In a decision that may cause some concern, the CJEU has held that asymmetric EU jurisdiction clauses are only valid under EU law if they designate with sufficient precision the alternative jurisdictions in which proceedings...more
3/3/2025
/ Contract Terms ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Debt Collection ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Jurisdiction ,
Loans ,
Risk Management
On November 12, 2024, The Hague Court of Appeal found in the case Millieudefensie vs. Shell that the Shell Group has an obligation to counter dangerous climate change. However, the Court was not able to establish that the...more
12/5/2024
/ Carbon Emissions ,
Climate Change ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Doing Business ,
Environmental Litigation ,
Environmental Policies ,
EU ,
Germany ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements
The plans to modernize German arbitration law have moved forward in the form of the government bill (Regierungsentwurf) submitted to the German Parliament (Bundestag) on October 9, 2024 (available here). The Bundestag is due...more
German arbitration law is to be reformed to current needs and thus intended to be made more attractive overall. To this end, the German Federal Ministry of Justice on 1 February 2024 published a draft bill for an act to...more
2/15/2024
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Arbitration Awards ,
Arbitrators ,
Dispute Resolution ,
Germany ,
International Arbitration ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Tribunals ,
Virtual Litigation
German authorities have intensified and accelerated their enforcement activities in 2023, following a slowdown of both investigations and court proceedings during the pandemic.
This had led to a surge of dawn-raids in...more
1/11/2024
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Crimes ,
Criminal Liability ,
Cross-Border ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
Germany ,
Investigations ,
Money Laundering ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers ,
White Collar Crimes
Companies may recover from their employees the cost of internal investigations conducted by external law firms, according to a decision by the German Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht). However, the court has set out...more
The much publicised raid of U.S. law firm Jones Day’s Munich office and the seizure of documents relating to VW’s internal investigation by prosecutors in an investigation of Audi AG were legal, according to German courts. A...more
The concept of legal privilege between a lawyer and his client is not recognised in the same way under German law as it is in common law jurisdictions.
In particular, the jurisprudence of the German courts has until now...more
The disclosure obligations arising from an implied advisory agreement between a bank and a non-consumer borrower of a structured loan have been recently spelt out by the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH). The...more
Exactly five years after its landmark decision in 2011, the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) has handed down another important decision in the ongoing swap saga. Banks must normally disclose the...more
There continues to be an increasing appetite amongst authorities around the world to investigate corporates and banks for a range of criminal offices.
Governments are also introducing new criminal offences aimed at...more
In May 2014, the German Federal Court of Justice (the BGH) held that clauses in consumer loan agreements charging a non-recurring “administrative fee” are invalid (see June 2014 Risk Note)....more