News

Bad news from Erfurt for companies with employee stock option programmes. The Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG) has abandoned its previous case law that the principles for examining general terms and conditions developed for special payments cannot be applied without restriction to stock options due to their speculative nature. According to this latest decision by the BAG, expiry clauses that allow already vested (i. e. exercisable) virtual options to expire immediately or disproportionately quickly after an employee’s resignation are unreasonably disadvantageous for the employee and therefore invalid. Numerous so-called bad leaver and good leaver clauses in employee stock option programmes are going to require an overhaul at the very least.

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On Tuesday, 18 March 2025, the Bundestag voted in favour of easing the so-called “debt brake” and creating a new special fund. The Bundesrat approved these plans on 21 March.

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With an overall ranking of five stars, Oppenhoff is one of the top 10 law firms in this year's azu100 ranking for young professionals. Associates are particularly impressed by the firm’s comprehensive training programme, the excellent development opportunities and its international orientation.

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On March 8, 2025, German political parties CDU/CSU and SPD presented the results of their preliminary coalition talks en route to a new government in Germany and recommended that the party leaders enter into coalition negotiations. They have published their preliminary results in a discussion paper publicly available. The preliminary results only lay the groundwork for the coalition negotiations between the conservative CDU/CSU and the center-left SPD and do not yet contain any binding commitments. Nevertheless, the paper already allows initial conclusions to be drawn regarding potential changes in tax law for both corporations and private households that are likely to come during the tenure of the next government.

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Voices imitated by AI - known as "voice cloning" or "deepfake audio" - can increasingly be found on the internet. Voice material of just a few minutes is now enough to imitate voices deceptively realistically. With further progress in AI technology, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distin-guish between original and imitation audio files.

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In its ruling of 25 March 2025, the Federal Social Court (Bundessozialgericht, BSG) confirmed that an ex-professional footballer is not entitled to injury benefit if he continues to earn during his incapacity for work (B 2 U 2/23 R)

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The plaintiff asserted damage claims at first instance against an opposing football player after a tackle during an amateur football match in which he suffered a fractured tibia and fibula, followed by a weakness of the big toe flexor and post-traumatic compartment syndrome. He claimed that the defendant had fouled him with a deliberate, illegal "reckless sliding tackle" (“Blutgrätsche”), despite there being no chance of reaching the ball.

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In sport, it's not just the athletes who fight for victory – also beyond the sport-related contractual content, decisions made during contract negotiations can have a groundbreaking effect for the future. The interests of athletes, clubs, sponsors, media companies and other stakeholders are closely intertwined, which often leads to complex contractual agreements. This makes it all the more important to make provisions for possible legal disputes at the contract drafting stage and to determine where and, above all, before which court such disputes should be settled when the need arises. A question that soon arises in this case is: arbitration clause or jurisdiction agreement?

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In June 2024, the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) ruled that a former chairman of the board of an association can demand 20 years after his departure from said association that his personal data - such as his name, date of birth and place of residence - are only restrictedly accessible in the register of associations (BGH, decision of 4 June 2024 - II ZB 10/23). In theory, this decision strengthens the rights of board members of associations.

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On 24 February 2025, marking the third anniversary of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the EU adopted its 16th package of sanctions against Russia. This new package aims to intensify economic and political pressure on Russia by targeting key sectors of its economy and entities supporting its military operations and further reduce sanctions circumvention.

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Oppenhoff has advised Hardt Holding GmbH on the sale of Advenius GmbH to the ATTIKON Group.

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Oppenhoff has advised KNDS Deutschland on the conclusion of a joint venture agreement with KNDS France, Rheinmetall Landsysteme and Thales for the formation of the MGCS Project Company GmbH.

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Ticket sales for sporting and cultural events are about to undergo comprehensive re-regulation. The German government is planning measures to protect consumers from excessive prices and fraudulent practices and to give event organisers more control over the secondary ticket market.

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The remuneration systems of key areas of the financial and insurance sectors are extensively reg-ulated. The rules to be applied in a specific case are determined by the supervisory requirements imposed upon the company in question based on its business purpose and, possibly, its size.

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In two articles we analyse the developments and opportunities in the German cannabis market: Franziska Katterbach examines regulatory changes in the medical sector, while Jonathan Sherman highlights how German companies can leverage Canadian capital markets for their expansion.

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The legal classification of driver contracts in motor racing is of key importance - not only from a legal perspective, but also from an economic perspective. A question that especially arises is whether a racing driver is an employee or a self-employed service provider. This distinction has far-reaching consequences, for example for social security contributions, protection against dismissal, liability issues and the structure of labour law provisions and principles as a whole.

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In its decision of 28 January 2025 (see press release), the German Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, “BAG”) clarified that an employer is not obliged to provide a trade union with the work e-mail addresses of its employees for the purpose of recruiting members. The BAG thus sets clear limits to the freedom of association guaranteed by Art. 9 (3) of the German Constitution (Grundgesetz, “GG”) and restricts the employer's obligations in this context to mere acts of tolerance.

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Oppenhoff has comprehensively advised the Chinese Lange Medtech Group on the acquisition of a majority stake in ErgoSurg GmbH. The previous managing shareholder of ErgoSurg will invested.

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The world of work is increasingly shaped by Digitisation. In this environment, the simplification of bureaucratic processes is constantly gaining in importance in order to relieve the burden on companies and establish more efficient workflows. This goal is also pursued by the Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act (Bürokratieentlastungsgesetz IV, “BEG IV”), which came into force on 1 January 2025 and with which the outgoing legislator wishes to promote the reduction of administrative hurdles and digitisation in the economy.

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The European Regulation 2024/1689 of 13 June 2024 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence ("AI Regulation") came into force last year. It will apply in stages. Chapters I and II of the AI Regulation are already applicable as of 2 February 2025, and thus in particular the prohibi-tion of certain practices in the field of artificial intelligence and the obligation of providers and de-ployers of artificial intelligence systems to provide their users with a sufficient level of so-called "AI literacy". Kathrin Vossen, Dr. Axel Grätz and Annabelle Marceau explain what this means and what measures need to be taken by 2 February 2025.

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KNDS, a leading European manufacturer of military land systems based in Amsterdam, has renamed its parent company and group companies around Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co. KG and Nexter Systems S. A. and introduced a new, standardised brand identity.

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Oppenhoff has advised the special glass manufacturer SCHOTT AG on the acquisition of QSIL GmbH Quarzschmelze Ilmenau. This is the largest acquisition in SCHOTT’s 140-year history.

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Oppenhoff has advised Bayer AG on the acquisition of HiDoc Technologies GmbH. With the strategic acquisition of HiDoc Technologies planned for Q1 2025, Bayer is expanding its portfolio in the field of digital health and further expanding its involvement in the area of self-medication.

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On December 16, 2024 the Council adopted a 15th package of restrictive measures with the objective of further limiting Russia’s ability to wage its war of aggression against Ukraine. The new measures entered into force on December 16, 2024 respectively December 17, 2024.

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Partner Dr. Markus Rasner appointed Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Singapore in Frankfurt.

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