Germany: Criminal Law

Germany is set to significantly recalibrate its corporate fines regime, including – for the first time – through the introduction of sentencing guidelines. The German Federal Government has introduced a draft bill...

Two brothers in Germany have pleaded guilty mid-trial to breaching EU sanctions against Russia by shipping engineering and industrial equipment valued at €830,000 between 2023 and 2024. As part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, both defendants have accepted four-year custodial sentences, with the court's verdict still pending while their father faces separate prosecution for related offenses.

Germany is poised to fundamentally transform its corporate liability regime by quadrupling maximum fines and, for the first time, codifying statutory sentencing criteria that expressly recognize internal investigations and compliance measures as mandatory mitigating factors. The reforms, embedded within an EU environmental directive implementation, will apply across all corporate offenses and establish clear legal requirements for how companies must respond to suspected misconduct.