German, Greek and International Transport Law

Under German law, transport law and the individual contract types are governed by the Commercial Code (§§ 407 et seq. HGB); under Greek law, the corresponding rules are found in the Greek Commercial Code (Royal Decree 19/1835), which contains provisions on carriage and freight-forwarding transactions in Articles 90–94 and 100–107, and, more specifically for carrier liability, in Articles 97 et seq., in particular Articles 102–105 and 107.

Contracts of carriage and freight-forwarding contracts

Under a contract of carriage, the carrier undertakes to transport the goods to the place of destination and deliver them there to the consignee. A freight-forwarding contract (§§ 453 et seq. HGB), by contrast, is a special type of agency contract under which the freight forwarder undertakes, for remuneration, the organisation and arrangement of carriage of goods; additional services such as insurance, packaging, marking, or customs handling may be agreed individually. In Germany, freight-forwarding contracts are, in practice, governed by the General German Freight Forwarders’ Standard Terms and Conditions (ADSp). In Greece, there is no dedicated statutory codification of the freight-forwarding contract; it is treated as a sui generis agency contract under the general provisions of civil law and the industry-standard general terms and conditions of freight forwarders (Γενικοί Όροι Διαμεταφοράς), and, for cross-border transport, by the relevant international transport conventions. The difference from the carrier is that the carrier itself owes the actual carriage, whereas the freight forwarder undertakes its organisation.

The intermodal transport contract (§§ 452–452d HGB)

The intermodal transport contract (“combined transport”) links different modes of transport into a single, continuous transport chain without a change of transport unit — the most practically significant example being container traffic. A distinction is drawn between self-contained loading units (e.g. roll-on/roll-off, piggyback, or barge traffic) and non-self-contained loading units. A single, unified contract of carriage is not required for this purpose.

The warehousing contract

The warehousing contract is governed under German law by §§ 467 et seq. HGB; under Greek law, corresponding rules — alongside the bailment provisions of the Civil Code — are found in Law 3077/1954 (“On General Warehouses”), which, despite its age, remains in force today and was most recently amended in part by Article 161 of Law 4512/2018. It governs, in particular, the licensing, operation, and pledging of stored goods by means of warehouse receipts. The German rules govern in particular the type, condition, quantity, and packaging of the stored goods, as well as the storage period, warehouse documents, and remuneration; the HGB also contains provisions on warehouse receipts, liability, lien, and limitation periods.

Maritime transport law and transport insurance

German maritime law is governed by §§ 476 et seq. HGB, most recently comprehensively reformed in 2013; the law of maritime carriage is characterised by extensive freedom of contract, and international agreements such as the Hague Rules additionally apply. As part of the 2013 reform, the substantive standards of international conventions — in particular the Hague-Visby Rules — were incorporated directly into §§ 481 et seq. HGB. Transport insurance for inland and inland-waterway transport in Germany is governed by the Insurance Contract Act (VVG) and the general insurance conditions for cargo insurance or hull insurance. German transport insurance law under the VVG covers two main areas: carrier liability insurance, governed by §§ 100 et seq. VVG in conjunction with the DTV model conditions (DTV-VHV); and transport insurance in the narrower sense (§ 130 VVG), which covers damage to the goods carried (cargo insurance, subsection 1) or to the means of transport itself (hull insurance, subsection 2).

International transport law

In cross-border carriage of goods, the national provisions of the HGB are displaced by several international conventions:

• CMR: the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road applies mandatorily where the country of departure or of destination is a contracting state; Germany and Greece are both CMR member states. It governs liability, consignment notes, and time limits for claims.
• COTIF: an international treaty on the international carriage of goods by rail among the member states of the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF), headquartered in Bern, of which the EU has itself been a contracting party in its own right since 2011.
• Montreal Convention (MC): the Warsaw Convention of 1929 for international carriage by air has largely been superseded by the Montreal Convention, signed in 1999, to which both Germany and Greece are contracting states; within the EU, Regulation (EC) No 2027/97 additionally applies.
• CMNI: the Budapest Convention governs the international carriage of goods on inland waterways where the port of loading or discharge is in different states and at least one of them is a contracting state; Greece is not a contracting state, owing to its lack of continuously navigable inland waterways, while Germany is.
• Hague Rules: the 1924 convention for the unification of certain rules relating to bills of lading sets out uniform rules on the carrier’s liability towards the shipper.