News
News
Company with tied assets in the coalition agreement!
The CDU, CSU and SPD concluded their coalition agreement on 9 April 2025. Paragraphs 2815 et seq. state:
Company with tiedassets and reform of cooperative law
"We are modernising the law governing cooperatives and want to introduce a new, independent legal form called a "company with tied assets". The characteristics of this legal form are the unalterable asset commitment and participation according to membership logic without tax privileges or discrimination."
These characteristics fit in well with the draft law for a separate legal form published in September 2024. Cf. below.
(https://www.spd.de/fileadmin/Dokumente/Koalitionsvertrag2025_bf.pdf)
8 Prof Anne Sanders, Speech at the 7th Zurich Foundation Law Day
On 30 January 2025, Prof. Sanders was a guest at the 7th Zurich Foundation Day, a meeting place for the foundation community. Prof Sanders spoke about steward ownership and the ELI project on corporate foundations in a panel with Dr Ineke Koeler (NL) and Prof Rasmus Feldthusen (DK).
The recording of the presentation offers a well-founded introduction to the topic not only for students, but for all interested parties. Especially for those who are not yet familiar with the draft of the new legal form of a company with tied assets or "responsible ownership", it provides an understandable first overview.
The entire event was recorded. You can find more information here:
https://uzh.mediaspace.cast.switch.ch/playlist/dedicated/96154/0_9x077gx0/0_v2rr8qxy.
Symposium in the Bundestag on a new legal form for companies with tied assets
Prof. Sanders attended a symposium in the Bundestag on 10 September 2024 on a new legal form for companies with tied assets. There, she presented the draft law on the introduction of a company with tied assets together with other authors of the draft.
In addition, the Federal Ministry of Justice presented key points of its own draft for the introduction of an accumulating company. Many entrepreneurs, politicians and academics took part in the subsequent discussion on the introduction of a new legal form for the realisation of fiduciary entrepreneurship. Even before the symposium began, numerous entrepreneurs queued in front of the Bundestag to show that they were waiting for the new legal form.
The draft by Prof Sanders, Prof Dauner-Lieb, Prof Kempny, Prof Möslein, RA Noah Neitzel and Prof Teichmann has been published open access by Mohr Siebeck.
Act on the Introduction of a Company with Tied Assets - Academic Draft
The present draft law
submits a proposal for implementing the concept of
fiduciary entrepreneurship or steward-ownership as a separate legal form, taking into account ancillary laws and tax law considerations.
The draft law is here available here
Further developed draft law
Gesellschaft mbH with tied assets
The working group led by Prof Dr Dr h.c. Barbara Dauner-Lieb, Prof. Dr Simon Kempny, LL.M. Prof. Dr Florian Möslein, LL.M., Prof. Dr Anne Sanders, M.Jur. and Prof. Dr Rüdiger Veil has presented a further developed draft bill following intensive discussion. The most important changes are the designation "Gesellschaft mbH mit gebundenem Vermögen" (limited liability company with tied assets) and improved regulations in the areas of corporate finance and governance to ensure asset retention. Download draft bill
Video conference Responsible ownership
On 9 July 2020, a video conference was held to present the report prepared by Prof. Dr Anne Sanders, M.Jur., Prof. Dr Dr Dr h.c. Barbara Dauner-Lieb, Dr Arne von Freeden, LL.M., Prof Dr Simon Kempny, LL.M., Prof Dr Florian Möslein, LL.M. and Prof Dr Rüdiger Veil and discussed with companies, economists and lawyers from business and practice.
You can find the conference programme - here -
Prof Dr Anne Sanders, M.Jur., with the support of her academic co-workers Gina R. Rolfes and Shkelqim Berisha, was responsible for the formulation and essential development of the corporate law regulations and explanations. The entire team assisted with proofreading.
New trend - steward ownership!
Steward ownership - this form of ownership, which was pioneered by the companies Zeiss and Schott around 130 years ago, is now of interest to many start-ups and SMEs.
On 25 November 2019 in Berlin, more than 30 companies jointly founded the "Responsible Ownership Foundation", giving this form of ownership a common voice for the first time. They discussed the experiences of companies with responsible ownership such as Alnatura, Globus or the search engine Ecosia, the experiences with responsible ownership in Denmark and the question of whether Germany needs a new legal form for responsible ownership.
You can access the press coverage here:
