Bundes-Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz (BGStG), ban on disability discrimination in access to goods and services available to the public, barrier-free standard, damages and conciliation

Section 2(2) of the Bundes-Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz applies the Act to legal relationships, including their initiation and formation, and to the use or assertion of services outside a legal relationship, so far as access to and the supply of goods and services available to the public is concerned and the Federation (Bund) has direct regulatory competence.

Section 2(3) excludes the protection against discrimination in employment, which section 7a of the Behinderteneinstellungsgesetz governs. Section 4(1) provides that no one may be directly or indirectly discriminated against because of a disability.

Section 5(2) provides that indirect discrimination exists where apparently neutral rules, criteria or procedures, or features of designed living areas, can place persons with disabilities at a particular disadvantage compared with others, unless they are objectively justified by a legitimate aim and the means are appropriate and necessary.

Section 6(1) provides that indirect discrimination does not exist where removing the conditions that cause the disadvantage, in particular barriers, would be unlawful or unreasonable because of disproportionate burdens. Section 6(2) lists, among the factors for assessing whether a burden is disproportionate, the effort of removal, the economic capacity of the party denying discrimination, public funding for the measures and the time since the Act came into force.

Under section 6(3), where removal proves a disproportionate burden, discrimination exists if reasonable measures were not taken to achieve at least a significant improvement of the person's situation, approaching equal treatment as closely as possible. Section 6(4) requires the assessment of indirect discrimination through barriers to check whether accessibility rules apply to the case and whether and to what extent they were met.

Under section 6(5), structures and other facilities, means of transport, technical objects of daily use, information-processing systems and other designed areas of life are barrier-free if persons with disabilities can access and use them in the generally customary way, without particular difficulty and in principle without outside help.

The federal ministry reads the Act as providing that a lack of accessibility can amount to disability discrimination, but only where removing the barrier is legally possible and reasonable. The ministry states that the Barrierefreiheitsgesetz and the equal-treatment law do not compete with each other. Section 9(1) gives a person whose discrimination ban under section 4(1) was breached a claim for compensation of the pecuniary loss and for compensation for the personal impairment suffered.

Section 10(2) allows other claims under the Act to be brought before the ordinary courts only if a conciliation procedure before the Sozialministeriumservice took place first. The court claim is admissible only if no amicable settlement was reached within three months of the start of the conciliation procedure.

Section 14(1) and (2) has the conciliation procedure conducted at each Landesstelle of the Sozialministeriumservice and starts it when the person claiming discrimination files a request for conciliation. Under section 10(3), a claim for harassment must be brought in court within one year and every other claim within three years.

Section 13(1) lets the Österreichischer Behindertenrat, the Klagsverband and the Behindertenanwalt bring an action for a declaration, and against large corporations also for an injunction and removal, where a breach significantly and lastingly affects the general interests of the protected group. Section 19(1) provides that the Act takes effect on 1 January 2006.