On April 1, 2025, the Act to Strengthen the Judicial System (Justizstandort-Stärkungsgesetz – Strengthening Act) came into force. This Act authorizes the federal states to establish specialized chambers for commercial matters at the level of the higher regional courts (so-called Commercial Courts) and the regional courts (so-called Commercial Chambers), before which proceedings can be conducted in English. Only one Commercial Court may be established in each federal state. Commercial Chambers, on the other hand, may be established at any number of regional courts in a federal state.
Commercial Courts have jurisdiction over certain commercial disputes. These disputes include, in particular, civil disputes between entrepreneurs (except in the areas of intellectual property and competition law), disputes arising from or in connection with the acquisition of a company, and disputes between a company and members of its management or supervisory body.
The threshold for the jurisdiction of the court is an amount in dispute of €500,000 (approximately $583,158). Furthermore, the parties must have expressly or implicitly agreed to the jurisdiction. Alternatively, the plaintiff may also request this in the statement of claim in accordance with the new Section 610 of the German Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO), provided that the defendant does not object to this in its statement of defense. The same applies to the determination of English as the language of the proceedings pursuant to Section 184a of the German Code of Civil Procedure (GVG), although this is not mandatory.
The decision to bring proceedings before a Commercial Court results in a shortened appeal process. The only legal remedy against the decision of the Commercial Court is an appeal to the Federal Court of Justice (§ 614 ZPO), which does not require leave to appeal. In appeal proceedings, the proceedings must be requested to be conducted in English. The Federal Court of Justice may reject this request or initially order the proceedings to be conducted in English and later switch to German as the language of the proceedings (Section 184b GVG).
The Strengthening Act also enables the establishment of English-speaking Commercial Chambers at regional courts for certain disputes. The federal states decide for themselves at which regional courts these chambers are to be established and whether they are to have jurisdiction beyond the regional court district. Commercial Chambers are regular chambers at the regional courts. The dispute must fall within the local jurisdiction of the regional court and within the subject matter assigned to the commercial chamber. If these requirements are met, the parties can bring the legal dispute before a Commercial Chamber by agreeing to conduct the proceedings in English or by the defendant agreeing to the use of this language in their statement of defense without objection (Section 184a (3) GVG). This allows the parties to conduct proceedings in English in the first instance in certain commercial disputes and to use the regular appeal process.
For both the Commercial Courts and the Chambers, the parties may agree on a different procedure in accordance with Section 612 of the German Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO) (known as a case management conference). They can thus structure this jointly in accordance with the specific features of the respective dispute. It is also possible to agree on the preparation of readable verbatim transcripts. These provisions are based on the usual procedure in arbitration proceedings. Confidentiality and protection of secrets remain a sensitive issue. This is because the principle of public access also applies to proceedings before the Commercial Chambers and Courts. If the issue is not whether and between whom a dispute exists, but merely the protection of trade secrets, the Strengthening Act can help, as it has significantly increased the protection of trade secrets. This is because the opposing party is now under a greater obligation to maintain confidentiality. In addition, when trade secrets are being negotiated, the public can be excluded. The appropriate handling of trade secrets can therefore already be taken into account in the case management conference.
Since April 2025, Baden-Württemberg, Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, and North Rhine-Westphalia have already been offering a commercial court, Bavaria since June, and Hesse since July 2025. Lower Saxony and Saxony are also planning to introduce Commercial Courts in the course of this year, so that there will likely be a total of nine Commercial Courts in Germany. The organization varies between the federal states. In Berlin, the Commercial Court at the Kammergericht (Court of Appeal) is limited to disputes in construction and architectural law. In contrast, the Higher Regional Court in Celle makes full use of the legally possible assignment of disputes.
There are even greater differences at the level of the Commercial Chambers at the regional courts. In Baden-Württemberg, the Commercial Chambers have the same specialization as the Commercial Court, which enables a uniform approach within the federal state. In Bremen, on the other hand, there are no Commercial Chambers, although there is a Commercial Court, which leads to a different procedural structure.
These differences in the structure and specialization of Commercial Courts and Chambers reflect the different legal policy approaches of the federal states. Due to this transfer of competence to the federal states, there is a risk that a patchwork of court jurisdictions will emerge, leading to confusion.
The innovations brought about by the Strengthening Act are commendable. The introduction of Commercial Courts and Chambers specializing in commercial law could significantly increase Germany's attractiveness as a judicial location. However, the exact development remains to be seen. Whether Commercial Courts and Chambers can be a valid alternative to arbitration, for example, depends in particular on the individual interests of clients and the circumstances of the specific case. However, it is worth keeping an eye on developments in Commercial Courts and Chambers.
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