New leading case procedure adopted at the BGH

The German legislator has introduced a "leading case" procedure. In the event of a mass litigation phenomenon (such as Dieselgate), the German Supreme Court can pick out a case and, regardless of the specific fate of the selected case, issue guidelines for the courts of lower instances, which then become binding in practice.

The lower court judges will then not have to wait until they have certainty. Until now, it has always been at the discretion of the parties to either withdraw their applications or to settle in order to avoid a decision by the German Supreme Court.

At the same time, it was also decided to introduce so-called Commercial Courts at the German courts. This refers to special commercial courts that can also hear cases in English. It remains to be seen whether this will actually be able to compete with arbitration.

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