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In Austria, every marketing call needs the prior consent of the person or business you call, whether an AI agent or a human makes it. § 174 TKG 2021 has no exception for businesses or existing customers, and a call that asks for consent is already a marketing call. Service calls and inbound calls don’t need consent, but you still have to say that an AI is speaking.
This page summarizes the law as of October 2026 to help you plan AI phone calls. It isn’t legal advice. Laws and how regulators apply them change, so check your use case with a lawyer before you start a campaign.

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At a glance

Only with prior consent. § 174 (1) TKG 2021 says that calls “zu Werbezwecken ohne vorherige Einwilligung des Nutzers sind unzulässig.” In English: advertising calls without the user’s prior consent aren’t allowed. The law covers businesses. The protected “user” is any natural or legal person that uses a public communications service (§ 4 Z 13 TKG 2021). Companies and sole traders get the same protection as consumers. In 2019, the Federal Administrative Court upheld a fine for a call to a company employee. It rejected the argument that EU law only requires opt-in for natural persons (BVwG W219 2201133-1). AI or human makes no difference. Directive 2002/58/EC, Art. 13(1), requires consent for “automated calling and communication systems without human intervention.” Austria requires consent for every advertising call, so it doesn’t matter whether your AI agent counts as such a system. A human who supervises or can take over changes nothing. We found no Austrian regulator guidance or court decision on AI voice agents. Courts take a wide view of advertising. Suggesting that someone use a service is enough, and a number published online or in a directory isn’t consent (WKO). A call that asks for consent is itself an advertising call (WKO).

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Cold calls by a human

The same rule applies. Austrian law makes no distinction between businesses and consumers, so there is no presumed consent for business calls and no opt-out model (WKO).

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Existing customers and callback requests

Existing customers. The customer exception in § 174 (4) TKG 2021 only covers email and SMS. Marketing calls to customers need prior consent (WKO), for example a separate checkbox at checkout. Callback requests. A person who asks for a callback has consented to that call. Collect requests through your own channels, such as a landing page for your ads. Say in the form that an AI agent will call, and stick to the topic the person asked about. Service calls. § 174 (1) only covers advertising. Appointment reminders, order and support follow-ups, and debt collection don’t need consent, as long as they don’t promote anything. An extra sales offer turns a service call into a marketing call. Market research isn’t advertising when it doesn’t aim to increase sales (WKO).

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Do-not-call register: None in Austria

Austria has no do-not-call register for phone calls, because every marketing call needs consent anyway. The two Austrian opt-out lists don’t cover calls: Keep your own block list of everyone who withdraws consent or objects, and check it before every call. Consent follows the GDPR standard: voluntary, specific, informed, and unambiguous (Directive 2002/58/EC, Art. 2(f), and GDPR Art. 4(11)). Purchased lists. A seller’s promise that consent exists doesn’t protect you. In 2020, the court upheld a fine for a managing director whose company relied on such a promise. It also found that instructions and spot checks alone aren’t an effective control system (BVwG W120 2213146-1). Ask vendors for the exact consent text, the collection method, and evidence per contact. Retention. No law sets an expiry date or retention period. Keep evidence while you rely on the consent and for three years after the last call, since the Fernmeldebüro can punish offenses for three years (§ 31 VStG). Before your first campaign, botBrains asks for your consent evidence. See before you start outbound campaigns.

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Tell callers they’re talking to an AI

Since August 2, 2026, Article 50 of the EU AI Act requires that people know they’re talking to an AI system, at the latest when the conversation starts. This applies to inbound and outbound calls, to consumers and to business contacts, and you can’t count on the exception for obvious cases when your AI agent sounds human. The default introduction already says that your AI agent is an AI, so keep that statement first when you edit it. When you call a consumer to sell something, the Consumer Rights Directive also requires you to name your company, anyone you call for, and the commercial purpose at the start. Austrian consumer law adds a second rule. When you call consumers to sell at a distance, start with your company, the company you call for, and the commercial purpose (§ 9 (1) FAGG). For financial services, also mention any recording (§ 18a (2) FAGG). Outbound marketing call. Replace [Zweck] with the purpose the person agreed to:
Inbound call:
Use guidance to tell the agent how to handle “don’t call me again,” and a Unitool to write the objection to your CRM.

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Call recording

Criminal law. § 120 StGB punishes recording statements that aren’t meant for you. By its wording, it targets eavesdropping, not a participant who records their own call. Giving a recording to a third party it wasn’t meant for, or publishing it, without the speaker’s consent is also a crime (§ 120 (2)). Data protection. You need a lawful basis, such as consent or legitimate interest (GDPR Art. 6), and you must tell the caller at the start (GDPR Art. 13). The default botBrains introduction does this. Pressing the star key stops the recording and discards it, while the transcript stays. botBrains stores recordings, transcripts, and call data in the EU. Voice as biometric data. A voice only becomes biometric data when you process it to identify someone (GDPR Art. 4(14), Art. 9). Recording for quality or transcripts doesn’t fall under it.

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Caller ID and calling hours

Show your number. On marketing calls, you must not hide or falsify your number, or ask your provider to (§ 174 (2) TKG 2021). This applies even with consent (VwGH 2013/03/0052). The caller sees your botBrains number, and botBrains provisions Austrian numbers on request. Anti-spoofing. Since September 1, 2024, Austrian operators check calls from abroad that show an Austrian number. If the check fails, the operator hides the number or blocks the call (vienna.at). Test that your number shows before a campaign. Calling hours. Neither the TKG 2021 nor the FAGG sets calling hours. Persistent, unwanted calls to win customers are an aggressive practice under the UWG annex, item 26. botBrains doesn’t enforce calling hours, so plan timing and frequency yourself.

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Sector rules

No court has decided whether a phone AI agent is an online tool under § 18d FAGG. If you sell financial services, let callers reach a human through forwarding.

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Fines and enforcement

The Fernmeldebüro fines managing directors personally, and the company is jointly liable. In the cases on this page, fines ranged from EUR 500 to EUR 1,300, and prior offenses raised them. We found no Austrian case on AI or automated calls.

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Sources

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Next steps

Phone integration

Set up your phone line, introductions, and outbound calls.

Calling laws by country

Compare consent rules for AI calls across the EU, the UK, and the US.