National Preventive Mechanism No care home agreements for persons with disabilities Residents under care without care home agreements Commissions have reported several cases where residents live in institutions and facilities for persons with disabilities without the operator of the facility having executed written care home agreements with them. Care home agreement in written form obligatory This contradicts the provisions of the Consumers Protection Act (Konsumentenschutzgesetz). For agreements with an indefinite term, Sections 27 et seq. of the Consumer Protection Act stipulate that they must be executed or issued in written form between the operator of the home and the resident no later than within three months after the beginning of a stay in a care home. In the event of agreements that are limited as to term, this must occur prior to the beginning of the stay in a care home. The purpose of written form is specifically, but not exclusively, to preserve evidence and transparency of the service obligations on the part of the operator of the care home. These agreements must stipulate what has been agreed concerning accommodations and care and must be worded “simply and comprehensibly”. The capabilities, needs and expectations of a rational resident of such care home are the measure for the wording of the agreement. Individual operator organisations, however, took the point of view that in those cases, in which clients had been promised a benefit, e.g. financing of housing, by way of an official notice, the transaction has a background that is governed by public law. Therefore, the Consumer Protection Act is not applicable and a care home agreement does not need to be executed. Consumer Association of Austria files legal action against operator organisation After interventions by the NPM, the Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection confirmed that assumption of costs by a public entity alone does not exclude applicability of the Consumer Protection Act. The Federal Minister therefore tasked the Austrian Association for Consumer Information (Verein für Konsumenteninformation) with requiring institutions and facilities for persons with disabilities to hand over care home agreements in accordance with Section 28 (3) of the Consumer Protection Act. As an operator organisation refused to comply with this request, the Consumers Association of Austria filed a legal action against said organisation. The NPM furthermore stated to the Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection that care home agreements should be executed in “easy reading” versions. As the protection of the care home residents is clearly a priority in the provisions of Sections 27 et seq. of the Consumer Protection Act, such a procedure is necessary. The Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection took the recommendation of the NPM as an opportunity to word a sample agreement accessibly from a technical standpoint and it was made available on the Internet. At the same time, the Ministry stated that due to the 126