Industry & Manufacturing
Commercial legal counsel for mechanical engineering firms, suppliers and industrial groups, from the supply chain to the transaction, in Germany and worldwide.
Legal support across the entire industrial value chain, from mid-sized machine builders and automotive suppliers to international industrial groups.
Legal support for international industrial projects, for German companies abroad and for international companies in Germany.
German Companies Abroad
International Companies in Germany
We know where industrial projects typically break and move early on contract chains, standards, timelines and structures, so that production and project do not stall.
Framework agreement, individual call-offs, quality assurance agreement and logistics interlock. We design contract chains that reflect series production, just-in-time delivery and change cycles instead of slowing them down.
Plant construction and expansion run through many trades, countries and advisers. We hold the threads together and steer local counsel centrally, as a one-stop shop for every strand of the project.
CE marking, product safety, environmental and supply chain obligations decide market access and risk. We clarify early what applies, before authorities or customers do.
Supplier failure, force majeure, price adjustments: we secure claims, negotiate interim solutions and keep production running, fast and with clear priorities.
We support you from the first structuring question through to delivery. Talk to us about your plans.
An international supply chain only holds if the contracts interlock: a framework agreement with individual call-offs, a quality assurance agreement (QAA), plus logistics and, in some cases, consignment arrangements. Across borders, Incoterms, choice of law and jurisdiction come on top; otherwise a different legal system applies at every station. In our experience, the most expensive disputes are not hidden in a single contract but in the transitions, where framework agreement, QAA and logistics do not refer to each other cleanly.
The Supply Chain Due Diligence Act requires larger companies to screen their supply chains for human rights and environmental risks, to take countermeasures and to report on them. Only a limited circle of companies is directly obliged, but the effect reaches further: large customers pass their duties down the chain through supplier codes and contract clauses. In the end, the act also reaches suppliers that do not fall under it themselves, through what their major customers write into their contracts.
A precise specification of works, binding deadlines with contractual penalties, orderly change management (claims) and clear rules on acceptance and warranty. On international projects, choice of law, security instruments and the interfaces between the trades come on top. Hardly any dispute in plant engineering breaks out only at acceptance: it is laid out in the contract, often years earlier.
Secure first, then reorganise: set deadlines, document the failure and the damage, review force majeure and price clauses. Replacement sourcing should be set up legally so that it does not create new risks. The sequence matters: if the failure is worked around before it is documented, the evidence is missing later, and with it the claims.
The EU Data Act has applied since September 2025; the core obligation of data access by design and by default covers connected products placed on the market from 12 September 2026. Until now, a connected machine mainly had to work. In future it must also hand over to the user the data generated in operation: structured, machine-readable and, where possible, directly from the device. Even before the contract is signed, it must be disclosed which data are involved and how they can be accessed. For machine builders, two tasks come together: making products and contracts fit for data access without exposing their own know-how. Where trade secrets are affected, robust protection and licensing arrangements are needed.
From 20 January 2027, the EU Machinery Regulation replaces the old Machinery Directive. It applies directly in all member states, without national implementation and without a grace period for new machinery. For the first time, cybersecurity and AI-based safety functions are expressly part of the catalogue of obligations; digital operating instructions and the CE conformity assessment are also being reorganised. This reaches deep into design and documentation: anyone starting the transition only in 2027 will be too late.
For the first time since 1989, product liability law is being fundamentally reformed; the new EU directive must be transposed into German law by December 2026. Software, embedded systems and AI will expressly count as products, and even a missing security update can trigger liability. At the same time, it becomes easier for injured parties to prove a defect. For manufacturers of connected machinery, the risk rises noticeably, and it interlocks with the Machinery Regulation and cybersecurity. Insurance cover and the allocation of risk in supply agreements therefore belong on the review list.
