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Article of 2007-06-13
Since 1 January 2007 the same formal requirements apply for business e-mails as already applied previously for business letters. The disclosure of business information such as the company name, addendum stating the legal form, place of business, commercial register number and the commercial court was made binding.
This ruling applies to companies limited by shares and all companies registered in the commercial register or falling under the code of commercial law.
It results from the legislation passed by the Federal Parliament on 10 November 2006 regarding the electronic commercial register, the register of cooperative societies and the business register.
Affected by this new ruling are external business dealings via e-mails, regardless of how many recipients the respective communication is sent to. The ruling extends to invoices, offers, confirmations of orders and enquiries, order forms and delivery notes as well as receipts. The only exceptions that apply are notifications and reports which are exchanged as completed forms within an existing business relationship. Order forms must, however, always contain the above-mentioned information.
The observance of the requirements applies to every affected businessman according to his legal form. Otherwise, a limited liability company for instance must reckon with a penalty payment of up to 5000 euros. Failure to comply with the provisions can result for all companies in a warning because of unfair competition.
Sources include - http://www.akademie.de/fuehrung-organisation/recht-und-finanzen/
tipps/recht/gesetzliche-formvorschriften-fuer-geschaeftliche-e-mails.html
http://www.luebeckonline.com/news/news/id/206.html
Article of 2007-05-25
Irish (Gaeilge) has been included in the catalogue of official languages of the EU as of 1 January 2007. Bulgarian and Romanian were also recognised as EU official languages as a result of the entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the EU on 01.01.07.
Irish (Gaeilge) has been included in the catalogue of official languages of the EU as of 1 January 2007. Bulgarian and Romanian were also recognised as EU official languages as a result of the entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the EU on 01.01.07.
There are now 23 official languages in the EU for 27 member countries:
> Bulgarian (BG)
> Czech (CS)
> Danish (DA)
> Dutch (NL)
> English (EN)
> Estonian (ET)
> Finnish (FI)
> French (FR)
> German (DE)
> Greek (EL)
> Hungarian (HU)
> Irish (Gaeilge)
> Italian (IT)
> Latvian (LV)
> Lithuanian (LT)
> Maltese (MT)
> Polish (PL)
> Portuguese (PT)
> Romanian (RO)
> Slovakian (SK)
> Slovenian (SL)
> Spanish (ES)
> Swedish (SV)
Source:
http://www.eiz-niedersachsen.de/eu-amtssprachen.html
The official languages are important with regard to communication between institutions of the EU and the member states. For example, the legislation of the EU is drafted in all official languages. Every citizen of the European Union has a right to communication with the political institutions of the EU in the/one of the official language(s) of his native country.
The official languages also play a role in the implementation of EU Directives. For example, if German products requiring labelling with the CE mark of conformity are exported to another EU country, the appropriate technical documentation must normally be drafted in at least one of the official languages of the EU and the instructions for use must be available in the user language.
Source:
http://www.magdeburg.ihk24.de/produktmarken/innovation/
InnovationTechnologie/CEKennzeichnung.jsp
http://www.bis-handwerk.de/Standardmodule/
Download/GetDocument_neu.asp?document=1737
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