Exclusive
Despite investing millions in top law firms, the federal government remains unsuccessful in the mask dispute and is facing further expensive legal proceedings.
Lawsuits regarding the federal government’s mask purchases during the Corona crisis have been ongoing for more than four years. There are still around 70 proceedings before the Bonn Regional Court, plus a double-digit number of proceedings before the Cologne Higher Regional Court. In addition, this summer the Federal Ministry of Health involved the Federal Court of Justice in two cases in which it suffered sensitive and expensive defeats before the Higher Regional Court. Overall, the mask proceedings, which have not yet been finally decided, involve a value in dispute of 2.3 billion euros – plus various additional costs such as interest on arrears, which the federal government would probably have to pay in many cases if it lost the cases.
This is original Capital branded content. This article is available for ten days on stern.de. You will then find it again exclusively on capital.de. Capital belongs like that star to RTL Germany.
In view of the processes that have dragged on since 2020 in which suppliers are suing for payment of the agreed purchase prices, the costs that the Ministry of Health (BMG) spends on its consulting law firms are also increasing. By July 2024, expenses for external law firms will already add up to around 73 million euros. This emerges from a current report from the ministry to the Bundestag’s budget committee, which is available to Capital. According to the report, Minister Karl Lauterbach’s (SPD) department has currently mandated five top law firms for the proceedings before the regional court and the higher regional court: CMS Hasche Sigle, the legal advisory arms of PwC and Deloitte as well as Flick Gocke Schaumburg and Dentons.
The EY lawyers with whom the BMG started the processes in 2020 are no longer among the current advisors – partly because EY partners later moved to other law firms and took the mandates with them.
Also not listed in the report to the householders is a law firm that is currently representing the ministry in the proceedings before the Federal Court of Justice. According to information from Capital, the BMG will have to submit written submissions in the coming weeks in which it justifies its non-admission complaints against the two judgments of the Cologne Higher Regional Court. The Cologne judges did not allow any appeals against their decisions. However, the BMG wants to ensure that the highest civil court deals with the cases. One of the two cases that the BMG lost in Cologne involved 118 million euros including interest.
Special representative should examine process strategy
The approximately 73 million euros that the ministry has paid so far for law firms is in proportion to the federal government’s not exactly lavish legal successes in court – especially after the first higher court decisions by the Cologne Higher Regional Court this summer. The BMG and its legal advisors are now relying on other chambers of the Cologne Higher Regional Court to decide against the plaintiffs – or that in the end the BGH will overturn the decisions from Cologne.
At the same time, Minister Lauterbach appointed a special representative this summer to investigate the mask procurement of his predecessor Jens Spahn (CDU). Among the questions that the former Justice and Defense State Secretary Margaretha Sudhof (SPD) is supposed to investigate on Lauterbach’s behalf “as an expert advisor” until the end of December is one that, in view of the BMG’s immense expenditure on several leading law firms and the crowds involved What catches the eye of highly paid lawyers: “Have the federal government’s previous civil court representations represented its interests in a legal and factual manner in an appropriate and success-oriented manner?” It sounds as if an ex-civil servant, after four years of litigation, should investigate whether the litigation strategy of all the top law firms is of any use. After all: According to the ministry, Sudhof should receive support for her audit – namely from two federal civil servants “who have expertise in litigation and procurement,” as the BMG recently announced in response to a small request from the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag.
The mask processes also cost 2025
Regardless, mask cases continue in the various courts – which will further drive up legal expenses in the coming months. The legal fees are among the additional costs that are added to the 5.9 billion euros in expenses for the pure purchase of the masks. As the Federal Audit Office found in the spring, these so-called annex costs – for example for the transport and storage of the masks as well as the destruction of the far too many goods ordered – added up to 462 million euros by the end of 2023.
Significant sums were also spent on settlements with complaining suppliers, which Lauterbach’s ministry wanted to keep secret for a long time – including from the Bundestag. At the beginning of October, it estimated the costs of the comparisons to “Welt am Sonntag” at around 390 million euros. In its budget planning for the coming year, the BMG expects further follow-up costs due to the procurement of masks: in 2025 it expects “processing risks” of around 480 million euros.
Source: Stern
