News

Oppenhoff is continuing its expansion strategy and is opening another office in Munich on 1 May 2026.

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With the RESourceEU Action Plan, the European Commission is providing a key industrial policy impetus to secure critical raw materials in Europe. The plan combines billions in funding opportu-nities with new regulatory requirements for companies along the entire value chain. This will par-ticularly affect industry, the recycling sector and the renewable energy sector. The following arti-cle classifies the objectives, funding targets, and regulatory implications of RESourceEU and shows how companies can already prepare themselves.

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With the acquisition of the laundry Wäscherei Alpenland and the industrial laundry Großwäscherei Witteler & Burkhardt, the Lavatio Group is continuing its growth course and further expanding its presence in the DACH region. Oppenhoff provided Lavatio with comprehensive legal advice on the transactions.

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Marc Häger took over as head of the retail and consumer goods sector group on 1 January 2026. He succeeds Jörn Kuhn, who has been the new chairman of Oppenhoff since the beginning of the year.

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Effective 1 January 2026, we are further developing our career structure. This will strengthen the visibility of our expertise, responsibility and experience, and reinforce our claim to providing excel-lent advice in the market.

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At the end of November, the Regional Court of Munich I conducted a large-scale hearing of evidence in 36 combined proceedings. The proceedings concern claims for damages against the members of the so-called truck cartel totaling over €500 million. Dr. Vanessa Pickenpack and Dr. Daniel Dohrn represent one of Europe's largest truck rental companies, TIP Trailer Services Germany GmbH.

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As the year draws to a close, we are issuing our last Focus on Labour Law for 2025 with its usual overview of important labour court decisions of the last few months and updates on new legislation. Read this issue to find out what is of particular practical importance for you right now!

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On 5 December 2025, the Bundestag (finally) passed the Second Act Strengthening Company Pensions (Betriebsrentenstärkungsgesetz II, BRSG II). The aim of the BRSG II is the necessary expansion of company pension schemes in Germany and it contains important new regulations. The Act will come into force in several stages from 1 January 2026. The most important points are summarised here.

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Anna-Catharina von Girsewald will be joining the circle of Oppenhoff’s equity partners with effect from 1 January 2026. Three further lawyers, David Falkowski (corporate and foundation law, compliance), Valentino Halim (IT and data protection) and Sebastian Gutmann (M&A, with a focus on the energy sector), have been appointed as salary partners.

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The commercial law firm Oppenhoff will be under new leadership with effect from 1 January 2026. Jörn Kuhn has been appointed the firm’s new chairman. He succeeds Myriam Baars-Schilling, who has chaired the partnership since 2020. The executive board will be completed by Marc Krischer and Dr. Markus Rasner, who are taking over from Dr. Jürgen Hartung and Dr. Harald Gesell.

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The EU Parliament has once again voted on the so-called Supply Chain Act and has opted for a significantly watered-down version. Nevertheless, supply chain compliance remains essential for companies.

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The coalition agreement between the CDU, CSU and SPD stipulates that the EU Pay Transparency Directive (EUPTD) is to be transposed into German law with "minimal bureaucracy" by 7 June 2026. The expert commission set up for this purpose submitted its proposals to Federal Minister for Gender Equality Katrin Prien on 7 November 2025.

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Oppenhoff continues to expand its employment law practice and welcomes Dr. Martin Nebeling as a new partner at its Cologne office, effective November 1, 2025. He is joining from Bird & Bird, where he played a key role in establishing the German and international employment law team.

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The implementation of the NIS 2 Directive in Germany is imminent. The NIS-2 Directive is being implemented in Germany by the NIS-2 Implementation Act. This reflects key obligations in the revised Federal Office for Information Security Act (BSIG-E), while retaining the previous special legal provisions – including those for the energy sector – albeit in a modified form (EnWG-E).

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On 23 October 2025, the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG) broke new ground in a case concerning an employee's claims to remunerate the difference in pay due to gender discrimination. Contrary to the legislature’s intention, it is not a group comparison that is decisive, but a 1:1 pair comparison for determining possible discrimination.

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The EU's planned reform of the EWC Directive is in its final stages. The draft of the Commission ("Commission Draft") has been available since the beginning of 2024. In the course of the trilogue discussions, the Council forwarded the final draft compromise ("Final Draft") to the EU Parliament on 28 May 2025 as the basis for voting on the Directive.

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On October 23, the EU adopted its 19th package of sanctions against Russia. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU has repeatedly expanded its sanctions regime against Russia, aiming to weaken the economic base of its war-economy and curtail Russia’s access to technologies, financial systems and global markets.

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Oppenhoff advised German Underwriting GmbH, which manages MRH Trowe's insurance brokerage activities, on the acquisition of a majority stake in Pantheon Underwriters GmbH. The parties have agreed not to disclose details of the transaction.

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In early 2024, the European Commission conducted unannounced searches of several tyre manufacturers on suspicion of cartel agreements, basing its initial suspicion largely on publicly available information – in particular transcripts of analyst calls, press releases and presentations. The European Commission systematically evaluated this information, in part with the aid of AI, in order to identify indications of anti-competitive coordination.

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Oppenhoff advised the shareholders of Re.Lion.Bat. Circular GmbH on its sale to PreZero. The legal and economic transfer to PreZero took place in October.

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The regulatory landscape remains highly dynamic: In this issue, we provide a concise overview of current developments in IT law and data protection—from the implementation of NIS 2 and the new AI Regulation to guidelines on the interaction between the DSA and GDPR to the latest ECJ ruling on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Find out what companies need to know and consider now.

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Oppenhoff advised VHV Holding SE on the sale of its majority stake in the Eucon Group to Infopro Digital Holding GmbH, in particular on the carve-out of the insurance-related digital service provider Eucon Digital GmbH.

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In its ruling of 30 September 2025, the Second Civil Senate of the Federal Court of Justice (FCJ) (docket No. II ZR 154/23) declared the resolution of the Volkswagen AG general meeting approving a coverage settlement with D&O insurers in connection with the “diesel scandal” to be null and void. At the same time, the FCJ referred the question of the contestability of approval resolutions for liability settlements with former members of the management board back to the Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht, OLG) of Celle.

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Content creators are increasingly coming under scrutiny by the tax authorities. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the tax authorities recently set up a separate division for criminal tax law. A side effect of this increased attention is that also cooperation partners of content creators will come under greater scrutiny from the authorities. Our tax experts at Oppenhoff provide you with an overview of how businesses might be affected by the increased attention from the tax authorities and what challenges with regard to tax and social security contribution exist.

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As summer draws to a close, it is now time for our third edition of Focus on Labour Law 2025, which features a current overview of the important labour court rulings from recent months and an update on new legislation. There are two rulings of particular practical relevance: a ruling by the Düsseldorf Regional Labour Court on the obligations of companies to record the working hours of works council members who have been released from their work duties, and a ruling by the Federal Labour Court on damage claims arising from the unlawful transfer of data in the con-text of a test operation of the software Workday. Finally, in our "Rethinking HR" section, we focus on the year-end rush for HR departments and the items that need to be ticked off your to-do lists before the end of the year.

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