Group Coordination Agreements - Development, Content, Outlook

German corporate group law offers various options for organizing cooperation within a corporate group. While the control and profit transfer agreement remains the traditional instrument for establishing a contractual corporate group, so-called group coordination agreements have also become established in practice. This lesser-known form of agreement deserves special attention, particularly at a time of increasing demand for flexibility.

Historical Development and Legal Classification

The history of group coordination agreements is closely linked to the search for alternatives to the rigid framework of the contractual group. As early as the 1970s and 1980s, legal scholars recognized that the German Stock Corporation Act (Aktiengesetz), with its provisions on corporate agreements, did not cover all practical needs of group management. When codifying group law in the 1965 Stock Corporation Act, the legislature had conceived group law primarily as a protective measure and had not