Exit Readiness

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Deloitte Legal compiled this guide for Legal 500, providing an overview of the laws and regulations on doing business in a variety of jurisdictions. The country chapters contain the relevant information on the systems of law, the legal forms through which people carry out business, capital requirements, how entities are operated and managed, expansion possibilities, corporate governance, employment law and more.

On 17/04/2024, the second act amending the DWD act and amending German commercial law provisions (“Zweite Gesetz zur Änderung des DWD-Gesetzes sowie zur Änderung handelsrechtlicher Vorschriften”) became effective. This act has raised the thresholds “balance sheet total” and “revenues” for determining company size classes in the German Commercial Code (“HGB”). This increase leads to a reduction in reporting requirements, and in some cases to an exemption from the statutory audit obligation, in particular for companies (corporations) which are now classified in a smaller size class as a result of the reclassification.

Since 1.08.2022, the legislator has made it possible by law to hold shareholders' meetings virtually, which was previously only permissible with a corresponding provision in the articles of association. However, since the statutory provision requires that all shareholders agree to the virtual resolution in text form and the law does not contain any further specifications regarding the conduct of the virtual meeting, it is still recommended to include provisions on the virtual meeting in the articles of association. However, despite a recent decision of the Federal Court of Justice, it remains questionable whether a virtual resolution is possible under certain conditions even in the case of transformation resolutions requiring notarization.