Internet & Online Safety · Austria
Internet & Online Safety - Austria
As an EU member state, Austria's online content and platform regulation is governed primarily by the directly-applicable EU Digital Services Act, which fully entered into force on 17 February 2024 and harmonises platform liability, notice-and-action, and transparency rules. Austria's national accompanying law (KDD-G) designates KommAustria, operated by regulator RTR, as the Digital Services Coordinator responsible for supervision, complaints handling and trusted-flagger certification. Austria's pioneering national anti-hate-speech law (KoPl-G, in force 2021) has been substantively superseded by the DSA and was constrained by a 2023 CJEU ruling on the country-of-origin principle.
The Digital Services Act applies directly in Austria; it became fully applicable to all in-scope intermediaries on 17 February 2024, setting EU-wide rules on illegal-content notice-and-action, platform liability exemptions, transparency reporting, and extra duties for very large platforms (VLOPs/VLOSEs) enforced by the European Commission.
Austria's Digital Services Coordinator Act (KDD-G, BGBl. I 182/2023) entered into force on 17 February 2024 and names KommAustria — operated by media regulator RTR — as the national Digital Services Coordinator under Article 49 DSA, with powers over Austria-established intermediaries and complaint handling.
KommAustria's first annual DSC report (published August 2025) records 34 complaints processed in 2024 and certification of six 'trusted flaggers' in Austria — six of the first 16 certified EU-wide — alongside its lead role in the EU working group on removal and information orders.
Austria's national anti-hate-speech Communication Platforms Act took effect 1 January 2021, imposing notice/removal, complaint-redress and transparency duties on large platforms (>100,000 users or >EUR 500,000 turnover); its substance is now overlapped and largely displaced by the DSA.
In Case C-376/22 (Google Ireland, Meta, TikTok), the CJEU ruled on 9 November 2023 that Austria could not apply the KoPl-G's general, abstract obligations to platforms established in other EU member states, reaffirming the e-Commerce Directive's country-of-origin principle.
Austria's government has committed to publishing a draft law by June 2026 setting a minimum age of 14 for social-media access with mandatory age verification, and Austria co-signed a 2025 letter by eleven member states urging EU-wide age-verification rules in the DSA minor-protection guidelines.
Machine-assisted translation · verified 5/23/2026 · orientation, not legal advice. English version →