2021 TSMA

35 which are far bigger than those experienced during the 2008 global financial crisis. It may still be too early to look back and to talk about lessons I learnt during the so-called period of the ‘new normal’ which in my personal view is anything else but normal…... Yet I want to touch on certain specific topics, which popped up during the last few months in the course of my legal work for numerous individual corporate clients within and beyond the sporting goods sector. Given the fact that I am located in Ger- many, naturally my focus is European, yet at least several of the topics covered by this article, may well be relevant also in other parts of the world including Asia. Supply Chain Interruptions because of the Corona Crisis and its Implications In particular during the first months of the crisis, it became obvious how vulnerable supply chains became, and that these issues were affecting all commercial actors from the producers of raw materi- als, components, assemblers, wholesale and retail operations up to the point of sale to end consumers. Numerous inquiries I received from my clients dealt with the question, which legal consequences does a temporary interruption or substantial delay of supply and deliveries have in terms of rendering it im- possible for a commercial operator to observe existing delivery obligations for a certain period of time? Can a contract party e.g. request that agreements are to be adjusted, modified or even cancelled in the light of the present national/global pandemic crisis? From a pure legal point of view it turned out that quite a number of written agreements, general business terms and other contractual arrangements - if existing at all -were deficient and did not spec- ify how to deal with these force majeure scenarios. In several European countries including Germany statutory laws remain silent in this area or did not cover pandemic infections. If e.g. no written frame- work purchase agreements or the like existed, which were specifically treating these topics, it remained unclear and ambiguous, what the legal consequences would be. Quite complex issues came up, such as can a brand e.g. initiate back-up purchases and charge the additional cost to the supplier? Which laws are applicable in commercial cross-border transactions