Top German court to rule on claims by Wirecard shareholders

Germany's Federal Court of Justice (BGH) is set to rule on Thursday on claims by Wirecard shareholders in the insolvency of the former DAX company.

The question at issue is whether aggrieved shareholders can claim damages from the insolvency estate as ordinary creditors or not.

In this specific case, the asset management company Union Investment has filed a claim for €10 million ($11.6 million) in damages with the Wirecard insolvency administrator's list of claims.

However, the insolvency administrator considers claims from creditors such as lending banks or former employees to be priority claims. Shareholders would only be considered if there were any money left over at the end – which does not appear to be likely.

In proceedings in 2024, the Munich Higher Regional Court strengthened the rights of shareholders and ruled in an interim judgement that they can assert claims for damages as simple insolvency claims. However, there has been no top court ruling on this matter to date.

The Federal Court of Justice ruling could therefore also have far-reaching consequences for other insolvency proceedings.

All in all, there is a lot of money at stake in this case: According to court information, around 50,000 Wirecard shareholders have filed claims for damages totalling around €8.5 billion in the list of claims.

Wirecard creditors are claiming a total of €15.4 billion. However, the insolvency estate amounts to only around €650 million. It is therefore likely that creditors will only receive a very small portion of their claims.