First decisions show: No repayment of Corona emergency aid for entrepreneurs and the self-employed
The commercial law firm Orth Kluth advised the interest group NRW-Soforthilfe. Around 10,000 small entrepreneurs, solo self-employed and freelancers have joined forces in the IG, founded by Reiner Hermann in 2020, to take action against repayment notices from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in relation to the NRW 2020 emergency aid.

Orth Kluth filed model lawsuits with all seven administrative courts in NRW. Among other things, the law firm criticized the failure to take into account the loss of sales of the emergency aid recipients as part of the re-registration procedure, as well as the qualification of the emergency aid decisions as provisional administrative acts.

The administrative courts of Cologne, Gelsenkirchen and Düsseldorf have now ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on the main points. North Rhine-Westphalia then lodged an appeal with the OVG Münster. The appeal decision could be groundbreaking for a large number of emergency aid recipients in NRW.

IG NRW-Soforthilfe was able to finance the comprehensive legal advice with the help of successful crowd-funding. Partner Dr. Michael Sitsen says: “The example of IG Soforthilfe can set a precedent. Regardless of the final outcome of the proceedings, we see that crowd-funding can be a good way of organizing legal support in cases that would otherwise often fall by the wayside due to the low amount in dispute.”

Team Orth Kluth: Salary Partner Marieke Schwarz (lead), Partner Dr. Michael
Sitsen and Salary Partner Alexander Falk as well as Senior Associate Dr. Kerstin Bogusch advised on public law (all Düsseldorf). Senior associate Anna Bosch (Düsseldorf) advised on data protection law.

Background: Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the federal and state governments created funding programs in spring 2020 to provide financial relief for small businesses, the self-employed and freelancers. However, the state of NRW later changed its funding conditions to the detriment of emergency aid recipients by issuing a retroactive funding guideline. It was then disputed whether and, if so, to what extent the recipients of emergency aid would have to repay the funding. There are currently around 2,500 lawsuits pending in NRW; around 700 of them from the IG. A total of up to 400,000 emergency aid recipients are affected. The proceedings are therefore of enormous financial significance for the state.