The German Health Ministry has acknowledged that current financial reserves may be insufficient to fully cover potential liabilities arising from ongoing legal disputes with mask suppliers.
According to a parliamentary record, Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) stated in a recent budget committee meeting that the total value of the various court cases, including accrued interest, amounts to €2.3 billion. The federal government currently has approximately €1.4 billion available within remaining budget allocations – funds derived from previously underspent budget lines – which are earmarked for potential payments to mask vendors.
While the ministry anticipates that the final payout may be lower than the stated value, Minister Warken tempered expectations regarding the success of the government’s revised legal strategy. This strategy argues that the high prices charged for masks in 2020 violated public pricing regulations, potentially preventing suppliers from claiming those prices retroactively. However, she indicated that this argument has, to date, not yielded decisive success in the legal proceedings.
Currently, seven cases are pending before the Federal Court of Justice. The German government has been involved in 45 cases at the Regional Court of Bonn and 41 cases at the Higher Regional Court of Cologne. In total, the federal government procured 5.7 billion masks at a cost of €5.9 billion, but also left numerous suppliers facing setbacks, primarily due to reported delivery delays.