Chamber of Commerce

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Chambers for Commercial Matters ( KfH ) are specialized judges in commercial matters at German regional courts , made up of a presiding judge and two honorary judges as so-called commercial judges , Section 105 (1) of the Courts Constitution Act (GVG).

The honorary commercial judges are proposed by the chambers of industry and commerce and must have the status of a merchant according to the commercial code or a managerial activity in a corporation (more closely: Section 109 (1) GVG). In contrast to the civil chambers of the regional court, the regulations on the single judge do not apply to the chambers for commercial matters; however, the chairman can make certain decisions alone ( Section 349 of the Code of Civil Procedure ).

The Chamber of Commerce is responsible if the regional court is responsible for the complaint , the plaintiff has applied for a hearing before the KfH in the complaint ( Section 96 (1) GVG) or the defendant applies to refer the complaint to the KfH ( Section 98 (1) sentence 1 GVG), and it is a commercial matter within the meaning of Section 95 (1) GVG. These include general commercial transactions, bill of exchange, check and document processes , competition law matters, commercial register matters and the like. If a chamber for commercial matters has been formed at a regional court, this also decides on actions for avoidance against resolutions of the general meeting of an AG , KGaA , or SE , as well as the shareholders' meeting of a GmbH in accordance with Section 246 (3) sentence 2 AktG .

At the request of the plaintiff, a legal dispute can also be heard before the KfH if the civil chamber would actually be responsible ( Section 97 (1) GVG). If the defendant does not want this, he must apply for a referral before the hearing ( Section 101 (1) GVG). In some cases, case law requires that the request for referral be made within the period for defense. Instructions on legal remedies are not provided. The KfH can also refer a legal dispute ex officio to the civil chamber ( Section 97 (2) GVG). The decision on the referral can be made without an oral hearing ( Section 101 (2) GVG) and is incontestable and binding for the chamber to which the referral is made ( Section 102 GVG).