Austrian §11 FAGG 14-day refund right: what it covers and what it doesn't for short-term rental hosts

If you searched for "11 FAGG" or "14 FAGG" and landed here, you're probably looking at one of three situations: you bought a SaaS or tool subscription and want to know if you can cancel for a refund; you took a direct booking from a guest who's now asking for a refund; or you're trying to understand your obligations as a small Austrian business that sells to consumers. This guide covers all three.

Disclaimer. I'm a Vienna-based host and a software founder, not a lawyer. The Austrian Fern- und Auswärtsgeschäfte-Gesetz (FAGG) is the implementation of EU Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights. Everything below is general guidance. For binding interpretation in your specific case, talk to an Austrian Rechtsanwalt or refer to the official law text.

What §11 FAGG actually says

§11 FAGG gives consumers a 14-day right of withdrawal on contracts concluded "off-premises" or via "distance communication" — meaning anything bought online, by phone, or outside the seller's physical premises. The consumer can cancel the contract within 14 days of receiving the goods (or, for services, within 14 days of contract conclusion) without giving a reason and without penalty.

The key elements:

• 14 calendar days, not business days. Includes weekends and Austrian public holidays.
• The clock starts when the consumer takes possession (for goods) or when the contract is concluded (for services and digital content).
• The consumer doesn't need to give a reason. "I changed my mind" is sufficient.
• The seller must refund within 14 days of receiving the withdrawal notice.
• The seller must inform the consumer of this right at the point of sale; if they don't, the cancellation window extends to 12 months and 14 days.

This is a strong consumer right. It exists because consumers buying online can't physically inspect the product the way they could in a shop, and the law compensates by giving them a low-friction unwind path.

Where the right comes from — EU Directive 2011/83/EU

FAGG is Austria's implementation of an EU-wide directive. Every EU member state has an equivalent: in Germany it's the BGB §§ 312g, 355 ff.; in France the Code de la consommation; etc. The 14-day window and the substantive consumer protections are largely identical across the EU. The law you cite as "FAGG" in Austria is functionally the same as your German neighbour's BGB §§ 312g if you're buying from them.

When §11 FAGG protects YOU as a host buying tools

If you're a host buying a property-management subscription, a calendar tool, an AI co-host, or any other SaaS — and you're acting as a private individual or a small business that legally counts as a "consumer" under FAGG — the §11 right applies. Most micro-host SaaS purchases qualify, especially if you sign up using a personal email and the subscription is for a small number of apartments.

The practical scope:

• SaaS subscriptions — yes, covered. You can cancel within 14 days of subscription start and get a full refund.
• One-off digital purchases — yes, covered, with one significant exception: if the seller has begun providing the digital content with your express consent and you've expressly waived the withdrawal right (the "execution-of-service consent" pattern), the right may be lost. Most legitimate SaaS providers structure their flows around this carefully.
• Physical goods shipped to you (e.g., a smart lock, a key safe) — yes, covered, plus an additional return window once the product physically arrives.

What it does NOT cover when you're the buyer:

• Custom-made services performed entirely before the 14 days are up, with your express consent.
• Sealed digital goods you've already started using (with consent).
• Subscriptions where you're acting as a clear B2B business contract — this gets fact-specific; small hosts usually fall under consumer protection regardless of whether they pay invoices through a business account.

The §18 accommodation exception — what FAGG does NOT do for your guests

This is the single most important point for hosts and the one that catches everyone out. §18 FAGG explicitly excludes accommodation contracts from the 14-day right of withdrawal when those contracts specify a particular date or period.

In plain language: your guests booking your Airbnb apartment for specific dates do NOT have a §11 right of withdrawal under FAGG. A guest who books your Vienna apartment for 15-18 May and then changes their mind on day 3 of the 14-day cooling-off period cannot legally demand a full refund under FAGG. They might still get one under your specific cancellation policy or under Airbnb's host-managed cancellation rules — but FAGG itself is not the basis.

The §18 exception exists because accommodation, transport, vehicle rental, catering, and leisure activities all have date-specific value. If a hotel had to refund every guest who changed their mind within 14 days of booking, the entire industry would collapse. The directive carves these contracts out specifically.

Practical implications for hosts:

• Direct bookings on your own website are NOT subject to FAGG's 14-day refund right when they specify check-in/check-out dates.
• Your direct-booking cancellation policy is whatever your terms say — strict, moderate, flexible — without a FAGG floor underneath it.
• Guests booking through Airbnb / Booking.com / VRBO are subject to those platforms' cancellation policies, not FAGG. (The platforms typically offer their own cooling-off windows, but those are commercial choices, not legal requirements.)
• If your direct-booking guest cites "the 14-day refund law" as a reason for a full refund, they are mistaken — politely point them to §18 FAGG and to your stated cancellation terms.

One nuance: if you sell a non-date-specific service (a vacation-rental gift card, an open-ended booking voucher with no specific dates), §18 may not exclude that, and the 14-day right could apply. The carve-out is specifically for date-locked stays.

How to comply if you sell direct bookings to consumers

Even though §11 doesn't give your guests a 14-day refund right, FAGG still requires you to inform consumers about the rights they don't have, and to provide certain information at the point of sale:

• Your full business name, registered address, and contact details.
• The total price including taxes and any unavoidable extras.
• Clear cancellation terms (yours, since FAGG's don't apply).
• For services with dates, an explicit note that §18 FAGG excludes the 14-day right.

Most direct-booking platforms (Lodgify, BookingPal, Smoobu's basic site) include this information in their default checkout flow. If you've built your own custom website, this is something to verify with a Steuerberater or Rechtsanwalt before launch — the penalties for missing FAGG-mandated information are administrative and recoverable, but they're avoidable.

How to exercise the right if you're entitled to it

If you're a consumer and you want to exercise §11 FAGG to cancel a SaaS subscription or other distance-contract purchase:

1. Notify the seller within 14 days of contract conclusion (services) or product receipt (goods). Use any unambiguous statement — email is fine, no specific form is required.
2. Most sellers have a published process; use it if available.
3. The seller has 14 days from receipt of your notice to refund all payments, including any shipping costs you paid initially (for goods).
4. If the seller uses a different refund method than your original payment (credit card refund vs bank transfer), they need your consent — they can't unilaterally choose to send you a paper cheque if you paid by card.

Refusal to honour the right after you've validly exercised it is a Verbraucherschutz violation. Consumer protection authorities in Austria (Verein für Konsumenteninformation) and the Austrian Schlichtungsstelle for Internet purchases (RTR) will mediate. Most legitimate sellers won't take it that far.

Common host mistakes

1. Believing FAGG applies to guest accommodation bookings. §18 explicitly excludes them. Your cancellation policy is what governs.

2. Believing FAGG doesn't apply to your SaaS purchases. It usually does, even for small hosts who pay through a business account, as long as the purchase is fundamentally consumer-style. Sellers who try to deny the right by classifying a small subscription as B2B are often on shaky ground.

3. Skipping the FAGG-mandated information on direct booking sites. Even when the right doesn't apply, the disclosure obligations do.

4. Confusing FAGG with general Austrian Konsumentenschutzgesetz (KSchG). They're different statutes. KSchG governs broader consumer protection (unfair contract terms, etc.); FAGG specifically covers the distance-contract / off-premises 14-day window.

5. Treating Austrian FAGG as different from German BGB §312g for cross-border bookings. They implement the same EU directive. A German consumer booking your Vienna apartment is subject to the §18 accommodation carve-out the same way an Austrian consumer is.

What about hosts buying from non-EU vendors?

FAGG applies based on the consumer's location, not the seller's. An Austrian host buying SaaS from a US company — Airbnb itself, Stripe, AWS, Hostaway — is generally still entitled to the 14-day right because the consumer is in Austria and the contract was concluded via distance communication. In practice, US sellers often honour EU consumer rights through their published refund policies; if they don't, the legal recourse is harder (cross-border enforcement is slow) but the right still technically exists.

Bottom line

FAGG §11 is a consumer-side right that applies broadly to digital purchases, including SaaS subscriptions hosts buy for their operations. §18's accommodation exception is the corresponding rule that means your guests don't get the same right when they book your apartment for specific dates. Both rules together mean: as a host, you're protected when you buy tools, and you're not legally bound to a 14-day refund window when you sell stays.

The practical move for any small Austrian short-term rental host is: read your SaaS providers' refund policies through this lens (you likely have more rights than they prominently advertise), and write your direct-booking cancellation terms with full awareness that FAGG's defaults don't override yours.

Sources and further reading: Fern- und Auswärtsgeschäfte-Gesetz (FAGG), full text at the Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS), ris.bka.gv.at; EU Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights; Verein für Konsumenteninformation Austria; the Austrian Schlichtungsstelle for Internet purchases at the RTR. This article is general information, not legal advice.

Related reading. The other Austrian compliance pieces every Vienna host needs: Wien Ortstaxe 2026 (city accommodation tax), Meldegesetz §5 guest registration, and VIETour Nächtigungsmeldung (monthly overnight statistics).

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