Austria – EUCAM

This page contains information on statutory alcohol marketing regulations in Austria (table 1); a description of the restrictions per medium (table 2); labelling information (table 3); information on self-regulations on alcohol marketing (table 4); the complaints procedure; and lastly a summary about the Austrian regulations on alcohol marketing, including exhaustive, downloadable documents from the ELSA & FASE research projects.

Updated February 2022

Recent information about alcohol marketing regulations in this book: link

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Complaints procedure

Federal Act on the Broadcasting Corporation, statutory:
Complaints can be made to the Federal Communication Senate: legal Controll Organ of the ORF and the private broadcasting companies, established under the KommAustria Act, situated at the bureau of the federal chancellor (BKA). Marketing practices can be continued as long as legal proceedings are ongoing. Only when the Federal Communication Senate has decided that the practice is illegal, it has to be discontinued by the accountable organ of the ORF. The possibility of complaining is made known to the public by the decision of the Federal Communication Senate. Sanctions, when appropriate, are imposed by the Federal Communication Senate and can be a fine up to €36.000 or in case the violation is not stopped and several efforts to achieve a solution failed, the organ of the ORF can be dismissed (ORF-G, § 38). These sanctions are directed at the organs and the associated broadcasting companies of the ORF, which are judged to have violated the ORFAct. The results of procedures are publicly announced. A selection of decisions is available at the website of the Federal Communication Senate. The officially proceedings have to be completed within 6 weeks [ORF-Act, § 37 (3)].

Private Radio Act, statutory:
Complaints can be made to the Federal Communication Senate: legal Controll Organ of the ORF and private broadcasting companies, established under the KommAustria Act, situated at the bureau of the federal chancellor (BKA). Marketing practices can be continued as long as legal proceedings are ongoing. Only when the Federal Communication Senate has decided that the practice is not legal, it has to be stopped by the accountable company. The Federal Communication Senate informs the public about the possibility of complaining. Sanctions, when appropriate, are imposed by the Federal Communication Senate and can be a fine up to €8.000 or in case the violation is not stopped and several efforts to achieve a solution failed, than the transmission licence can be withdrawn. These sanctions are directed at the private television companies, which are judged to have violated the PrTV-Act. A selection of decisions is available at the website of the Federal Communication Senate. Decisions have to be made within 4 weeks.

Self Regulation Codex of the Austrian Advertising Council), non-statutory:
Complaints can be made to the Austrian Advertising Council. Marketing practices can be continued as long as legal proceedings are ongoing. Only when the Austrian Advertising Council has decided that the practice does not comply with the codex, the accountable company is urged to discontinue or modify the campaign within 2 weeks. The possibility of complaining is made known to the public on the website of the Advertising Council. Complaints about violations of the regulations on alcohol marketing in all covered media can be submitted to the Advertising Council. Anyone may file a complaint through this site. The complaints and their outcomes are publicly available on the website of the Advertising Council. The results of procedures are publicly announced at this site and in an annual report. The minimum and maximum amount of time the procedure officially takes is 2 weeks. The evaluating committee consists of about 160 representative experts, that are elected for 3 years from the advertising industry, media, clients, agencies, psychologist, scientists and lawyers.

The Advertising Council is a self-regulatory body, consequently it only gives out recommendations and no sanctions.

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In Austria four different statutory regulations specifically refer to alcohol marketing and advertising. These are the Federal Act on the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, Federal Act on Audio-visual Media Services, the Private Radio Act, the Private Television Act. The non-statutory Self Regulation Codex is set up by the Austrian Advertising Council – the self regulation agency of the Austrian advertising industry.

All four statutory Regulations are directed only at specific institutions, which provide advertising space. These are the Austrian Broadcasting Company (Federal Act on the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation), the Austrian private radio broadcasting companies (Private Radio Act) and the Austrian private television broadcasting companies (Private Television Act), all with their respective clients. In general, these regulations include a total ban on advertising spirits and restrictions on advertising other alcoholic beverages. The non-statutory regulations set up by the Austrian Advertising Council are directed at all companies related to the Austrian advertising industry and concern all kinds of “economical advertising” (not included: sponsoring, product placement etc.). These regulations contain guidelines on what should be avoided when dealing with advertising alcoholic beverages.

Besides these regulations, since 1997 a paragraph exists regulating advertising in schools, in the School Education Law. This paragraph does not explicitly mention alcoholic beverages, but includes them in practice. It says that in schools, at school events and at events directly connected to schools, it is only allowed to advertise if the duties and responsibilities of the Austrian school system are preserved. It is thus understood that you can’t advertise in schools for products like alcohol, tobacco, computer games unsuitable, sects or destructive cults.

The mentioned regulations have not been changed essentially in the last years. As of 2004 KommAustria is legally obligated to observe the adherence to the national regulations by checking monthly samples of all Austrian broadcasting companies. Also in 2004 the Austrian Advertising Council implemented a copy advice service as an additional facility. Note that both the observations of KommAustria and the copy advice do not explicitly or exclusively deal with alcohol issues, but do include them).

Table 1	Statutory Alcohol marketing regulations in Austria	Coverage
	Bundesgesetz über den österreichischen Rundfunk (ORFGesetz) (Federal Act on the Broadcasting Corporation)	Only tv and radio programs and websites that belong to the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF)
	Bundesgesetz, mit den Bestimmungen für privaten Hörfunk (Privatradiogesetz , PrR-G) Federal Act on Audio-visual Media Services	Satellite TV & other audio-visual media services (everything other then Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF))
	Bundesgesetz, mit den Bestimmungen für privaten Hörfunk (Privatradiogesetz , PrR-G) (Private Radio Act)	Commercial radio channels (possibly replaced by the Federal Act on Audio-visual Media Services)
	Bundesgesetz, mit den Bestimmungen für privates Fernsehen (Privatfernsehges etz, PrTV-G) (Private Television Act)	Commercial TV channels (possibly replaced by the Federal Act on Audio-visual Media Services)
	Bundesgesetz über die Ordnung von Unterricht und Erziehung in den im Schulorganisation sgesetz geregelten Schulen (Schulunterrichtsg esetz 1986 - SchUG) (School Education Law)	Advertising at school events; in schools; and in the souroundings of schools

Table 2 Statutory regulations per medium	Type of restrictions
TV	Ban on advertising for spirits (Article 13 (4) (Federal Act on the Broadcasting Corporation)
	Youth protection policy & content restrictions (Article 16 (4) Federal Act on the Broadcasting Corporation)
	Subliminal messaging prohibited
Radio	Ban on advertising for spirits (Article 13 (4) (Federal Act on the Broadcasting Corporation)
	Youth protection policy & content restrictions (Article 16 (4) Federal Act on the Broadcasting Corporation)
	Subliminal messaging prohibited
Outdoor marketing	None
Printed media	None
Cinema	None
Internet/digital media	None
Promotional items	None
(Sports) sponsorship	None
Other: schools	In Schools, at school events and at events directly connected to schools it is only allowed to advertise if the duties and responsibilities of the Austrian school system (§2 of Schoolorganisation Law) are preserved (Article 46 (3) School Education Law). This paragraph does not explicitly mention alcoholic beverages, but includes them in practice. It is understood that you can not advertise in schools for products like alcohol, tobacco, computer games insuitable, sects or destructive cults.

Table 3 Labelling information	Description	Legally binding or self-regulation
Health warnings:	No
Ingredients/nutritional information	No

Table 4 Non-statutory Alcohol marketing regulations in Austria	Coverage
Selbstbeschränku ngscodex des Österreichischen Werberat (Self Regulation Codex of the Austrian Advertising Council)	TV, radio, cinema, internet/digital media, outdoor, print

The following document contains an in depth overview of alcohol marketing regulations in Austria: alcohol-marketing-regulations-Austria.pdf

For even more (but older) information on alcohol marketing regulations in Austria, please take a look at Austria’s appendix to the 2007 ELSA (Enforcement of national Laws and Self-regulation on advertising and marketing of Alcohol) report.