Guide · Austria · Ediktsdatei
What is the Ediktsdatei?
Austrian courts announce insolvency proceedings by edict, and the edicts are collected in one public database run by the justice ministry. Here is what the Ediktsdatei is, what it is not, and how to read Austrian corporate insolvencies from an API.
The short version
The Ediktsdatei is the public database of court edicts (Edikte) of the Austrian judiciary, run by the Federal Ministry of Justice (Bundesministerium für Justiz) and open to search at edikte.justiz.gv.at. An edict is a court’s formal public notice. The Insolvenzordnung (IO) has the insolvency courts announce the key steps of a proceeding by edict, so the insolvency edicts sit in the Ediktsdatei’s insolvency section, the Insolvenzdatei, alongside other kinds of court edict.
It is not a company register. Austrian companies are registered in the Firmenbuch, kept by the courts, and identified by their Firmenbuchnummer (FN): digits followed by a check letter, as in FN 123456 a. An insolvency edict names the debtor and the court; it does not hold company data. Anyone who searches the Ediktsdatei for a company profile is looking in the wrong place, and anyone who searches the Firmenbuch for a proceeding is too.
What the edicts announce
An insolvency proceeding leaves a trail of edicts, each one a separate publication with its own date:
| Stage | German term | What it means for a counterparty |
|---|---|---|
| Opening of bankruptcy | Eröffnung des Konkursverfahrens | A court has opened bankruptcy proceedings and appointed a trustee, the Masseverwalter. Creditors file their claims by a deadline the edict sets. |
| Restructuring | Sanierungsverfahren, mit oder ohne Eigenverwaltung | The debtor proposes a restructuring plan (Sanierungsplan) to its creditors. With Eigenverwaltung management stays in charge under supervision. The business is meant to survive. |
| Dismissal for lack of assets | Abweisung mangels kostendeckenden Vermögens | The petition did not lead to proceedings because the assets would not cover even the costs of them. |
| Closure | Aufhebung | The proceeding ends, for example after the final distribution to creditors or once a restructuring plan has taken effect. |
An edict typically names the court, the case number, the debtor with its address, the type of proceeding, the trustee, and the deadlines and hearing dates that matter to creditors. Insolvency proceedings against private individuals (Schuldenregulierungsverfahren, the Austrian consumer route) exist alongside company proceedings; Prometiam serves the corporate ones only.
Two rules of thumb
Search by the name as registered. A debtor appears under its legal name with its legal form (GmbH, AG, KG and so on). A brand name or a shortened name may miss, so search on the distinctive part of the registered name rather than the whole string.
Nothing found is not an all-clear. The Ediktsdatei is a notice board of what courts have announced, not a status check on a company. It cannot tell you that a company is solvent, only that no edict was found for the name you searched.
Querying Austrian insolvencies from an API
Prometiam serves Austrian corporate insolvency notices from the Ediktsdatei through the same endpoint as France, Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, the US, the Netherlands, Denmark, Croatia, Sweden, Spain, Latvia, Estonia and Singapore. Search by name (a contains match), narrow by event_type, date_from and date_to, or filter on company_number, which takes the registry number exactly as the notice prints it.
curl "https://api.prometiam.com/functions/v1/risk-api/insolvency/search?country=AT&name=bau&date_from=2026-09-01&limit=2" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
The response has the shape below. The record is illustrative, and the meta block is shortened.
{
"data": [
{
"id": 1234567,
"source_country": "AT",
"source_provider": "Ediktsdatei",
"company_name": "Beispiel Bau GmbH",
"company_number": null,
"event_type": "insolvency",
"status": null,
"local_status": null,
"filing_date": "2026-09-22",
"bankrupt_city": "Wien",
"notice_url": "https://edikte.justiz.gv.at/…",
"match_score": 86
}
],
"pagination": { "count": 1, "has_more": false, "next_cursor": null },
"meta": {
"query_ms": 41,
"name_match": "contains",
"coverage_note": "CORPORATE insolvency only. Personal/consumer insolvency is deliberately excluded …"
}
}filing_date is the date of the notice. event_type is normalised across countries (for example insolvency for an opening and restructuring for a restructuring proceeding), notice_url links to the notice, and a name search is relevance-ranked, so each row carries a match_score from 0 to 100. status and local_status can be null. To check a list of counterparties in one call, POST /insolvency/check takes up to 100 items and returns each one’s five most recent notices; every item counts as one request.
What the Austrian coverage is, and is not
- Corporate only. Consumer insolvencies are never returned. Austria is one of sixteen insolvency markets (FR, DE, GB, AT, CH, NO, FI, US, NL, DK, HR, SE, ES, LV, EE, SG).
- Not linked to company records. Austrian company records are LEI-registered entities only (not the company register), so notices stand alone.
company_numbercarries the registry number as printed, and only where the notice prints one. If you need Austrian company profiles, directors or filings, this is not the tool. - No monitoring subscription for Austria. Monitoring covers every live country except France and Chile. To watch Austrian counterparties, send them through
POST /insolvency/checkon a schedule. - An empty result is not proof of solvency. It means no notice was found for that search.
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FAQ
What is the Ediktsdatei?
It is the public database of court edicts of the Austrian judiciary, run by the Federal Ministry of Justice. The Insolvenzordnung has the insolvency courts announce the key steps of a proceeding by edict, so insolvency edicts are published in its insolvency section, the Insolvenzdatei, alongside other kinds of court edict.
Is the Ediktsdatei the same as the Firmenbuch?
No. The Firmenbuch is the Austrian company register, kept by the courts, and a company is identified in it by its Firmenbuchnummer. The Ediktsdatei is a notice board of court edicts: an insolvency edict names the debtor and the court but holds no company data.
Which Austrian insolvency proceedings are announced by edict?
The stages of a company proceeding: the opening of a Konkursverfahren (bankruptcy) with its trustee and creditor deadlines, a Sanierungsverfahren (restructuring proceeding) with or without self-administration, the dismissal of a petition for lack of assets that would cover the costs, and the closure of the proceeding. Proceedings against private individuals also exist; Prometiam never returns them.
Does Prometiam hold Austrian company registry data?
Only in part. Prometiam serves the Austrian companies that hold an LEI (LEI-registered entities, not the company register) and Austrian corporate insolvency notices through GET /insolvency/search?country=AT. Notices are not linked to company records (Austrian company records are LEI-registered entities only, not the company register), and consumer insolvencies are never returned.
Why does an Austrian debtor not show up under the name I know?
Edicts use the registered legal name with its legal form. Search on the distinctive part of the registered name.
How do I check an Austrian counterparty by API?GET /insolvency/search?country=AT&name=… for one name, or POST /insolvency/check for a list. An empty result is not proof of solvency.