Monthly Dose of Germany: May 2025

Authors: Christopher Eduard Bösch and Dr. Till Contzen

Access to and use of data according to the European Data ActThe Data Act creates new and complex regulatory requirements. However, it also brings potential for the monetization and commercialization of data, which can be used to refine existing or create new business models.

A key pillar of the European Data Strategy is Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2023, which entered into force on 11 January 2024 (herinafter reffered to as the “Data Act”). Its provisons will become directly applicable across the EU in a phased approach, starting on 12 September 2025 and continuing from 12 September 2026.

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Authors: Johannes T. Passas and Dennis Buschmann

Passing the 17th sanctions package, EU member states once impose further financial and economic sanctions against Russia. The sanctions take effect immediately.With the 17th sanctions package, EU member states have once again decided on imposing further sanctions against Russia. The measures focus on continuing to deny Russia access to key military technology and reducing its sources of income from the sale of energy, particularly oil and oil products. The amendments concern Regulation (EU) No. 833/2014 and Regulation (EU) No. 269/2014. This article is a brief overview of the most important additions and changes and their implications for European companies.

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Authors: Heike Humpert, Dr. Lars Hinrichs and Dr. Volker Schulenburg

The decisions of the ECJ and the BAG provide legal certainty for the needs-based structuring of co-determination in the SE when used as a holding companyIn its judgement of 16 May 2024 (C-706/22), the ECJ ruled that for a holding SE established by the participating companies which initially employs no employees, the procedure for employee participation does not need to be conducted at a later stage, even if the SE subsequently becomes the parent company of subsidiaries with employees in one or more Member States. The BAG followed this legal interpretation of the ECJ in its decision of 26 November 2024 (1 ABR 37/20). These decisions provide legal certainty for the practical and needs-based structuring of co-determination in such group structures.

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Authors: Dr. Lars Hinrichs, Elisa Ultsch, Theresa Bayer and Katharina Gohlke

The fourth edition of our Monthly Dose Employment Law in 2025 on current case law explains i.a. the judgments of the German Federal Labor Court (BAG) on offsetting alternative earnings despite paid garden leave under a termination agreement with
"Sprinter Clause", the BAG on the abusive nature of compensation claims for discrimination filed by “AGG hoppers” and the BAG on the inadmissibility of sending election documents for works council elections in a blanket manner.

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Authors: Andreas Jentgens and Felix Felleisen

The future governing parties CDU/CSU and SPD had already presented the coalition agreement for their term of government on April 14, 2025. After the coalition agreement also received the placet of the SPD members called to vote on April 30, 2025, Friedrich Merz is now to be elected as the new German Chancellor on May 6, 2025.

External and internal factors pose major challenges for the new federal government. The task appears immense. Will the new federal government succeed in making the big leap and is it in a position to help the German economy achieve the necessary upturn or are the contents of the coalition agreement - as a former Dax board member remarked - too late and too little?

Let's take a look at the main contents of the coalition agreement - from the perspective of German companies and international investors.

According to the coalition agreement, new German economic policy should be characterized by a commitment to the social market economy. Bureaucracy reduction, tax cuts, deregulation and investment in infrastructure, energy and new technologies are the economic policy buzzwords.

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