In a nutshell: The new Hamburg Commercial Court is available to hear a wide range of commercial disputes from €500,000 in English. Below it, new Commercial Chambers in the Hamburg Regional Court (Landgericht) have been introduced to hear certain commercial disputes from €5,000 in English. The Commercial Court delivered its first judgment in November.

Position in the German court system

Both the Commercial Court and the Commercial Chambers are first-instance courts, with the Commercial Court also serving as the appellate body for the Commercial Chambers. Decisions of the Commercial Court may be appealed directly to Germany's highest civil court, the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof).

The Commercial Court may only be used where parties agree to its jurisdiction, or where the claimant so requests in its statement of claim and the defendant does not object in its defence. In contrast, the Commercial Chambers hear commercial disputes that fall within the ordinary jurisdiction of the Hamburg Regional Court if the parties opt for proceedings in English.

These innovations arise from the "Act to Strengthen Germany as a Litigation Forum" (Gesetz zur Stärkung des Justizstandortes Deutschland), which entered into force on 1 April 2025. Hamburg is one of several German states to have created such courts.

Procedural innovations

At the outset of a claim, the Commercial Court conducts an “organisation conference” in which the parties agree on deadlines and the date of the oral hearing. This is like the Case Management Conference in English courts and helps streamline litigation by setting clear timelines from the start. Comparable case-management tools are also available in proceedings before the Commercial Chambers.

Other procedural innovations include confidentiality measures for trade secrets and, on request, a verbatim record of hearings, which is familiar from the English courts, but was not generally available in Germany until now.

The procedural history of the Court's first judgment also highlights the potential for relatively speedy dispute resolution.

First case before the Commercial Court

The claim was filed on 25 July 2025 by a provider of off-grid power systems, who had purchased battery cells for over EUR 1 million from the defendant and had sold them on to a customer in West Africa. It was vital for the claimant that the batteries achieved an industry-standard quality certification. When the certification could not be obtained, the claimant rescinded the original sale contract and sued the defendant under a jurisdiction agreement in favour of the Commercial Court.

The Court largely upheld the claim, ordering the defendant to repay the purchase price and accept a return of the batteries. In allocating to the defendant the risk of the failed certification, the Court held that the claimant could rescind because the commercial basis of the transaction had ceased to exist (Wegfall der Geschäftsgrundlage). Two oral hearings between July and November and judgment roughly four months after filing underline the potential for materially shorter proceedings than on the traditional track starting in the Regional Court.

Relevance for Shipping

For shipping disputes, which often involve English documents and international counterparties, the Commercial Court and the Commercial Chambers now offer English-language proceedings before experienced German judges with specialist expertise and the prospect of relatively swift decisions. German court judgments benefit from EU enforcement rules, making them particularly attractive for parties – especially German parties – seeking enforcement within Europe. For global enforceability, however, arbitration may still prove to be preferable due to the broader reach of the New York Convention on recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of this article in more detail, please contact your usual contact person at EHLERMANN RINDFLEISCH GADOW or Dr. Nina von Borries.