Austrian VwGH on Updating eNotification Addresses

Mar 14, 2025 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

The Austrian Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgerichtshof, hereinafter VwGH) has dealt with the question of the legal consequences with regard to official notifications if an individual’s email addresses for electronic notifications are not updated in good time in spite of the obligation to do so.

In the case at hand, the co-defendant was charged with several offences under the Austrian Road Traffic Act (Straßenverkehrsordnung, StVO) and the Austrian Motor Vehicles Act (Kraftfahrgesetz, KFG). The respective department had sent the fine notice to the co-defendant’s email address, which had been inactive for some time. More than a year later, the co-defendant updated their email address and filed objections to the penalty orders, which were rejected by the administrative penal authority as out of time.

The co-defendant appealed to the competent administrative court, which overturned the dismissal on the grounds that the penal orders had not yet been legally served on the co-defendant and had therefore not yet come into legal effect.

The VwGH, to which the administrative authority appealed, ruled as follows:

Under Section 28b(2) of the Austrian Services Delivery Act (Zustellgesetz, hereinafter ZustG), individuals registered for electronic delivery are required to keep their data required for electronic delivery up to date and therefore also to notify any changes to their postal address.

If an individual has failed to update the notification address, delivery to the previous electronic address can be legally effective in such a case, even if the recipient can no longer be reached there, the VwGH emphasised. The risk that the authority or court is not aware of any changes is borne by the party concerned. Even in the case of snail mail delivery, failure to notify a change of address is at the expense of the party concerned.

Section 35 of the ZustG provides that services are deemed not to have been effected if the recipient was unaware of the notification. However, this protective provision is not intended to cover self-inflicted ignorance due to a breach of the duty to update.

VwGH Ro 2023/02/0017 (12 December 2024)