Legal terms — without legalese.
Short, clear, with links to matching use cases. Each entry shows jurisdiction (DE / AT / CH).
- Abmahnung (formal cease-and-desist warning)Out-of-court demand to stop a specific conduct — usually combined with a cease-and-desist declaration and lawyer's fees.
- Action brief / action planStructured 3-phase action plan for a document that has already been analyzed — today, this week, mid-term.
- Amount in disputeThe monetary value at stake in a legal dispute — it determines court and attorney fees as well as which court has jurisdiction.
- Base interest rateThe interest rate announced by the Deutsche Bundesbank on January 1st and July 1st of each year — it serves as the basis for default interest.
- Bußgeldbescheid (administrative fine notice)Official notice imposing a fine for a regulatory offense — objection period: 2 weeks from service.
- Buy-out (copyright)Lump-sum settlement of all usage rights in a work — usually worth a critical review in the creative sector.
- Cease-and-desist declaration (Unterlassungserklärung)Binding promise, backed by a contractual penalty, to refrain from a specific conduct in the future.
- Contract revisionStructured revision of an existing contract — targeted changes instead of redrafting, with a traceable redline.
- Contractual penaltyA payment agreed in the contract for the event of a breach — due without any proof of damage.
- DeadlineA period or cut-off date by which you must do something, such as reply, object or pay. If you miss it, you can lose rights.
- Default (Verzug)Anyone who fails to provide a due payment or service despite a reminder (or a fixed deadline) is in default — from that point on, default interest can be claimed.
- DPA (data processing agreement, German AVV)Contract under Art. 28 GDPR between controller and processor — mandatory for any processing carried out on behalf of another.
- EN 16931European standard for the electronic invoice.
- GDPR right of accessEvery data subject's right to request information about the data processed about them (Art. 15 GDPR).
- Leitweg-IDRouting identifier for e-invoices to public authorities.
- Mahnbescheid (court payment order)Court-issued payment order in the automated dunning procedure — with a 14-day objection period.
- NDA (non-disclosure agreement)Contract in which the parties commit to confidentiality regarding the information they exchange.
- ObjectionA statement with which you defend yourself against a payment order or an authority's decision, usually within a short deadline.
- Peppol BIS Billing 3Invoice specification based on EN 16931 in UBL format.
- Probationary periodAgreed initial period of an employment relationship of a maximum of six months, during which notice of termination can be given with a notice period of two weeks.
- Protection against dismissal (Kündigungsschutz)Statutory protection against socially unjustified dismissal in businesses with more than 10 employees.
- Redline (contract markup)Visibly traceable marking of every change in a contract — deletions struck through, insertions highlighted in color.
- Rent reduction (Mietminderung)The tenant's right to reduce the rent appropriately when the rented property is defective (§ 536 BGB).
- Right of withdrawalConsumer right to withdraw from a contract concluded online within 14 days without giving reasons.
- Self-support reserve (Selbstbehalt)The amount that a person liable for maintenance must be left with from their income as a minimum.
- Statement of defenseThe defendant's written reply to a lawsuit: it responds to the allegations and sets out its own arguments and evidence.
- XRechnungGerman standard for the pure XML e-invoice based on EN 16931.
- ZUGFeRD / Factur-XHybrid format: readable PDF with embedded XML.
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