Germany's highest civil court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit by two chain hotels over emergency business restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic and compensation schemes.
The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) upheld the northern city of Bremen's emergency restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus infections as lawful, and rejected the hotels' claim that a business compensation formula was unfair and inadequate.
The two Bremen hotels, both part of a larger nationwide hotel chain, argued that Bremen's compensation formula gave small- and mid-sized businesses an unfair advantage.
The lawsuit had demanded further financial compensation for losses suffered in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the pandemic and the city's orders closing hotels and restaurants.
The hotels argued that those measures were disproportionate and unlawful.
The judges on the Court of Justice disagreed, again ruling that the measures were constitutional and had also been "decisively mitigated by generous state aid programmes."
In the ruling, the court noted that the overall hotel chain had received a total of €73.6 million ($78.8 million) from public aid programmes and a loan of €47.5 million from the Economic Stabilization Fund.