Zusammenfassung:
This article analyses the recent Leica judgement of the Higher Regional Court Frankfurt/Main and its consequences. In this judgement, the court has established an infringement of special formal requirements with respect to Leica´s invitation to the Annual General Meeting which, if correct, would bear dire consequences for a variety of listed companies, even in DAX. On the other hand, there is a recent decision of the Higher Regional Court Munich in a similar case concerning Hypovereinsbank, coming to the opposite conclusion. Besides the fact that, in the opinion of the authors, the Leica decision not only is legally unfounded and based on a completely unbalanced evaluation of formalistic requirements, it again proves the formalistic approach of German stock corporation law and leaves companies, especially with a respective regulation in their articles of association, their advisors and investors in a situation of uncertainty that has to be clarified urgently by the legislator.