Category: Austria

The mandatory fee-based publication in the print medium of the Official Journal of the Wiener Zeitung (Amtsblatt der Wiener Zeitung) (“Official Journal”) is going to be replaced by free-of-charge publication on the new Electronic Announcement and Information Platform of the Federation (“EVI”).

On 27 April 2023 the government passed the extremely controversial federal law on Wiener Zeitung GmbH and the establishment of an Electronic Announcement and Information Platform of the Federation (Wiener Zeitung GmbH und Einrichtung einer elektronischen Verlautbarungs- und Informationsplattform des Bundes Gesetz ­ WZEVIG) in the National Council in the course of the government’s media reform. As of 1 July 2023, EVI must be used instead of the previously obligatory publication of e.g., commercial register entries, in the print medium of the Official Journal. EVI is intended to provide Austrian citizens and companies with a simple, centralised access point to announcements that are required by federal law. The Wiener Zeitung is the world’s oldest daily newspaper and will then only be published online and perhaps once a month in paper form, as the bulk of its revenue will be lost with the cessation of the mandatory publications.

Current legal situation
The Wiener Zeitung consists of an editorial section and the Official Journal. Pursuant to the Official Notices Act of 1985 (Verlautbarungsgesetz 1985), the Official Journal is the official publication medium of the Republic of Austria.

The information that must be published in the Official Journal includes:

i. registrations in the commercial register and further publications to be made by the commercial register court (Section 10 of the Austrian Commercial Code). For example, new registrations of companies, relocations of registered offices, deletions, appointments of new managing directors, or changes in the shareholding. This excludes entries concerning sole proprietorships and partnerships;
ii. annual financial statements (Section 277 of the Austrian Commercial Code);
iii. information in case of reorganizations; and
iv. notices of vacancies in the public service.

Law amendments and objectives
The act will be effective as of July 2023, and the required publications previously made in the Official Journal must then be published via EVI. This will be done in compliance with all provisions of data protection law. The essential change will be that the announcements ordered by federal law as well as their retrieval via EVI will be free of charge. The objective is to reduce bureaucracy and modernise administration. In order to financially relieve companies, the fee-based obligation to publish in the print medium of the Official Journal will be abolished. As a result, Austrian companies will save a total of around EUR 18m annually.

Other federal publication regulations remain unaffected by these amendments. The federal states and municipalities may choose whether to publish their announcements and publications via EVI.

The publication of registrations in the commercial register was previously only accomplished by the “announcement” or “publication” in both the Edict Archive (Ediktsdatei) and in the Official Journal. Though registrations will still be published in the Edict Archive and in the Official Journal, the relevant time of registration will now be determined by the entry in the commercial register.

In the long-term, by December 2027, the Austrian government intends to enable centralised access to information of public or economic interest through the platform. The plan is to make the Republic of Austria’s legal information system (RIS), the company register, the land register as well as various other registers centrally accessible via EVI.

These modifications result from the implementation of Directive (EU) 2019/1151 amending Directive (EU) 2017/1132 as regards the use of digital tools and processes in company law, (“Digitalisation Directive”), which was partially implemented domestically with the Company Law Digitalisation Act 2022 (Gesellschaftliches Digitalisierungsgesetz 2022 – GesDigG 2022).

With the implementation of the Digitalisation Directive, large stock corporations now have the choice of either publishing their annual financial statements in the Official Journal themselves, as previously, or requesting the court to forward them to the Official Journal when submitting them to the commercial register.

Comment
The abolition of the fee for publication in the Official Journal in accordance with various legal requirements is appreciated. The complete abolition of the publication of the information regarding the commercial register entries in the Official Journal would have been even better, as the information is published in the Edict Archive of the federal government anyway. However, this would contradict the political goal of establishing a central publication and announcement platform at some point in the future that will make all information of public or economic interest centrally accessible.

By Nikolaus Stepan, Associate, Schoenherr

Regulation (EU) 2022/1925, The Digital Markets Act, is set to apply from 2 May 2023

Addressing digital developments and concerns regarding contestability and fairness in the digital economy, the Digital Markets Act – an ex-ante regulatory system – entered into force on 1 November 2022 and will apply from 2 May 2023. Designed to complement competition law, the Digital Markets Act lays down prohibitions and obligations for designated gatekeepers that provide a range of “core platform services” and gives the European Commission broad investigative and enforcement powers. Generally speaking, the Digital Markets Act aims to prevent unfair practices by gatekeepers.

What is a “gatekeeper”?

The Digital Markets Act (“DMA“) will apply only to undertakings (i) providing core platform services (“CPS”) and (ii) that are subsequently designated as gatekeepers.

The DMA covers a broad range of CPS including “online intermediation services”, “online search engines”, “online social networking services”, “video-sharing platform services”, “number-independent interpersonal communications services”, “operating systems”, “web browsers”, “virtual assistants” and “cloud computing services and online advertising services”.

An undertaking providing CPS will be designated as a gatekeeper if it meets three criteria cumulatively. The criteria are qualitative in nature but are presumed if certain quantitative thresholds are met:

• The undertaking has a significant impact on the internal market, which is presumed when (i) the group’s annual turnover in the EU was at least €7.5 billion in each of the last three financial years or (ii) its average capitalisation or fair value was at least €75 billion in the last financial year, and it provides services in at least three EU Member States;
• The undertaking provides a CPS which is an important gateway for business users to reach end users, which is presumed if a service (i) has more than 45 million monthly active EU end users and (ii) more than 10,000 active EU business users per year; and
• The undertaking enjoys an entrenched and durable position in its operations, or it is foreseeable that it will enjoy such a position in the near future, which is presumed if the user-base thresholds above have been exceeded in each of the last three financial years.

Similar to the mechanics within the competition law space, undertakings must self-assess the fulfillment of these criteria. If all thresholds are met, the undertaking must notify the European Commission (“Commission“) without delay within 2 months after said thresholds are met, whilst providing the relevant information.

Within 45 working days after receiving the information necessary to assess the thresholds, the Commission then designates the undertaking as a gatekeeper. Following their designation, gatekeepers will have six months to comply with the requirements imposed by the DMA.

Obligations and prohibitions imposed on gatekeepers

The obligations and prohibitions – the “do’s” and “don’ts” – that a gatekeeper must consider are listed in detail in Articles 5, 6 and 7 of the DMA, and are heavily modelled after recent competition law cases. The aim is to prevent unfair or deniability practices by gatekeepers. The following are key examples of “do’s” and “don’ts”:

Examples of “dos”

• Ease of (un)installation: Allow and enable end users to easily uninstall any software applications and allow them to install third party apps or app stores that use or interoperate with the gatekeeper’s operating system;
• Interoperability: Allow providers of services/hardware effective interoperability with the gatekeeper’s own services;
• Promotion: Allow business users to promote offers and conclude contracts with the gatekeeper’s customers outside the gatekeeper’s platform;
• Information access: Provide advertisers on their platform with access to the gatekeeper’s performance measuring tools and the information necessary for advertisers and publishers to carry out their own independent verification of their advertisements hosted by the gatekeeper.
• Notify mergers: Gatekeepers must notify any intended digital or data-related mergers and acquisitions to the Commission

Examples of “don’ts”

• No spill-over of plattform data: Gatekeepers are banned from combining/cross-using end users’ personal data collected from a CPS with data collected from other services, unless the end user has given their consent;
• No-self preferencing: Gatekeepers are banned from ranking their own products or services in a more favourable manner compared to those of third parties;
• No tying: Gatekeepers are banned from requiring business users or end users to subscribe to any other CPS belonging to the gatekeeper as a condition for using the services;
• No MFNs: Online intermediation services must not restrict business users from offering the same products/services to end users at different prices/conditions on other platforms or their own websites.

Enforcement

The DMA provides the Commission with similar powers as in the competition law space, in other words, the power to conduct broad market investigations, submit requests for information, carry out interviews of employees and impose interim measures as well as fines and penalties.

In order to enforce the DMA, the Commission has established a new specialized department within the Directorate General for Competition (“DG Comp“) that will work closely with the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (“DG Connect“). DG Comp is expected to assess the majority of enforcement cases by building on the existing structures for competition cases within the department. DG Connect is likely to focus instead on interoperability issues as well as disputes between publishers and search engines.

Unlike the EU competition framework, the DMA will not be enforced by National competition authorities (“NCA“) in order to meet the objective of the DMA to harmonise the framework and maximise legal certainty. However, the DMA provides for close cooperation and information exchange between the Commission and NCA through the European Competition Network (“ECN“). The advisory committee is made up of experts from the competent authorities within the Member States, including the Austrian Federal Competition Authority (“AFCA“),and is chaired by the Commission. Natalie Harsdorf-Borsch (Acting Director General for Competition at the AFCA) was nominated for a two-year period as representative of the ECN to the DMA advisory committee’s High-level Group, alongside her Director General counterparts from the Danish, German, Greek, Polish and Spanish competition authorities.

Complementary relationship between DMA and Austrian competition law

With regard to its applicability (see above point 1), the DMA does prevent Member States from imposing additional obligations on gatekeepers by way of laws, regulations or administrative measures for the purpose of ensuring contestable and fair markets.

While the DMA additionally states that it does not, in principle, supersede Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) or the corresponding national competition rules and other national competition rules regarding unilateral conduct, NCAs shall not make decisions which run counter to a decision adopted by the Commission under the DMA. In light of these provisions, there is an open debate as to whether Section 28a of the Austrian Cartel Act (“ACA“) – stipulating that the Austrian Cartel Court shall determine whether an undertaking active in a multi-sided digital market holds a dominant position – is in conflict with the DMA.

If Section 28a of the ACA were to be considered an “ex-ante” regulatory provision similar to the DMA, the DMA would enjoy primacy of application. In contrast, if Section 28a ACA were to be understood as a (pure) competition law provision, it would (continue to) apply. Section 28a of the ACA ultimately (i) serves to make enforcement of Article 102 TFEU (and its national equivalent) more efficient, (ii) it applies antitrust “logics” with respect to determining whether a company holds a dominant position, and (iii) does not by itself impose obligations on the companies concerned. As such, we believe that Section 28a ACA is not an ex-ante regulation comparable to the DMA and is therefore not in conflict with the latter. Nevertheless, we expect the application of Section 28a ACA to be limited to cases where the DMA is not applicable in the future.

Private enforcement in light of the DMA

The DMA is open toprivate enforcement, which means that natural or legal persons, harmed by gatekeepers that are in breach of the DMA, can go before national courts and sue for damages. Furthermore – in cases of collective harm to customers’ interest – Article 42 DMA provides the possibility of class actions.

High penalties for non-compliance

In cases of non-compliance with the DMA, undertakings can be fined inter alia up to 10% of their annual worldwide turnover, and 20% of their annual worldwide turnover in cases of repeated infringements.

In addition, the Commission may also impose periodic penalty payments, as well as behavioural or structural remedies, including a ban on M&A activity and possibly even a breakup.

In conclusion, the DMA will have a significant impact on digital platform operators. Even though the final rules have been settled, many uncertainties and challenges remain in everyday life that must be faced in order to comply with these new rules.

Implementing Regulation to the DMA

On 14 April 2023, the Commission published – following a month-long consultation period – its final DMA Implementing Regulation (“IR DMA“) along with two Annexes. Annex I is the proposed Notification Form for gatekeepers (“Form GD“) and Annex II is a guideline that regulates the format and length of documents submitted under the DMA. It will begin to apply (together with the DMA itself) from 2 May 2023.

The IR DMA encompasses 12 Articles and addresses a range of procedural aspects concerning the DMA, including gatekeeper designation and core platform service notifications, the opening of proceedings, the right to be heard, and access to the file.

Outlook

In light of the fact that the DMA’s rules will begin to apply on 2 May 2023, and that the regulatory instruments provide a timeframe of two additional months for notification purposes, we expect that the first decisions concerning gatekeeper designations will be issued in September 2023.The Digital Markets Act is part of a broader pact of new regulations drafted by the European Commission for all digital services as well as social media, online marketplaces and other platforms operating in the European Union. The other part of this pact is the “Digital Service Act” ( (EU) 2022/2065 of 19 October 2022), an EU-wide applicable regulation that aims to better protect consumers and their fundamental rights online, to create a powerful and clear transparency and accountability framework for online platforms and to promote innovation, growth and competitiveness in the internal market. On 25 April 2023, the European Commission adopted the first designation decisions under the Digital Services Act. The designated companies being so-called “Very Large Online Platforms” include – among others – YouToube, Google, TikTok, Amazon Store, Facebook and Instagram, all of which must fully comply with the special obligations imposed by the Digital Services Act by 25 August 2023.

By Georg Kresbach, Partner, and Stefan Wartinger, Counsel, Wolf Theiss

Michael Binder has retired from Binder Groesswang as of January 31, 2023.

Binder, who has expertise in banking and finance, capital markets, and corporate and M&A, has been with Binder Groesswang since 1980.

In 1978, he obtained a Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Vienna, followed by an LLM degree from Yale University Law School in 1982.

E+H, working with Willkie Farr & Gallagher, has advised the Stark Group on its acquisition of Schilowsky Baumarkt und Baustoffhandel.

The transaction remains contingent on regulatory approval.

The Stark Group operates in the sales and distribution of building materials, services, and advice for the building and construction industry.

Schilowsky is an Austrian building materials distributor. With around 170 employees, the company generates annual sales of more than EUR 125 million.

Earlier, in 2022, E+H advised the Stark Group on its acquisition of Dach & Wand Handels (reported by CEE Legal Matters on February 21, 2022).

E+H’s team included Partners Philipp Schrader, Peter Winkler, Dieter Thalhammer, Helmut Liebel, and Natalie Hahn, Counsels Stefan Jeitler and William Redl, and Associates Florian Vidreis, Maximilian Kroepfl, Katharina Schiretz, and Christoph Fichtner.

E+H did not respond to our inquiry on the matter.

Wolf Theiss has advised ZBI Zentral Boden Immobilien Group on its acquisition of the Karntner Strasse 1 tower from the KS Group. Kaan Cronenberg & Partner reportedly advised the seller.

“The joint venture project between the ZBI Group and the KS Group involves the construction of a modern tower with 17 floors and an expected total rental area of around 20,000 square meters,” Wolf Theiss informed. “It will be centrally located on Lazarettgurtel in the Gries district of Graz and will comprise 197 co-living flats as well as seven commercial units. While construction is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2023, completion is scheduled for the end of the first quarter of 2026.”

The ZBI Group is a German company that specializes in residential real estate. The ZBI Group currently has over 850 employees at over 30 locations in Germany, Luxembourg, and Austria.

The Wolf Theiss team included Partner Erik Steger and Senior Associate Sandra Seldte.

On 20 April 2023 the European Parliament (“EP”) finally approved the regulation on markets in crypto-assets (“MiCAR”). The approved final text of the MiCAR is yet to be formally endorsed by the Council, but the EP’s approval means the biggest legislative hurdle towards the MiCAR entering into force has been cleared. The approval of the MiCAR follows the finalisation of the last details of the text, after a provisional agreement on the final draft compromise was reached during trilogue negotiations in June 2022.

The MiCAR is part of a larger legislative digital finance package, which aims to develop a European approach that fosters technological development and ensures financial stability and consumer protection. Besides the MiCAR, the package includes, among other things, the Digital Operational Resilience Act, the distributed ledger technology (“DLT”) pilot regime and the recast of the transfer of funds regulation (which was passed alongside the MiCAR by the EP).

Timeline and transitional period
The MiCAR will enter into force 20 days after being published in the EU Official Journal (expected in June 2023). It provides for an 18-month transitional period after which the MiCAR will fully enter into application to enable Member States, EU regulatory agencies and national competent authorities to pass and publish legislative acts and guidelines. The rules applying to asset-referenced tokens (“ARTs”) and electronic money tokens (“EMTs”) will already apply 12 months after the MiCAR enters into force.

For crypto-asset service providers (“CASPs”) that are already authorised under national law when the MiCAR enters into application, the MiCAR provides for a further 18-month period to receive authorisation in accordance with the MiCAR. However, the MiCAR gives Member States the opportunity to apply a simplified authorisation procedure for these crypto-asset service providers.

This means that all currently registered CASPs are recommended to soon take all necessary steps to secure their future basis of authorisation and start preparing for their new MiCAR licensing procedure.

Key takeaways
Scope
Once it has entered into force, the MiCAR will regulate primary market activities (issuance/public offerings) and access to the secondary market (admission to trading) as well as the provision of certain crypto-asset services.

The MiCAR defines the digital representation of a value or a right that may be transferred and stored electronically, using distributed ledger technology or similar technology. The MiCAR distinguishes between the following sub-categories of crypto-assets:

• EMTs, which reference an official fiat currency;
• ARTs, which reference other values or rights or a combination thereof;
• crypto-assets, which are neither EMTs nor ARTs (“Other Crypto-Assets”), e.g. utility tokens.

The MiCAR applies to natural and legal persons but provides for several exemptions, such as for persons who provide crypto-asset services exclusively for their parent companies, for their subsidiaries or for other subsidiaries of their parent companies (group exemption).

Non-fungible tokens
Not only crypto-assets that are financial instruments are outside the scope of the MiCAR, but also genuine non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”). NFTs are crypto-assets that are unique and non-fungible representations of the ownership of an item (e.g. music, video, real estate). The value of NFTs is attributable to each crypto-asset’s unique characteristics and the utility it gives to the token holder. Despite being traded, they are not readily interchangeable and the relative value of one crypto-asset in relation to another, each being unique, cannot be ascertained by comparing it to an existing market or equivalent asset. Due to this limited financial use, the MiCAR exempts NFTs from the scope of its application. However, fractional parts of NFTs (so-called fractionalised NFTs) or NFTs issued in a large series or collection are not themselves unique and non-fungible and hence not exempted by the MiCAR.

Issuing/Offering to the public and admission to trading for crypto-assets
Depending on the category of crypto-asset and the activity or service, different MiCAR rules apply. Issuers of Other Crypto-Assets do not need to be authorised in accordance with the MiCAR and are only subject to a narrow range of MiCAR rules, such as the requirement to be a legal person and the obligation to notify and publish a white paper.

Given that ARTs and EMTs, as “stablecoins”, may serve to transfer value or act as a means of exchange, there are concerns about financial stability and monetary sovereignty. Hence issuing, offering to the public and/or admitting to trading ARTs and EMTs is subject to more stringent rules than are Other Crypto-Assets.

Under the MiCAR, the European Banking Authority (EBA) may designate ARTs and EMTs as significant based on a prescribed set of criteria, such as the number of holders, market capitalisation, gatekeeper status of the issuer or interconnectedness with the financial system. Issuers of significant ARTs and EMTs are supervised by the EBA instead of the national competent authority and are subject to, for example, higher capital requirements.

Crypto-asset white paper
Unless one of the exemptions apply, the issuer of all three types of crypto-assets must publish a white paper, which serves as a sort of prospectus for crypto-assets. It informs (potential) buyers and holders depending on the type of crypto-asset about, among other things, the issuer and the characteristics, risks, rights and obligations in connection with the relevant crypto-asset. Furthermore, the MiCAR also requires disclosure with regards to principal adverse environmental and climate-related impact of the consensus mechanism used to issue the crypto-asset. The white paper must also contain information related to the principal adverse environmental and climate-related impact of the consensus mechanism used to issue each crypto-asset. The MiCAR only stipulates the minimum requirements and the ESMA and EBA are tasked with developing regulatory technical standards to further specify the information

Crypto-asset service providers
CASPs provide one or more of the ten crypto-asset services that are defined in the MiCAR and resemble the list of investment services under the MIFID II. They include traditional services such as custody or administration, but also the provision of portfolio management or advice in relation to crypto-assets. CASPs need to be authorised by the national competent authority in accordance with the MiCAR and need to have a seat in Europe. The MiCAR sets general governance, capital and transparency requirements, some of which only apply if a certain crypto-asset service is provided. As with ARTs and EMTs, the MiCAR also distinguishes between significant and regular CASPs, but does not stipulate stricter rules for significant CASPs.

Reverse solicitation
Like the MiFID II, the MiCAR will also provide for the provision of services by third-country persons in relation to crypto-assets on a reverse solicitation basis. If crypto-asset services or activities are provided at a client’s own initiative, then the provision of the requested service is not subject to authorisation. Whether reverse solicitation applies should be considered on a case-by-case basis in order to avoid providing crypto-asset services without authorisation and hence triggering fines or other punitive measures.

Conclusion
Stories about the consequences and effects of the unregulated crypto space have been making headlines for years, especially in the last year, resulting in mistrust and the onset of a “crypto winter”. This highlights the immediate need for comprehensive regulation without stifling innovation and investment, which the MiCAR intends to satisfy. The MiCAR kicks off a new era of regulated crypto markets by establishing a harmonised regulatory framework that will better protect investors and consumers through authorisation and notification requirements and measures against market manipulation, while also improving market integrity and financial stability by regulating public offers of crypto-assets.

Despite criticism that it creates high market barriers for future market participants, crypto-asset service providers may also be able to take advantage of the new passporting opportunities the MiCAR offers. In addition, the more comprehensive regulation could boost the necessary trust to enable widespread adoption of DLT services. Other countries may also take the comprehensive EU MiCAR framework as a model and introduce similarly solid rules.

By Matthias Pressler, Counsel, and Maximilian Nusser, Associate, Schoenherr

On 18 April 2023, the EU Parliament approved the provisional political plan to reduce CO2 emissions in the EU agreed on by the Council and the European Parliament on 18 December 2022. This plan is based on proposals of the “Fit for 55” package presented by the European Commission in 2021 to reduce the EU’s net greenhouse gas emissions by 55 % compared to 1990 levels by 2030 and to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

Adaptation of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS)
Under the present agreement approved by the Parliament, sectors covered by the ETS (e.g. energy-intensive industry sectors, aviation, electricity and heat generation) are obliged to reduce their emissions even further. As stated in the provisional political plan, CO2 levels in these sectors are required to drop by 62 % compared to 2005 levels by 2030.

To achieve these ambitious goals, the newly approved deal introduces a reform of the ETS. Under the current ETS, energy-intensive industries and the power generation sector can purchase so-called “free allowances” to cover their carbon emissions. Under the new regime, the maximum number of free allowances is planned to gradually be reduced by 4.3 % per year from 2024 to 2027 and 4.4 % from 2028 to 2030, resulting in higher costs of polluting in Europe.

In addition to the ETS reform, a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will be established. Starting from 2026, the CBAM will impose a levy on imports of high-carbon goods such as steel, cement, aluminium, fertilisers and hydrogen. As the Council and the Parliament agreed to end free allowances for these sectors over a nine-year period between 2026 and 2034, the CBAM aims to prevent the shift of emission production to non-EU states as well as the protection of EU industries against more polluting foreign competitors.

There are other adaptations too, such as the inclusion of maritime shipping emissions into the scope of the EU ETS as well as the establishment of a new, separate ETS for the buildings and road transport sector and the use of fuels in other, as yet undefined, sectors.

The Social Climate Fund
The EU Parliament and Council further agreed to establish a Social Climate Fund to help Member States cushion the impact of the newly established ETS for the buildings and road transport and fuels in additional sectors. The fund will reach approximately EUR 65bln funded from the revenues generated by the ETS and should support vulnerable households, micro-enterprises and transport users from 2026 to 2032. While it was agreed that the fund would benefit all Member States, each will still have to contribute nationally from their own budgets.

Outlook
For the final deal to be published and thus enter into force, both the EU Parliament and the Council must give their approval. As the latter is still pending, the exact measures and numbers under this deal are still to be determined.

By Nina Zafoschnig, Attorney at Law, and Theresa Busta, Associate, Schoenherr

Schoenherr has advised joint lead managers Erste Group Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg, Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen Girozentrale, Natixis, and TD Global Finance on Erste Group Bank’s EUR 1 billion issuance of 3.125% mortgage Pfandbriefe due October 14, 2027. Wolf Theiss advised Erste.

According to Schoenherr, “the covered bonds were successfully issued under Austrian law on April 14, 2023, under Erste Group Bank’s Covered Bonds Program and placed with institutional investors and eligible counterparties. The covered bonds have a term of four years, mature in October 2027, and have a denomination of EUR 100,000 and multiples thereof. They are listed on the Official Market of the Vienna Stock Exchange.”

Schoenherr’s team included Partners Christoph Moser and Ursula Rath, Attorney at Law Angelika Fischer, Associate Daniel Gritsch, and Paralegal Clemens Stockhammer.

The Wolf Theiss team included Partner Claus Schneider, Associate Sebastian Prakljacic, and Legal Trainees Jonathan Gruber and Nicolas List.

BPV Huegel, working with Fieldfisher, has advised Next Generation Invest on its acquisition of a low-energy building in Vienna’s Donaustadt district.

According to BPV Huegel, “the Frankfurt-based company’s goal is to make real estate properties that convince with a clear, measurable social and ecological added value investable for institutional investors. The current investment is also in line with this goal of the impact investor. The deal concerns an office building of the Public Employment Service Austria in Vienna’s Donaustadt district with an area of over 3,700 square meters.”

“For the operator of the property, social welfare is in the foreground,” Next Generation Invest CFO Oliver Grossmann commented. “For example, the Public Employment Service reaches schoolchildren with the help of educational campaigns and offers them prospects for the labor market at an early stage. With its support concepts, the institution enables people from different social classes to improve their living conditions. Next Generation Invest supports these social intentions ambitiously and in the long term.”

According to BPV Huegel, “the solid reinforced concrete construction, ecological facade elements, and the integrated photovoltaic system make the acquired office building low-emission. In the next step, Next Generation Invest intends to develop further short-, medium-, and long-term ecological measures in order to operate the property in an ecologically sustainable manner in the long term. This should make a significant contribution to the ecological future goals of the United Nations.”

BPV Huegel’s team included Partners Nicolas Wolski, Dominik Geyer, and Michaela Pelinka, Senior Associate Paul Pfeifenberger, and Associates Lucas Hora and Katrin Kernbichler.

BPV Huegel did not respond to our inquiry on the matter.

Schoenherr has advised Austrian shared-mobility start-up UBIQ on its series A financing round.

According to Schoenherr, “UBIQ, formerly Parkbob, was founded in 2015 by Christian Adelsberger to develop a software solution for simple parking in heavily congested urban areas. The company has since repositioned itself and offers AI-powered solutions for managing fleets in the shared (e-)mobility industry.”

“The financing round was led by Smart Energy Innovation, the corporate venture capital arm of the Swiss energy service provider Energie 360°, Verbund AG’s Verbund X Ventures, as well as Smartworks Innovation, the corporate venture capital arm of Wien Energie and Wiener Stadtwerke,” the firm announced.

Schoenherr’s team included Partner Thomas Kulnigg and Associates Dominik Tyrybon and Maximilian Czernin.

Schoenherr did not respond to our inquiry on the matter.