Anti-Discrimination only for Austrians and the denial of access to a restaurant to men with a foreign appearance and similar discriminating practices were not sufficiently prosecuted and punished by the authorities (Annual Report 2012, p. 74). Previously, the Legal and Constitutional Service of the Federal Chancellery had already reacted to the first recommendation of the AOB, stating in a circular letter to all government agencies that racial discrimination was not a petty offence, but that such offences had to be prosecuted and punished with all available means. The objective of the present amendment of the law was to achieve an improvement of the protection against discrimination of ethnic minorities in their access to public goods and services in accordance with the recommendations of the AOB and international bodies for the protection of human rights, such as the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). In order to discriminate against the person affected due to his or her ethnic origin, it is not required to have a particular intention, nor need the sole motive of the offender be to discriminate. This was intended to deprive any subsequent defensive allegations of their basis. In order to examine if this amendment of the law actually effected an improvement of the protection from discrimination, the AOB is currently undertaking an ex-officio investigative proceeding, in which all the Laender are requested to provide information on the number and result of all proceedings carried out since the new provision entered into force. The AOB would like to thank the Laender for their responses to the comprehensive questions and for transmitting the files. Follow-up investigation to identify improvement At the same time, the AOB is examining the enforcement of similar provisions of the Austrian Federal Equal Opportunities Act, which specifically make discriminating job and residential advertisements punishable under the law. In this area, the Ombud for Equal Treatment has the right under the law to petition for the initiation of administrative criminal proceedings to participate in these proceedings as a so-called legal party and to file appeals against official decisions and penal orders. In this regard, the AOB receives information from the Ombud for Equal Treatment about suspected deficits in the enforcement of these provisions by the competent authorities. At the time of the editorial deadline of this report, the investigation was still ongoing. Nevertheless, preliminary findings can already be reported. Investigating enforcement of Austrian Federal Equal Opportunities Act The fact is that the provision under trade and industrial law, according to which merchants and vendors can have their trade/business licence revoked in the case of serious violations, has never been applied. A reason for this could be that the authorities do not have sufficient information about repeated violations against the prohibition of discrimination by a merchant or vendor. After all, warnings or penalties for violation of the prohibition against discrimination previously imposed on the same person can be determined by the authorities only if they were imposed in the same administrative district. In order to be able to find out if penalties were imposed Repeated violations of the prohibition against discrimination 47