News & Stories

Karlsruhe. After two years of the pandemic, there is finally a legal basis under which commercial landlords are required to forgo at least a portion of their revenue if their tenants are unable to generate income due to state-ordered lockdowns.

Munich. Can a towel dispenser with the manufacturer's brand clearly visible be filled with products from other manufacturers? In order to answer this incredibly important question, the Higher Regional Court in Munich first had to deliver judgement.

Munich. Who bears the risk in the event that hotel bookings are cancelled due to the pandemic? The Higher Regional Court of Cologne was the first Higher Regional Court ever to deal with this question and decided: In accordance with the principles developed under § 313 Ger-man Civil Code, interference with the basis of the business transaction, the complainant receives half of the booking costs back.

Munich. Due to the pandemic, Prof. Stephan Gerhard's company Solutions Holding, based in Munich, has consolidated 17 of the more than 30 investment companies in the last one and a half years. His company is an investor as well as a tenant and operator. No one in roles like these is to blame for the pandemic. That's why he has now successfully negotiated contracts - and pushed through additional paragraphs on the pandemic and hyperinflation.

Berlin. On 11 June, the German Bundestag launched the new travel insurance fund. The law comes into force on 1 July and also applies to hotels.

Karlsruhe. Relief in the German hotel industry: The German Federal Supreme Court has now also declared Booking.com's narrow best price clauses to be incompatible. Thus, the industry finally regains its pricing sovereignty.

Cologne. Last Friday, 30 April, the suspension of the insolvency filing requirement was no longer extended by the German government. Dorint supervisory board chairman Dirk Iserlohe has therefore filed a constitutional complaint with an urgent appeal. Yesterday, he appealed to politics again and spoke of a possible imminent "triage of the medium-sized traditional hotel companies".

Berlin. Today, in the last hours before 1 May, the extraordinary measure suspending the obligation to file for insolvency, introduced by the German government in response to the corona crisis, will expire. Hotel associations now fear a wave of imminent bankruptcies. Yet specialist lawyers doubt whether it will come quite yet. They expect it in 2022.

Munich/Berlin. Dr Matthias Hofmann, specialist in insolvency law, is very surprised "that there have been very few insolvencies in the hospitality sector so far." Both he and Martin Schaffer of MRP consult believe that many businesses simply do not understand what will happen when the obligation to file for insolvency will be reinstated in five weeks' time.

Munich. The dispute over rent and lease reductions has reached the next legal stage in Germany, the Higher Regional Court. The claim issued by operators appears to be strong, but...