Law & Compliance

The subject area comprises economic law as the totality of all legal norms and measures under private law, criminal law and public law with which the state influences the legal relationships of those involved in economic life with each other and in relation to the state.  Economic law is the generic term for the law of economic transactions as well as the legal basis of economic policy. Specifically, economic law includes economic constitutional law, economic administrative law, private economic law and economic criminal law. At the international level, the economy is regulated by international economic law.

Of particular importance is the data protection law reformed by the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO), which the members of the VDA are implementing for their companies and also for motor vehicles, whose digital services and networking are leading to increased data collection and processing. Here, it is necessary to develop the appropriate framework conditions in national and EU data protection law for the very innovatively developing technology. To this end, the VDA is also in ongoing contact with the data protection authorities of the federal and state governments.

In the above mentioned legal areas, the VDA accompanies the legislation, analyzes the corresponding proposals of laws, regulations and directives, especially in Germany and the EU. In coordination with the members, statements are developed and made available to the politically acting institutions.

The subject area does not comprise a separate "consumer protection law" that would regulate all issues of consumer law. Legal norms that mainly or "incidentally" serve consumer protection objectives exist in a great many individual laws. Often, the objectives of consumer protection also overlap with other objectives. This is because the consumer is considered a "consumer" only in certain social contexts. The same individuals may be exposed to the same hazard in a different context, e.g., as employees. A regulation governing the handling of a certain product can therefore serve both occupational safety and consumer protection, and possibly also environmental protection. As a legal field, consumer protection cannot be clearly delimited.

For the automotive industry, the focus is on the informed and self-determined customer. This applies in particular to contractual relationships that are often established at the dealership, for example in the case of purchase, financing or leasing contracts. Here, the dealership is obliged to provide information and advice regarding the vehicle, but also regarding the financial services brokered. The customer should then be able to drive his vehicle safely, in an environmentally friendly manner and comfortably. Furthermore, the financing of the vehicle should be designed in such a way that the customer can use this form of mobility without restriction.

The VDA is in favour of an efficient protection system for intellectual property. At the same time, manufacturers and suppliers must be entitled to access to technologies that are exclusively defined in international standards.  A current problem in international patent protection is the treatment of ‘standard essential patents’ (SEPs), particularly in the field of information technologies.

The EU is planning to regulate the licensing of SEPs for the first time by means of a regulation (SEP Regulation), which is currently being discussed in Parliament and the Council. SEPs play a key role in the field of information and communication technology (ICT). The SEPs for networking technology are owned by international ICT companies, which incorporate their technologies into radio standards such as 5G with patent protection. The automotive industry is absolutely dependent on the use of SEPs, which must also be licensed to manufacturers and suppliers for competitive reasons in accordance with FRAND principles. The draft SEP Regulation is primarily aimed at greater transparency for the SEPs to be licensed. However, the draft regulation does not provide any further definition of the FRAND principles. The VDA is in favour of the adoption of the SEP Regulation.

Negotiations on SEP licences are conducted bilaterally between SEP holders and companies in the automotive industry, sometimes also within the framework of the globally operating patent pool ‘AVANCI’, which is based in the USA. A major criticism of AVANCI's conduct of negotiations is the lack of transparency for interested licence holders. Leading automotive industry associations in Germany, the EU, France, Japan, South Korea and the USA have therefore sent a joint letter to AVANCI calling for more transparency in AVANCI's licensing process (see attachment). The associations expressly refer to the transparency requirements of the planned EU SEP Regulation. The automotive industry associations see a minimum level of transparency as a prerequisite for the granting of licences under FRAND conditions. The VDA advocates favourable framework conditions for the licensing of SEPs. Negotiations on the content of licence agreements are a matter for the individual member companies.