Legal information

The basis for acknowledging electronic signatures under Austrian law was created by the Federal Electronic Signature Act (Signature Act, or SigG), BGBl I 1999/190.

Austria is therefore the first country to have fulfilled the implementation requirements set forth under Directive 1999/93/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on a Community framework for electronic signatures.

The Signature Act is explained in more detail by the Signature Ordinance.

With the Ordinance BGBl II 2002/117 the European minimum criteria for notifying confirmation bodies were published in the Austrian official journal. The A-SIT Ordinance (BGBl II 2000/31) recognized the Secure Information Technology Center – Austria (A-SIT) as a confirmation body.