Hot Legal Topics — Tuesday

Period: Last 4 days (Fri–Mon)

New Legislation / EU Directives

The reports from the source "Hot Legal Topics" covering the period from 4 to 7 September 2026 contained no discussion of newly enacted legislation or EU directives that would immediately give rise to new waves of litigation.

Federal Court of Justice (BGH) / Landmark Judgments

• OLG Rostock: Invalidity of Standard Terms and Conditions in Cruise Travel (AIDA Cruises) [1–3]: The Higher Regional Court of Rostock upheld the claim brought by the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband, vzbv) and declared three material clauses in the travel conditions of AIDA Cruises to be invalid [2, 3]:

  1. Excessive flat-rate cancellation fee: A flat-rate cancellation charge of 80 percent of the pro-rata fare upon partial cancellation is impermissible [2, 3]. This applies in particular given that the operator reserves the right to rebook the remaining guests, thereby making the original cabin available for resale [4, 5].
  2. Additional costs arising from quarantine: The tour operator may not unilaterally pass on additional costs attributable to a quarantine (e.g. a shipboard quarantine) to passengers [2–5].
  3. Disembarkation at the Captain's discretion: The captain may not be granted an unfettered right to remove guests from the vessel without notice, without compensation, and without any proportionality assessment [2–5].

  Mass relevance: High. These clauses routinely affect thousands of travellers in the package and cruise travel sector [4, 5]. (Judgment of 23 July 2026, case no. 2 UKl 2/25; not yet final and binding) [6, 7].

• BGH on Technical Failures in Video Hearings (Case no. I ZR 31/26) [8]: The Federal Court of Justice has held that courts must show a degree of tolerance where technical difficulties arise during online hearings; however, where counsel fails to connect successfully for a second time, a default judgment is lawful [8].

• BGH on Substitute Filing in the Event of beA Outages (Case no. I ZB 85/25) [9]: The Federal Court of Justice clarified the requirements for reinstatement to the previous procedural position (Wiedereinsetzung in den vorigen Stand) where an attorney is compelled to resort to alternative means of transmission (such as fax) due to an outage of the electronic lawyers' mailbox (beA) [9].

Trends in Litigation Funding & Legal Tech

• Legal Risks Associated with Legal Tech and Law Firm Infrastructure [8, 9]: The recent decisions of the highest courts concerning the digitalisation of day-to-day court proceedings demonstrate that IT failures and technical inadequacy are interpreted strictly against the parties concerned. Both the failure to connect during video hearings [8] and errors in substitute filing during beA outages [9] carry significant liability risks. For automated mass litigation service providers (legal tech platforms), these decisions underscore the imperative of operating entirely failsafe and fully redundant filing systems.
• Note: No specific market trends relating to commercial litigation funders were addressed within this source during the current reporting period.

🎯 Next Step: Would you like me to analyse the precise legal requirements set out by the OLG Rostock regarding permissible cancellation clauses in the travel industry?