Investor Model Procedure Act

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Basic data
Title: Law on model proceedings in disputes under capital market law
Short title: Investor Model Procedure Act
Abbreviation: KapMuG
Type: Federal law
Scope: Federal Republic of Germany             
Legal matter: Procedural law , capital market law
References : 310-23
Original version from: August 16, 2005
( BGBl. I p. 2437 )
Entry into force on: predominantly November 1, 2005
Last revision from: October 19, 2012
( BGBl. I p. 2182 )
Entry into force of the
new version on: 		November 1, 2012
Last change by: Art. 8 G of 8 July 2019
( Federal Law Gazette I p. 1002, 1018 )
Effective date of the
last change: 		July 21, 2019
(Art. 8 G of July 8, 2019)
Expiry: November 1, 2020
(Section 28 KapMuG)
GESTA : D024
Weblink: Text of the KapMuG
Please note the note on the applicable legal version.

The German law on model proceedings in disputes under capital market law (Capital Investor Model Procedure Act - KapMuG) is intended to make it easier for aggrieved investors to enforce claims for damages by enabling model proceedings due to false, misleading or omitted public capital market information, for example in annual financial statements or stock market prospectuses. In the test case, questions of fact and law, which are identical in at least ten individual compensation proceedings, can be decided uniformly by the higher regional court with binding effect for all plaintiffs.

background

The reason for the introduction of the KapMuG was a large number of similar legal proceedings (approx. 16,000) against Deutsche Telekom , with which individuals as shareholders demand compensation for what they believe to be false information in a sales prospectus. For this reason, the KapMuG is also called "Lex Telekom" - a name that is also used for the Telecommunications Act .

Another cause is a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) . This was called by some of the injured plaintiffs because, due to the large number of complaints in the main proceedings, they only had to expect a decision on the merits after a procedural period of over three years. The BVerfG sees the long duration of the process as a violation of the legal protection guarantee , according to which a dispute has to be decided within a reasonable time.

Goal setting

The Federal Ministry of Justice names the following advantages of collective model proceedings over individual legal disputes:

  1. The individual investor can effectively enforce his claim for damages.
  2. Complex factual and legal questions are only clarified once and are binding for all injured investors, i. H. all that is required is the taking of evidence.
  3. The litigation cost risk for the individual investor is significantly reduced; an advance payment, especially for expensive expert reports, does not have to be paid; if the plaintiffs lose, the costs will be shared among all plaintiffs on a pro rata basis.
  4. The processing of a large number of lawsuits is accelerated; the courts concerned are exonerated; the defendant companies receive legal certainty more quickly.

Procedure according to the KapMuG

The first nationwide procedure under the KapMuG was directed against Deutsche Telekom AG because of alleged inaccuracies in the prospectus in the DT3 IPO. On May 16, 2012, the OLG Frankfurt was unable to identify any errors in the prospectus by means of a sample decision. On December 11, 2014, the Federal Court of Justice ruled that the prospectus was incorrect and referred the proceedings back to the Higher Regional Court for renewed hearing. The next major proceedings under this law started in September 2018 on behalf of more than 1,600 individual lawsuits before the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court against Volkswagen AG due to the price losses of investors in connection with the emissions scandal .

structure

The KapMuG is divided into three sections:

  1. Section 1: Sample declaration application; Referral procedure
  2. Section 2: Implementation of the model procedure
  3. Section 3: Effect of the model decision; Costs; Transitional arrangement

literature

  • Hess / Reuschle / Rimmelspacher (eds.), Cologne Commentary on KapMuG , 2nd edition 2014, ISBN 978-3-452-27897-5
  • Volkert Vorwerk, Christian Wolf: KapMuG - Capital Investor Model Procedure Act . 1st edition. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-54400-2 .

swell

  1. ↑ Report on boersen-zeitung.de using the name "Lex Telekom" for the KapMuG
  2. ↑ Report on heise.de using the name “Lex Telekom” for the TKG
  3. ↑ Capital Investor Model Procedure Act (KapMuG) ( Memento of March 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Partial success for telecom plaintiffs. In: Tagesschau.de. December 11, 2014, archived from the original on March 19, 2015 ; accessed on December 11, 2014 : “The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) overturned a decision by the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court on a central point. The BGH recognized a serious error in the sales prospectus for the third IPO of the former state-owned company in 2000. Therefore, the proceedings were referred back to the Higher Regional Court for a new hearing and decision. "
  5. ↑ Do VW and Porsche have to compensate investors?

Web links