Wirecard - BaFin not liable for allegedly incorrect supervision

Wirecard shareholders who had hoped for compensation from the financial supervisory authority BaFin have unfortunately been disappointed. A married couple had filed a lawsuit against BaFin and demanded compensation of around 65.000 euros after the Wirecard shares they had purchased were no longer worth anything when Wirecard collapsed.

In a decision dated January 10, 2024 (case no. III ZR 57/23), the German Supreme Court confirmed the decision of the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court, according to which Bafin’s official liability was rejected. The measures taken by the supervisory authority as part of the market abuse monitoring and balance sheet control of Wirecard between April 2015 and June 2020 were not objectionable under the German Securities Trading Act, the Transparency Directive or the Market Abuse Regulation and were in any case justifiable.

The German Supreme Court refers to its previous case law that state actions for which there is room for judgment are not to be examined for their correctness in official liability proceedings, but only for their justifiability.

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