Are electronic signatures legal in Austria?
Austria has legally recognised e-signatures since 1999, since The Federal Signature Law.
More recently the introduction of eIDAS in July 2016 has seen these regulations standardised across Europe.
Yes, e-signatures are court admissible
Each country has it’s own regulations that determine whether an electronic signature is seen as legal or not. So, as long as your electronic signature adheres to these, a signature won’t be rejected simply for not being handwritten.
Yes, e-signatures can be used in business
Whilst 100% legal; there are exceptions for very specific types of transactions. It is still up to the discretion of the independent user, or governing body, whether they are used or not. As each business needs are different and the agreements themselves may vary. We always advise you to speak with an authority within your businesses category.
Legal Model
Austria operates under Civil Law systems which are arranged according to a plan or a system and come from Roman law. Civil law systems are based on:
- Generally a written constitution based on specific codes (e.g. civil code, codes covering corporate law, administrative law, tax law and constitutional law) preserving basic rights and duties
- There is little scope for judge-made law in civil, criminal and commercial courts (only legislative enactments are considered binding for all)
- In some civil law systems, e.g. Germany, writings of legal scholars have significant influence on the courts
- Courts specific to the underlying codes – there are therefore usually separate constitutional court, administrative court and civil court systems that opine on consistency of legislation and administrative acts with and interpret that specific code;
- Less freedom of contract – many provisions are implied into a contract by law and parties cannot contract out of certain provisions.
A civil law system is generally more prescriptive than a common law system.
There are a number of provisions implied into a contract under the civil law system – this will often result in a contract being shorter than one in a common law country.
Legal Classification
Austria’s legal model is a tiered one. This means that Qualified Electronic Signature are seen as a legal type of e-signature. This doesn’t mean that a non-QES e-Signature can’t be submitted in court, but it will need additional evidence to support it.
Full Summary
Austrian law highlights that contracts don’t need a handwritten signature to be seen as credible. They are seen as such as long as legally able individuals have reached an agreement (this can be by agreeing verbally, electronically or by physically signing – Sec. 883 General Civil Code). Sometimes additional evidence may need to be supplied in court to support each document. This is shown in Sec. 292 et seq. Civil Procedure Code.
Since July 2016, the eIDAS regulation has meant that all companies in the EU comply with each other’s e-Signature regulations. Standardising them across Europe.