ACTIONS CORNER

The Commerzbank accuses the judge at London’s High Court, which in May 2012 had sentenced the second-largest German bank to pay controversial bonuses of 52 million euros to former investment bankers at Dresdner Bank, of a number of errors. The bank called the judge’s interpretations “surprising and wrong”, Reuters reported, referring to court documents. The London Court of Appeal began a three-day hearing on 5 March. A verdict is expected in early May. In the lower court, the Bank had lost and was therefore to pay extra bonuses to 104 former Dresdner Kleinwort bankers.

The prolonged dispute between the European Commission and Germany over the VW law has gone into its decisive final round. Since 12 March, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg has been hearing oral arguments about the 53-year-old regulations.  The provisions in it that a shareholder may hold at most 20 per cent of Volkswagen, that the federal government and the State of Lower Saxony always have the right to two seats on the board and that major shareholder resolutions require 80 per cent approval clash with European law. The judges are checking whether the Bundestag has implemented an initial judgment on the VW Law in 2007 appropriately or not. On this basis, later in the year first the Advocate-General’s Opinion and then the verdict are expected. Through a fine of at least 50 million euros, the Commission wants to force the Federal Republic to its knees in the long-running dispute about the VW law. According to the Commission the regulation discourages potential investors, stifles innovation and could lead to higher prices.