Agency Agreement in Austria: Template, Key Clauses and Local Law (2026)

What an Austrian agency agreement is A commercial agency agreement is a contract where the agent (Handelsvertreter), as an independent business, undertakes on a lasting basis to broker or conclude deals for a principal, in return for payment. The agent is not an employee and runs its own business. Austria is an EU member state, so its agency law implements the EU Commercial Agents Directive (86/653/EEC) and gives the agent mandatory protections that cannot be removed in advance to the agent's disadvantage. ## The law that governs it The statute is the Commercial Agents Act (Handelsvertretergesetz, HVertrG 1993). It sets out the duties of both sides, commission, notice periods and the end-of-contract compensation claim. General commercial rules in the Business Code (Unternehmensgesetzbuch, UGB) and the Civil Code (Allgemeines Buergerliches Gesetzbuch, ABGB) apply around it. ## Key clauses to include ### Appointment, products and territory

Set the goods or services, the area and whether the agency is exclusive. ### Authority State whether the agent only brokers deals or may conclude them for the principal. ### Commission Define the rate, the deals that earn commission, the timing of payment and the treatment of the exclusive territory. ### Duties The agent must act in good faith and in the principal's interests and report; the principal must give documents, information and support and pay commission on time. ### Term, notice and termination The Act sets minimum notice periods that increase with the length of the relationship. Draft notice to meet those minimums and set out grounds for termination for good cause. ### Compensation and non-compete Address the section 24 compensation claim (below) and any written post-contract non-compete, which the Act limits in scope, area and time and which generally requires compensation. ## The compensation claim (section 24) When the agency ends, section 24 HVertrG gives the agent a compensation claim (Ausgleichsanspruch) where the agent brought new customers or significantly expanded business with existing ones, the principal continues to gain substantial benefits from that, and payment is equitable. This follows the Directive. The claim is capped at one year of the agent's average annual remuneration over the last five years (or the whole term if shorter). It cannot be waived in advance. It is excluded where the agent terminated the contract without good cause attributable to the principal, or where the principal terminated for good cause due to the agent's culpable conduct. ## Common mistakes - Setting notice below the statutory minimum.

• Trying to exclude the section 24 compensation in advance, which is not allowed.
• Drafting a non-compete that is too wide in scope or time, or without compensation.
• Treating an agent as a distributor; the statute is written for agents. ## Draft and manage it in one workspace An Austrian agency agreement carries commission terms, notice dates and a compensation exposure that a team must track for years. Adira is an AI legal workspace where you can draft a contract from a structured template, see each clause flagged favourable or unfavourable to your side, edit clauses in plain language and keep renewal and notice dates in one place. Depth for non-India jurisdictions such as Austria is on the roadmap, so confirm local coverage first. You can see the approach at Adira. This article is general information, not legal advice. Confirm the current statute and case law with a qualified Austrian lawyer before you sign.