 (1) JN.

(9) Contracts for recurring services:
(a) Contracts by which the Contractor commits to work performances and the consumer to repeated money payments, and which have been concluded for an indefinite period or a period exceeding one year, may be terminated by the consumer by giving two months’ notice to the end of the first year, and thereafter to the end of each half-year.
(b) If the entirety of the services is an indivisible service according to its nature, the scope and price of which are already determined at the time the contract is concluded, the first termination date may be postponed until the end of the second year. In such contracts, the notice period may be extended to a maximum of six months.
(c) If the fulfillment of a certain contract mentioned in lit. a) requires significant expenditure by the Contractor and he/she has informed the consumer of this at the latest when the contract is concluded, termination dates and notice periods deviating from those mentioned in lit. a) and b) and appropriate to the circumstances may be agreed.
(d) A termination by the consumer that has not been pronounced in due time shall become effective at the next termination date following the expiry of the notice period.