Mayer Brown (LexBlog Germany)

On 18 April 2023, the German Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) presented the long-awaited draft amendment to the Working Time Act and other regulations. Following the decision of the Federal Labor Court of 13 September 2022 (case no. 1 ABR 22/21), the new law is intended to specify how employers must precisely...

Both the financial sector and the real economy are faced with increased regulatory requirements and expectations of various stakeholders to meet ESG criteria, which are a benchmark for sustainability and sustainable investments. A high ESG rating not only promotes corporate policy, but also serves the profit interest of investors. Currently, in the EU only capital...

Effective 1 August 2022, the German Act on the Notification of Conditions Governing the Employment Relationship (Nachweisgesetz – NachwG) will be updated. The new law recently passed the legislative process. It still needs to be executed by the Federal President and published, but this will likely happen by end of July 2022 at the latest....

Impact of the EU sanctions against Russia on employers in Germany. Early in 2022, the European Union enacted several Regulations in quick succession to impose far-reaching sanctions on Russia as a reaction to the conflict with Ukraine. These sanctions can also have an impact on employment relationships in Germany which involve any activities that are...

On 7 August 2021, Germany formally ratified the Agreement on a Unified EU Patent Court (“UPC Agreement“). The ratification came after battles in recent years over the constitutionality of the ratification bill. In 2017, the German ratification was put on hold because a constitutional complaint had argued that the German law approving the UPC Agreement...

The German legislature (Bundestag and Bundesrat) has passed a bill that will change German patent law. The bill will enter into force soon. Under the new law, injunctions in patent infringement cases will be restricted by proportionality considerations in individual cases. Further, stronger procedural safeguards will become available for the disclosure of confidential information during...

On June 11, 2021, the German parliament passed the “Law on corporate due diligence in supply chains” (“Supply Chain Law”) (“Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz”). It requires companies to take steps to prevent human rights violations in their supply chains. This builds on the growing momentum for mandatory human rights due diligence (see our previous blog posts here and...

On March 3, 2021, the German government adopted a draft bill which obliges companies to ensure that human rights are observed throughout their entire supply chain. The aim of the “draft legislation on corporate due diligence in supply chains” (“Draft Bill”) (“Sorgfaltspflichtengesetz”) is to require companies to take steps to prevent human rights violations in...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, data privacy – and, in particular, employee data privacy – has been at the forefront of employers’ minds. In the last six months, employers across the globe have been required to give careful thought to a whole host of potential issues, from contact tracing apps to temperature and other health checks...

Lesen Sie unten auf Deutsch A vaccine against Sars-CoV-2 (the “Corona virus”) will hopefully be available soon. The German labor law requirements regarding a vaccination for employees and a possible obligation to vaccinate are already largely clear. Do employers have to offer the vaccination (free of charge)? Employees cannot require their employer to carry out...

The new rules serve to implement Directive (EU) 2018/957 of 28 June 2018 (“Amending Directive”) amending Directive 96/71/EC (“Posted Workers Directive”) concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services.  The aim of Directive (EU) 2018/957 is to balance the relationship between the freedom to provide services as protected under EU...

After several weeks of quasi-lockdown in Germany and immense public pressure to lift limitations imposed by COVID-19, more and more companies are starting to resume their activities. For some, this means increasing the number of employees who can again come in and work from a company office, rather than from their homes. For others, it...

On 2 April 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the “CJEU”) delivered its judgment in Coty Germany v Amazon (Case  C‑567/18), in which the CJEU considered whether Amazon was liable for trade mark infringement for storing goods that infringed EU trade marks. The CJEU clarified that Amazon was not using a trade mark within the meaning of...

In early April, the Robert Koch Institute, which is a Federal Institute on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Health, released a COVID-19-App (the “App”). The purpose of the App is to help the Government understand the spread of the virus geographically based on the likelihood of COVID-19 symptoms experienced by App users, and to...

More than half a million businesses in Germany have implemented short-time work (Kurzarbeit). The temporary reduction of the regular working time allows companies to reduce their personnel costs while at the same time maintaining their workforce and avoiding layoffs. The gap in remuneration that the employees suffer is partially compensated by the Federal Employment Agency...

According to recent press reports, the German data protection authorities have agreed on a new way to calculate administrative fines under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). The new scoring model, which has not yet been officially published, could make fines of tens of millions of euros a reality in Germany. In contrast to their...

After the EU Copyright Directive was passed by the EU Parliament last month (see our original blog post for further details), it was formally approved by the Council of the European Union on April 15, 2019. Nineteen EU member states, including Germany, France and the UK, voted in favor. Six member states – namely Finland,...

After several months of delay and heated political discussion among all German parties about the scope of protection regarding journalists, whistleblowers and employees, the German parliament adopted the Federal Government’s draft Trade Secrets Act on 21 March 2019. This act implements Directive (EU) 2016/943 of the European Parliament on the protection of undisclosed know-how and...

Chambers and Partners published recently its Practice Guide Securitisation 2019. Mayer Brown’s German securitization lawyers were pleased to contribute the Germany chapter. Asset based finance and in particular securitisations are an important tool to provide funding to the economy and regulatory risk transfer to financial institutions. The Germany chapter of Chambers and Partners’ Practice Guide.

The past week in Germany has attracted and increased raised interest in blockchain based transactions. Last week, three announcements brought further attention to the use of blockchain technology for capital market transactions in Germany. Initially, banks focused on the digitalisation of German Schuldschein loan issuances and OTC derivatives. Last week a very first ABCP issuance...

The year 2018 is coming to a close. Among other things, it has brought us a new FIFA world champion, royal weddings and some other joyful things like the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The latter could arguably cool one’s Holiday spirit—at least in some cases. For example, reportedly, the annual wish list campaign...

Last week the German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, published an article detailing a preliminary draft for a new immigration law in Germany.  Although the draft is not publicly available, the newspaper revealed that the new immigration law is set to be approved by Angela Merkel’s cabinet on December 19, 2018.  According to Süddeutsche Zeitung the key aspects of the law...

On 21 November 2018, the data protection authority of Baden-Württemberg, Germany (the “authority”) imposed a fine of EUR 20,000 against a German social media provider (the “company”) for failing to encrypt user passwords. The authority’s decision marks the first time that a fine was imposed on a company for violating the European General Data Protection...

On 7 November 2018, the data protection authority of the Free State of Bavaria, Germany, issued a press release that, now that the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been in effect for six months, the authority will intensify its GDPR compliance monitoring. The Bavarian data protection authority is responsible for monitoring GDPR compliance...

In Germany, companies offering security-related services have to provide to the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzaufsicht, “BaFin”) information regarding the identity of staff responsible for, inter alia, providing investment advice (Section 87 of the German Securities Trading Act, “WpHG”). That personal data is kept in an internal BaFin database . After several...

On 16 July 2018, the District Court of Gießen, Germany, ruled that a custodian’s representation rights also cover consent to data processing activities related to the person under custodianship. Under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the processing of personal data is, in principle, prohibited unless there is a legal basis for such processing....

On 29 May 2018, only five days after the GDPR became applicable, the Regional Court of Bonn issued the first ruling applying the GDPR in Europe (file no. 10 O 171/18). The dispute involved the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the ICANN-accredited registrar EPAG Domainservices GmbH (EPAG). Facts of the Case...

According to reports published on 11 June 2017, the German Federal Constitutional Court has requested the Federal President of Germany to refrain from signing the law that is necessary to ratify the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPC). The president has agreed to comply with this request. The president’s signing is the last step...

On 31 May 2016, the Regional Court of Berlin (15 O 428/15) ruled that photographs of public domain paintings ‎are, in principle, protected by a copyright-related right in section 72 of the German Copyright Act. The case involved a request to take down several pictures hosted on Wikimedia Commons as public domain images that had...

On 16 February 2016, the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection published the first draft of legislation that will make it possible for Germany to ratify the UPC Agreement. The draft law granting consent for ratification was published together with accompanying draft legislation to implement the unitary patent system into German law. The...