TFL Vsebine / Revija Slovenska arbitražna praksa

The Austrian legislature protects consumers from entering into arbitration agreements for many legitimate reasons. In business transactions involving consumers, the latter are typically less informed and at a financial disadvantage. They may not even know what arbitration is and are usually unable to finance arbitral proceedings. The legal systems of many states contain legal instruments designed to redress the imbalances between strong and weak parties, for example, by providing legal aid to impecunious parties, which is not available in arbitration proceedings. Mindful of this imbalance, the Austrian legislature enacted Sect. 617 CPC, which entered into effect together with the Austrian Arbitration Law Act on 1 July 2006; subsections (1) to (3) of that statute provide as follows: