Overview
- Pure Fashion Agency told the Landgericht Bonn that March 2020 calls and emails with then-health minister Jens Spahn created a binding purchase and is seeking €287 million plus interest, a claim the company says now totals €464 million.
- The Federal Ministry of Health rejects that a contract was formed and argues it never accepted the supplier’s offer, making the central legal question whether the exchanged messages legally bound the state.
- Judges heard the case in June and the court set an expected ruling for 22 July, a date that will determine whether the government must pay the full claim, reject it, or order further evidence.
- The lawsuit comes as wider fallout from Spahn-era buying shows about 5.8 billion masks were bought for roughly €5.9 billion with large volumes left undistributed, judged low-quality, stored for legal evidence, or slated for disposal at added cost.
- Earlier courts have often sided with suppliers and the ministry now faces many similar claims plus ongoing storage and disposal expenses, raising the risk of substantial additional payouts and renewed political pressure over procurement choices.