A citizen of Potsdam recently made an unusual application to the City of Wolfsburg, requesting that Volkswagen’s trade licence be revoked. In support of his application, he argued that Volkswagen’s irresponsible conduct endangered the health of citizens and therefore rendered the company unfit to carry on a responsible business activity. (In Germany, this would not have been the first case where an individual or business was prohibited from carrying on a trade due to a lack of orderliness or reliability.)
However, the municipal authority rejected the application on the grounds that the applicant had failed to demonstrate any specific violation of his own subjective rights.
The citizen subsequently lodged a complaint with the Higher Administrative Court (OVG) of Lüneburg. The court likewise dismissed the complaint as inadmissible. According to Section 35(1), sentence 1 of the German Trade Regulation Act (Gewerbeordnung), the revocation of a trade licence may only be justified for the protection of the public interest and society as a whole, and not for the protection of the individual interests of third parties. The court further held that the state was already addressing harmful emissions through various regulatory measures. Consequently, in these circumstances, the applicant could not rely on his right to physical health as a basis for the requested action.
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