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In its ruling of 19 December 2019, the Federal Court of Finance (BFH) decided that a leased agricultural property acquired by the lessor of a dormant agricultural and forestry lease is only to be allocated to the necessary business assets of the leasing company if it is incorporated into the existing lease of the agricultural holding or in the case of parcel-wise leasing, is included in one of the existing leases. If the lessee does not intend to use the purchased land, nor is it possible for him to use it within a foreseeable period of time, he can assign the purchased land to the business assets of the company if he clearly and unambiguously states his intention. The profit from the sale of the properties was not included in the income from agriculture and forestry (§ 4a par. 2 No. 1 sentence 1 EStG) must still be recorded for income from private sales transactions within the meaning of § 23 EStG.

In its ruling of January 28, 2020, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) specified the requirements for a complaint of nullity of a concession agreement in the context of the right of the supply network to transfer the rights to the new concessionaire. It must be shown that, given the overall circumstances of the case, it is at least possible that the award of the concession was based on the erroneous tender or the erroneous evaluation of the tenders. The concession contract shall not be considered null and void if the party whose rights have been infringed has had sufficient opportunity to defend its right to a selection decision before the conclusion of the concession contract but has not exercised that right. It must always be checked during the concession procedure whether there is discrimination and a direct complaint must be lodged against it ( BGH, Judgment. v. 28. 01. 2020 - Ref: EnZR 116/18)

In the dispute about the district heating network in Stuttgart, the OLG Stuttgart ruled on 26. On 3 March 2020, the Federal State Capital, as the owner of the land, decided that the district heating network which had been laid on its land did not become the property of the City of Hamburg. Rather, the district heating transport system would remain the fictitious property of the operator EnBW. Nor, in the absence of a corresponding termination clause, does the contract of use concluded between the parties impose any obligation on EnBW to transfer ownership of the district heating network to the Land capital. The court only granted the Stuttgart company's auxiliary request that it, as the owner of the land, could demand the removal of the heat supply facilities after the concession contract had expired.

On 18. 02. 2020, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) took a position on the question of whether interest on the EEG levy is to be paid when reporting insufficient quantities of electricity compared to the actual electricity supply. According to the judgment, an electricity supply undertaking infringes the notification obligation i. S. d. § 60 paragraph 4 sentence 2 EEG 2014 pursuant to § 74 sentence 1 EEG 2014 not only if it does not report any electricity supplied at all, but also if it notifies the transmission system operator of a lower quantity of electricity than that actually supplied to final consumers. By introducing maturity interest, the legislator wanted to prevent financing gaps arising for transmission system operators and to ensure that electricity supply companies do not gain an advantage from late payment and thus gain competitive advantages over compliant electricity supply companies ( BGH, Judgment. v. 18. 02. 2020 - Ref: XIII ZR 10/19)

Section § 15a InsO stipulates that managing directors of a GmbH and management board members of an AG must file for insolvency without undue delay, but no later than three weeks after the occurrence of insolvency or overindebtedness if their company becomes insolvent or overindebted. On 20. 03. 2020, the BMJV presented a draft law (CorInsAG) according to which this obligation to file for insolvency for companies affected by the Corona pandemic is to be suspended until 30. 09. 2020, unless the insolvency is not due to the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic or there is no prospect of eliminating an inability to pay that has occurred. It also creates incentives to inject new liquidity into the companies concerned and maintain business relations with them. In addition, for a three-month transitional period, the right of creditors to request the opening of insolvency proceedings will also be suspended. In addition, the draft law for the BMJV contains an authoriz…

The Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) is reacting to the effects of the corona virus and is adapting the mechanism for the tendering of renewable energies and CHP plants. The dates of the call for tenders and the implementation of the call for tenders will not be adjusted in the process. However, the successful bidders will not already be awarded the contract, but will first receive an assurance, so that the deadlines associated with the award will not yet begin to run. In addition, the BNetzA announces that for bids for #Wind energy on land and biomass that have already been awarded the implementation deadlines would be granted unbureaucratically by informal application.