The online event was hosted by Susanne Augenhofer (Professor, University of Innsbruck and one of the ELI Austrian Hub’s Chairs) and Bernhard Koch (Professor, University of Innsbruck), who welcomed approximately 90 participants. The Conference was opened by Tilman Märk (Professor, Rector, University of Innsbruck).

The meeting started with an introduction by representatives of the ministries responsible for the transposition of the two EU Directives in Austria and Germany, Johannes Stabentheiner (Austrian Ministry of Justice), Benjamin Görs (German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection) and Gerhard Schomburg (German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection).

This was followed by a presentation of certain aspects of the implementation of those Directives in Austria by Bernhard Koch. Stephan Lorenz (Professor, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich), then analysed the implementation of the Sale of Goods Directive in Germany in more detail.

Similarly, Christiane Wendehorst (Former ELI President: ELI’s Scientific Director; Professor, University of Vienna) spoke about the implementation in Austria and Alexander Metzger (Professor, Humboldt University of Berlin), presented certain aspects of the German implementation of the Digital Content Directive.

Finally, Susanne Augenhofer discussed whether the transposition has actually led to more harmonisation and representatives of consumer (Petra Leupold, University of Linz and Jutta Gurkmann, Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband) and business (Huberta Maitz-Strassnig, Austrian Economic Chamber) interest groups looked at the implementation of the two Directives from a stakeholder’s perspective.

Throughout the Conference, the participants engaged in lively discussions.

Further details on the first Conference can be found here.