The bundle will pay 85 million Euros to mask suppliers
At the beginning of the Corona-Pandemie, Health Minister Spahn guaranteed suppliers an unlimited acceptance of protective masks at a fixed price. However, later, the ministry refused payment in some cases. A court in Cologne has now ruled in favor of a complaining supplier.
In a dispute over the ordering of protective masks at the beginning of the Corona-Pandemie, the Higher Regional Court in Cologne has ordered the Federal Government to pay approximately 85.6 million Euro to the mask supplier. The supplier is entitled to payment of the purchase price, the Higher Regional Court in Cologne stated. In addition, the Federal Government is in arrears for the acceptance of millions of masks.
With the judgment, the mask supplier partially succeeded in his appeal proceedings against the Federal Republic. The District Court Bonn had rejected his claim in June 2023. The supplier sued for purchase price payment and the determination that the Federal Government was in delay.
The background of the dispute is the procurement of protective masks at the beginning of the Corona-Pandemie. The former Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn had guaranteed suppliers an unlimited acceptance of masks at a price of 4.50 Euro per FFP2 mask during the global crisis in 2020.
Later, the ministry refused payment in some cases, among other things, with reference to faulty or delayed deliveries. Suppliers are now suing the Federal Government in large numbers. According to the Federal Health Ministry, there are approximately one hundred cases with a dispute value of around 2.3 billion Euro.
As the Higher Regional Court explained in its judgment, the withdrawal of the government from the contract in the contested case was ineffective. The reason was that the supplier had not been given a performance deadline beforehand. The District Court Bonn had assumed in the previous proceedings that the deadline setting was unnecessary exceptionally.
The Higher Regional Court Cologne partially overturned the judgment of the District Court and ruled in favor of the plaintiff. In addition, the court determined in the North Rhine-Westphalian city that the Federal Government was in delay for the acceptance of 14.6 million FFP2 masks and ten million OP masks from the supplier. The judgment is not yet final. A revision was not granted, but a non-admission appeal can be filed with the Federal Court of Justice.
Following the initial guarantee by Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn to accept protective masks at a fixed price, the supplier faced issues with payment due to alleged faulty or delayed deliveries. Amidst numerous disputes between suppliers and the Federal Government, the Higher Regional Court in Cologne recently ruled that the Federal Government must pay the supplier approximately 85.6 million Euro for FFP2 masks, as the withdrawal from the contract was deemed ineffective due to lack of a performance deadline.
