Austria is a small jurisdiction but a major player in FDI screening. The planned acquisition
of an Austrian target company by a foreign investor (i.e. non-EU non-EEA and non-Swiss
investor) often requires an FDI approval. This is due to the wide scope of the Austrian FDI
screening regime. Only where the Austrian target is a micro-enterprise Austria can securely be
deleted from the list of (potentially) notifiable countries. Foreign investors and their
international counsels must be aware that the trigger events in Austria are low. The present
booklet provides an overview of the Austrian FDI regime both as regards its scope of
application and the approval proceedings. We have also included some statistics to underpin the
relevance of Austrian FDI screening in the M&A setting. A bilingual text of the ICA provides
the legislative context. In summer 2020 the authors published the first short commentary on
the then new Austrian FDI legislation and have since then gained extensive practical experience
in dozens of FDI proceedings before the Austrian authority.
