Kategorie: Politics Law Society

No tax relief on capital gains from privately held equity investment Capital gains derived from a privately held 100% corporate equity investment do not benefit from the tax allowance and reduced rate of tax under Sections 16 and 34 of Germany“s Income Tax Act (EStG). If a financial interest in a company is sold, the resulting capital gains can be taxed in accordance with either Section 16 or Section 17 EStG. We at the commercial law firm MTR Rechtsanwälte note that one of the key determining factors is whether the…

Wirecard scandal could see shareholders face claims to claw back dividends Munich“s regional court – the Landgericht (LG) München – has declared Wirecard AG“s annual financial statements from 2017 and 2018 null and void. The group“s shareholders could now be facing claims brought by the insolvency administrator to claw back dividend payments. The verdict comes following the revelation that around 1.9 billion euros has either disappeared without a trace or never existed in the first place. The formerly DAX-listed company was found to have inflated its balance sheets with bogus…

Düsseldorf court finds no copyright infringement in light of work“s sufficient distinctive character Copyright is not infringed if a work possesses sufficient creative character. That was the verdict of Düsseldorf“s Higher Regional Court – the Oberlandesgericht (OLG) Düsseldorf – in a ruling from February 24, 2022 (case ref.: I-20 254/20). A lot of cases where a simple copy of a copyrighted work has been made, or where there is a high degree of similarity, start from the assumption of a copyright infringement. But we at the commercial law firm MTR…

Courts find custody fees and negative interest rates to be unlawful German banks and savings banks (Sparkassen) increasingly expect their customers to pay custody fees on their balances. But initial rulings indicate that clauses on negative interest are unlawful. We at the commercial law firm MTR Rechtsanwälte can report that the current negative interest rates are the result of the European Central Bank“s policy on interest rates requiring banks to pay when they deposit money there. The deposit rate for banks remains unchanged at minus 0.5 percent (as of May…

Promoting a discount on „everything“ is anticompetitive if key products are excluded The statement „15 percent off everything“ is anticompetitive when featured in advertising if key products are excluded. And adding an asterisk does not change this, according to Hamburg“s regional court, the Landgericht (LG) Hamburg. Generous discounts on „everything“ are designed to entice consumers. Only on closer inspection does it become clear that the term „everything“ is relative, with asterisks in brochures, newsletters, and the like often indicating that various products are excluded from the promotion. In a ruling…

Protected three-dimensional trademark – Illegal imitation juice bottle A juice bottle bearing a strong resemblance to a more established model from another manufacturer shall no longer be stacked on supermarket shelves following a ruling of the Landgericht Hamburg – Hamburg“s regional court – from January 13, 2022 (case ref.: 312 O 294/21). Signs that are capable of distinguishing goods or services from the products of other companies can be registered and protected as trademarks pursuant to Section 3 of the German Trademark Act (Markengesetz, MarkenG). The same goes for three-dimensional…

Compensation for bankruptcy of Amsterdam Trade Bank Amsterdam Trade Bank (ATB) is bankrupt. Fortunately, the bank“s thousands of German depositors are also covered up to 100,000 euros under the Netherlands“ deposit guarantee scheme. The sanctions imposed on Russian banks in response to the war in Ukraine are also affecting their European subsidiaries, notably Sberbank and now Amsterdam Trade Bank, also known in Germany as FIBR. We at the commercial law firm MTR Rechtsanwälte can report that ATB is in fact a subsidiary of Russia“s Alfa Bank. The latter has been…