Pflichtprüfung und Anschlusszwang im Kontext grenzüberschreitender Genossenschaftsmobilität

Mandatory Audits, Membership in Umbrella Organizations, and the Cross-border Mobility of Cooperatives. How Much Constraint Is Still Freedom? The cross-border mobility of companies is an expression of the freedom of establishment, which also applies to cooperatives, as emphasized in Art. 54(2) of the TFEU. But German cooperative law doubly constrains the freedom of establishment. First, every registered cooperative (eingetragene Genossenschaft, eG) under German law is subject to mandatory periodic audits. Second, cooperatives must belong to an umbrella organization that the state has authorized to perform the audits. Both obligations - core elements of the German act on cooperatives - may conflict with the freedom of establishment. Considering the German government's 25 June 2025 draft of an act to »Strengthen the Legal Form of the Cooperative«, this article explores the tension between regulatory constraints and the freedom of establishment and assesses whether the requirements imposed by German cooperative law are compatible with it.

Authors/Editors

Julia Kraft Born in 1979; studied law at the University of Passau, the Université de Genève, and LMU Munich; doctorate awarded in 2005 (University of Bayreuth); judge (Regional Court, Amberg); public prosecutor (Nuremberg-Fürth Public Prosecutor's Office); legal officer for European company law, group and corporate transformation law at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Berlin; deputy notary at the notary's office in Weinheim; appointed Justizrat in 2013; research officer at the German Notary Institute, Würzburg; LL.M. in 2015 (KU Leuven); research associate (in a secondary appointment) at the Chair of Civil Law, Commercial and Business Law, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf; habilitation in 2022 (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf); professor at the University of Potsdam.