Discussion of the judgement LG Frankfurt 17.07.07*

Published on 07.01.2008

*by Dr. Johannes Fiala, Lawyer (Munich), Mediator (Univ.), MBA Financial Services (Univ.Wales), MM (Univ.), Certified Financial and Investment Advisor (A.F.A.), Lecturer for Civil and Insurance Law (BA Heidenheim, Univ. of Cooperative Education), Banker (www.fiala.de)
It is not uncommon for fund participations to be held via trustees, so that an individual investor cannot get in touch with the other investors in the fund, especially via the commercial register. In such a situation, the Regional Court of Frankfurt/Main, in its judgment of 17 July 2007, ordered the trustee to forward the circular letter of one investor to the other investors. The investor’s goal was to call an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting and then force the fund’s management to provide complete information about the use of funds.
Excerpt from the judgment brief:
Right to information of every investor
In principle, the shareholders participating in a closed-end fund have a claim against the company operating the fund for the publication of a list of the names with contact details of the co-shareholders in order to be able to convene a shareholders’ meeting. Such an obligation to provide information exists in any case if the disclosure of the data of the other co-partners serves the exercise of core membership rights and the shareholder has no other possibility to obtain this information. In this case, the other shareholders are obliged to tolerate the disclosure of their data due to their social duty of loyalty – data protection is therefore not opposed…
(experten.de (29.11.2007))
Courtesy of www.experten.de.