The Federal Labour Court's reference in turn gives us reason to warn younger colleagues of a "trick" (or to recommend it) that can establish international jurisdiction and that inexperienced international colleagues can fall for:

If a debtor has assets in the European Union (e.g. customer claims) but does not have a place of jurisdiction in the EU (e.g. a Chinese company), it is still possible to sue them in Germany. If an oral hearing is held, the creditor will not appear. If the opponent (i.e. the Chinese company's authorised representative in the example) is happy about this and is also somewhat clueless, he will apply for a default judgment, which will also be pronounced. This would achieve the objective of the German jurisdiction; the default judgement was the Trojan horse into the German jurisdiction.

The second lesson from the judgement of the Federal Labour Court is also well known: If both parties negotiate on the basis of a specific legal system during the legal dispute and make reference to it, a choice of law can subsequently be assumed that modifies the actual contractual statute (i.e. the applicable national law). In proceedings concerning the termination of an employment relationship, for example, German law is generally more favourable to employers than Italian law. Lawyers who represent Italian employees are doing their party a disservice if they then agree to German law.