The legislator aims to strengthen Germany as a center for justice and business with the Judicial Location Strengthening Act.
As of April 1, 2025, the federal states have the option to establish a Commercial Court at a Higher Regional Court and Commercial Chambers at the Regional Courts, as well as to introduce English as the court language in civil jurisdiction.
The draft law assumes the establishment of Commercial Courts in five federal states: Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Hamburg, Hesse, and North Rhine-Westphalia.
The Commercial Court can be called upon as the first instance,
- if the amount in dispute is at least €500,000
and it concerns
- civil disputes between entrepreneurs,
- disputes arising from or in connection with the acquisition of a company or shares in a company
- or disputes between a company and members of the management board or the supervisory board.
At the Commercial Chambers (Regional Court), legal disputes can be brought regardless of the aforementioned dispute value threshold; the only decisive factor is the subject matter (see the preceding paragraph). The regular value threshold of €5,000.01 applies here.
In both bodies, the proceedings can be conducted in English, and this should be clearly indicated in the already English-language statement of claim. If the parties have agreed to conduct the proceedings in the first instance before the Commercial Court, this agreement should also be submitted with the statement of claim.
The Commercial Court can thus be the first instance or the second instance, should the proceedings have been conducted in the first instance before a Commercial Chamber. Regardless of whether the Commercial Court was the court of first or second instance, there is always an appeal against judgments of the Commercial Court.
