New Coronavirus – Selected Legal Issues Under German Law

By 10 March 2020, there were almost 115,000 cases of the virus in 110 countries worldwide.

The number of deaths has risen to over 4,000.  The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak was a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.  The severity of the outbreak combined with the impact of responsive measures implemented by a number of governments has also caused significant disruption of everyday life and to international supply chains.  This raises many legal issues, some of which will be addressed here from a German law perspective:

• Can companies that are unable to meet their contractual obligations as a result of the epidemic invoke force majeure?
• Current company transactions may also be affected by the epidemic. What rights typically exist if the target company suffers a sudden drop in earnings due to the epidemic?
• In addition, the is approaching: how can stock corporations react if it is no longer possible to schedule major events?

Please click here to read the full, German language, alert memorandum.