Öst. Holzhandelsusancen (ÖHU)

The Austrian Timber Trade Customs (ÖHU) have influenced the Austrian forestry and timber industry for decades. They are commercial usage in the sense of commercial law and therefore a direct source of law for a large number of contracts. Real trade customs live and develop in harmony with the sectors of the economy from which they originate. The timber trade usages are considered to be customary trade between entrepreneurs in accordance with Section 346 of the Corporate Code even if they have not been agreed. They apply even if the entrepreneurs in question did not know them at all. Only if the contractual partners expressly exclude the usages or parts thereof do they not apply. In terms of personnel, the timber trade practices are not limited to timber traders in the narrower sense, but also include entrepreneurs who only act as buyers or sellers in the timber trade (e.g. forestry companies, construction companies, etc.). The ÖHU applies to foreign business partners if the validity of Austrian substantive law is agreed. In this sense, the ÖHU also apply to farmers and foresters. A new company code has been in force since 1.1.2007. The contractual and property law provisions of the previous Commercial Code on company-related transactions are being adapted by the extended scope of general company law and are therefore also extended to companies within the meaning of Section 1 of the Consumer Protection Act, to the liberal professions and to farmers and foresters. The ÖHU was developed within the framework of the cooperation platform Forest Wood Paper (FHP) with the involvement of practitioners from the most important areas of the Austrian forest and wood industry. You therefore claim to reflect the current status of the customs and practices in business with wood. This information booklet tries the most important areas - such as the quality class sorting - also to be shown in pictures, but this cannot replace the original wording of the ÖHU.