The Court stated that the plaintiff is affected directly and currently through the relevant provisions. However, for an abrogation application to be admissible, all legal provisions that form an indivisible unity in order to assess the eventual unconstitutionality have to be challenged. The line has to be drawn in a way that on the one hand the remaining part of the law does not receive a different content and on the other hand all provisions that form an indivisible entity with the challenged provision are challenged as well.
In this case, though, the plaintiff only challenged certain sequences of the law and parts of provisions, without which other provisions would receive a different meaning. According to the Court, the plaintiff would have had to challenge articles 14 (3), 7 (3) and 8 (8) of Directive 2011/83 (§§ 16 Sec 1 and 10 of the Distance and Off-Premises Contracts Act) as well, as they are directly connected to the challenged provisions (articles 14 (4) and 16 Directive 2011/83, § 16 Sec 2 and § 18 Distance and Off-Premises Contracts Act) and therefore form an indivisible entity. On the other hand, there is an inseparable unity between articles 14 (4) and 14 (2) Directive 2011/83 (§ 16 Sec 2 and § 15 Sec 4 in Austrian law), which is why the application is problematic in regard of the last sentence of article 14 (2) (implemented into Austrian law by § 15 Sec 4). Furthermore, he would have had to challenge the whole article 13 Directive 2011/83 (implemented into Austrian law by § 14) instead of only the first sentence, as the first sentence is indispensable for the meaning of article 13 Directive 2011/83 (implemented into Austrian law by § 14) as such and therefore forms an inseparable unity. Also, the challenged sequence in article 6 (1) Directive 2011/83 (implemented into Austrian law by § 4 Sec 1) is problematic, as the whole Sec 1 (not only the challenged sequence) is indispensable for the unity with the other challenged provisions.
Therefore, the scope of the application was considered too narrow.
URL: https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Dokument.wxe?Abfrage=Vfgh&Dokumentnummer=JFT_20151009_14G00164_00&ResultFunctionToken=1e0d3da1-e25d-494d-b160-f41450e94132&Position=1&Entscheidungsart=Undefined&Sammlungsnummer=&Index=&SucheNachRechtssatz=True&SucheNachText=True&GZ=G164%2f2014&VonDatum=&BisDatum=11.11.2016&Norm=&ImRisSeit=Undefined&ResultPageSize=100&Suchworte=
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