Fellner Wratzfeld & Partner has successfully represented the Timber Industry section of the Upper Austrian Economic Chamber in its opposition to an attempt to repeal the membership fee regulation in the Chamber made to the Austrian Constitutional Court.
The Upper Austrian Regional Administrative Court, against which three complaints regarding membership fee decisions had been lodged by timber industry companies, filed an application with the Constitutional Court, requesting that the regulation on Economic Chamber membership fees for the timber industry section be repealed in full or in part. The membership fees levied are, in particular, used to finance the industry section within the Economic Chamber, thus ensuring that it can work efficiently and effectively for its members.
FWP represented the timber industry section Chamber in the Constitutional Court's review of the regulation, which, accepting FWP's position, dismissed the application filed by the Upper Austrian Regional Administrative Court in its entirety, thus securing the continued funding of the timber industry’s professional organization and in particular ProHolz, an initiative aimed at promoting the use of wood.
“In addition to having a direct impact on the timber industry," said FWP Partner Michael Hecht, "the ruling also has significant repercussions for all professional organizations within the Economic Chamber where the most recent reform resulted in a regrouping and merging of different industries and sectors, and shows how membership fees can be used for financing in conformity with the constitution as well as to applicable legislation.”
The FWP team consisted of Partner Michael Hecht and Associate Josef Peer.
