Verein für Konsumenteninformation

VKI, the Austrian Consumers’ Association, is a non-profit organisation founded in March 1961. The mission of the organisation is to represent and strengthen consumer interests by informing and educating consumers about their rights and responsibilities. VKI has a long tradition in testing goods and services in an unbiased way. The results are published in a monthly magazine (KONSUMENT).

• VKI helps to enforce collective consumer rights and takes legal action if necessary. The organisation is officially entitled to fight against illegal practices by filing injunctions and has developed a specific form of collective redress action based on Austrian law in 2001. Between 2011 and 2014 VKI secured a total amount of more than 55 million Euros in compensation and settlement payments.
• In September 2013 VKI started Austria’s first collective energy switching campaign, encouraging customers to use their collective buying power to negotiate a better deal from energy suppliers. By December 2013 more than 260,000 consumers had signed up for the switching auction. 70,000 Austrian households subsequently switched their gas and/or electricity supplier, saving an average of 269 Euros per household.

• Founded in 1961
• A BEUC member since 1994
• 105 staff
• Subscriptions in 2014: 53,400 (print), 8,300 (online)