GERMANY Trends and Developments Contributed by: Oliver Sieg, Helmut Katschthaler, Philipp Koch and Charlott Kujath, Noerr
tify, prevent, and fix negative effects on human rights and the environment in their operations and supply chain. Non-compliance may result in both administra- tive penalties and civil liability. Geopolitical Instability and Sanctions Last, but certainly not least, geopolitical develop- ments such as trade tensions and military conflicts – particularly the ongoing consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – have gained significant influence on insurance disputes. Insurers are responding with more cautious underwriting, tighter exclusion clauses and narrower territorial scope. An evolving sanctions regime, which is especially pronounced in the EU, creates challenges for claims handling, cross-border payments and co-insurance programmes. Unsurprisingly, claims under political risk insurance covering foreign asset seizure, forced abandonment or civil unrest have surged, in particular with invest- ments in Russia failing or being abandoned after a mass exit of companies from the country since 2022. As political risk is usually covered via bespoke poli- cies, disputes most commonly revolve around case- specific questions and the scope of coverage. In these tumultuous times, political risk insurance might be a decisive factor for companies considering cross-bor- der engagement, while insurers will have to continually assess the commercial viability of specific risks. In basically all other lines of insurance, war and politi- cal risk exclusions – historically of rather minor sig- nificance in German insurance disputes – have now come under greater scrutiny. Questions will most likely arise due to the blurring of boundaries between state- linked cyber or drone attacks and traditional notions of “war”. A thwarted drone attack on Leipzig airport in August 2026 is only one current example. There is a chance that such exclusion clauses might finally be tested before the Federal Supreme Court. Procedural Trends On the German primary insurance market, disputes are still almost exclusively settled before state courts; arbitration clauses remain the exception. This is unsurprising with regard to mass risks – ie insurance contracts with consumers – but is notably also true for insurance contracts in commercial settings. Pro-
cedurally, insurance litigation in Germany is in a state of transition, as traditional litigation is being reshaped by recent legislative innovations. “Commercial Courts” To reduce traditional disadvantages of state court litigation compared to arbitration, German legisla- ture introduced the “Act to Strengthen Germany as a Forum by Introducing Commercial Courts and Eng- lish as the Language of the Courts in Civil Jurisdic- tion” ( Justizstandort - Stärkungsgesetz ), which came into force in April 2025. In particular, this legislation addressed the fact that state court proceedings, when compared to arbitration, tend to suffer from excess length and a (systemic) low degree of specialisation of judges; these are shortcomings that the legislature is looking to remedy to turn Germany into a more attrac- tive venue, particularly for international parties. To this end, federal courts were granted authority to implement specialised “Commercial Courts”. These are divisions at Appeal Courts that hear specified types of dispute at first instance where the amount contended is at least EUR500,000. Commercial courts specialised in corporate insurance disputes have been established in Düsseldorf and Hamburg. To bring their case before a Commercial Court, parties need to agree on the Commercial Court’s competence either within the contract/policy or ad hoc at the beginning of litigation. The appeal proceedings are shortened in comparison to the regular process, with the Federal Supreme Court acting as sole (but guaranteed) appel- late instance. In addition, and similar to arbitration, the parties benefit from a high level of confidentiality, an organisational hearing similar to a case-management conference, a verbatim transcript of hearings, and English as an optional language for the proceedings. In March 2026, the Hamburg Commercial Court deliv- ered the first decision in an insurance dispute, namely over the interpretation of an infidelity insurance pol- icy’s wording (Hamburg Appeal Court, Commercial Court, decision dated 26 March 2026 – II CC 1/25). Interestingly, in practice, many insurers (and their counsel) currently still seem reluctant to call upon the Commercial Courts. It has yet to be seen how reinsur- ers will embrace this procedural innovation.
145 I NSURANCE L I T IGATI O N 2026
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