Fundamental Rights Section 3.2.3 Efficient prosecution of discriminatory job and housing advertisements? (VA W/356-LAD/06) ZARA (ZARA is a team of professionals specialized in assisting people individually in the process of resolving racist experiences; note of the translator) has filed more than one hundred complaints with respect to discriminatory job and housing advertisements in Austrian daily newspapers or on Internet portals with the competent Municipal District Offices and sharply criticised advertisements of media enterprises and potential employers. Example: 'Salesperson for shoe salon wanted. Only Austrian.' OR: 'Only Austrian citizens'. ZARA turned to the Ombudsman Board with the request to review the advertisements. Both Sect. 24 Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (Austrian Federal Equal Treatment Act) and Art. IX para. 1 subpara. 3 EGVG (Einführungsgesetz zu den Verwaltungsverfahrensgesetzen - Act on the Introduction of the Administrative Procedure Act) provide that discriminatory job and/or housing advertisements are to be penalized by the district administrative authorities. Pursuant to Sect. 24 Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (Austrian Federal Equal Treatment Act), Federal Law Gazette number 66/2004, employers and/or employment agencies who advertise jobs in a discriminatory way are liable to pay fines of up to € 360,- to be imposed by the district administrative authorities upon request of the job applicant or the Ombudsperson for Equal Opportunities. The competent authority informed ZARA that complaints lodged on the basis of this provision cannot be processed. The Ombudsman reviewed the case and came to the conclusion that ZARA had no right to apply for sanctions resulting from discriminatory job advertisements under the Federal Equal Treatment Act. The federal legislature has described exhaustibly the number of persons and bodies entitled to apply for a review of discriminatory acts and has thus also determined that petitions of third parties based on Sect. 24 of the Federal Equal Treatment Act are irrelevant. However, the Municipal District Offices have to examine ex officio alleged violations of the prohibition of discrimination pursuant to Art. IX para. 1 subpara. 3 EGVG (Einführungsgesetz zu den Verwaltungsverfahrensgesetzen - Act on the Introduction of the Administrative Procedure Act). The Ombudsman Board has therefore ex officio initiated a investigation procedure in which it examined the discriminatory acts at issue. Pursuant to Art. IX para. 1 subpara. 3 EGVG 'persons who unjustifiably discriminate against persons or restricting their access to public places or services on the grounds of their race, colour, national or ethnic origin, religion or belief or disability are liable to pay fines of up to ATS 15,000 to be imposed by the district administrative authorities. 83