Landesgericht, Urteil vom 02/04/1997 3 R 101/97v
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:AT:LG00929:1997:RFE0000028
Date: 1997-04-02
Subject matter: Lugano Convention
Origin: Austria

81997AT0402(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE SUMMARY
JURE SUMMARY
The plaintiff, domiciled in Austria, booked a trip through a German travel agency, with a German tour operator, the defendant. For this trip, the travel agency advertised in Austria, completely autonomously and without informing the defendant. Thus without its will and knowledge. The plaintiff requested damages before an Austrian court from the defendant for incorrect explanations concerning the passport formalities. The court of first instance considered itself incompetent since the autonomous and independent advertisement of the travel agency could not be attributed to the defendant according to Article 13(1)(3)(a) Lugano Convention.
The Landesgericht of Feldkirch (AT) finds that in Article 13(1)(3)(a) Lugano Convention concerning the jurisdiction of the court of the consumer, an advertisement emanating from the entrepreneur in the State of domicile of the consumer is required. At least the sales promotion by an agent must be attributable to the contracting party of the consumer. Where the sales promotion by a foreign travel agency occurs inside the country, as here, in a completely autonomous way and without the will and knowledge of the tour operator, it cannot be attributed to the tour operator.