The German Health Ministry has acknowledged that current financial reserves are unlikely to fully cover potential liabilities arising from ongoing legal disputes with mask suppliers.
According to a parliamentary session record, Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) indicated in late June before the Budget Committee that the total value of various court cases – including accrued interest – amounts to approximately €2.3 billion. The ministry’s anticipated financial resources to address these claims are limited to approximately €1.4 billion, derived from unutilized funds within the federal budget.
While the ministry is hoping for a lower ultimate financial burden, Minister Warken tempered expectations regarding the success of a newly adopted legal strategy. This strategy posits that the inflated mask prices of 2020 contravened public pricing regulations, potentially limiting the suppliers’ ability to pursue claims based on those prices. However, Warken stated that this argument has, to date, not yielded substantial progress.
Currently, seven cases are pending before the Federal Court of Justice. The ministry is also involved in 45 cases before the Regional Court in Bonn and 41 cases before the Higher Regional Court in Cologne. The German government procured a total of 5.7 billion masks at a cost of €5.9 billion, but also left numerous suppliers with outstanding payments, reportedly due to alleged delivery delays.
