🇩🇪 Legislation1 Jan 2024
Germany's partnership law reform takes effect, with a new register for civil-law partnerships
Germany's Act to Modernise Partnership Law (MoPeG) took effect on 1 January 2024. It creates a register for civil-law partnerships (Gesellschaftsregister). Registration is optional but required for key transactions such as buying land, and registered partnerships must use the suffix 'eGbR'. Partnerships already in the commercial register as a KG or OHG register there first.
The Act to Modernise Partnership Law (Personengesellschaftsrechtsmodernisierungsgesetz, MoPeG) came into force on 1 January 2024.
What changed
- A new company register for civil-law partnerships (Gesellschaftsregister), modelled on the commercial and partnership registers, run by the local courts.
- Registration of a civil-law partnership (GbR) is voluntary, but it is a precondition for important transactions, such as a GbR acquiring land or shares in some companies.
- A registered GbR must use the suffix 'eingetragene GbR' or 'eGbR'.
- A GbR with legal capacity exists once it takes part in legal dealings with the consent of all partners, and at the latest when it is registered.
- A GbR that converts to a general (OHG) or limited (KG) partnership must first register in the Gesellschaftsregister.
Who is affected
Groups that hold property, shares or other assets through German civil-law partnerships, and their advisers.
What to do
Check whether any group GbR needs to register before acquiring or disposing of registered assets.