Online GmbH comes too late: “We finally have to dispose of our fax machines”

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A guest contribution by Astrid Plantiko, notary and co-owner of a law firm in Frankfurt am Main. It takes 18 minutes to set up a company in Estonia, in Germany it usually takes several weeks to months. This example shows more than clearly: We need a digital revolution in the notarial sector. The EU’s digitization directive has at least achieved that efforts are made to modernize – albeit late. Elsewhere, users can easily open bank accounts digitally, and court hearings can be conducted online. Hopefully, certain notarial transactions will also take place digitally in the next year when the law implementing the digitization directive comes into force on August 1, 2022 . Because that means: In Germany, the establishment of a limited liability company (GmbH) or an entrepreneurial company (limited liability) will finally be possible online. It was about time. In the neighboring country of Austria, it has been possible to set up a GmbH via the Internet since 2019, in Estonia since 2015.

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In notarial work, digitization should not only revolve around the online establishment of a GmbH, there are also enough other use cases. Meetings can already be carried out securely using certain communication software. Some notaries have already discovered this path for themselves – triggered and reinforced by the Corona crisis. A digital comparison of personal data with the identity card has been possible for a long time. Electronic signatures enable reliable identification. An online registration in the commercial register or the establishment of a GmbH saves time for all parties. After the online appointment, the documents are already digitally available and can be forwarded directly to the registry courts. This streamlines the workload and relieves everyone involved.

The current status: Print out the PDF and certify it in paper form

But: The digitization guideline does not mean that everyday life for notaries will also become more digital. In all other areas there will continue to be an unspeakable paperwork and waste of resources. An example: clients ask for certified copies as PDF every day, but creating certified copies electronically and thus saving work and paper is not planned in Germany. The whole procedure is taken to absurdity if a purely electronically created document with electronic certification from countries such as Estonia is not recognized in Germany. Because in this country, due to different digitization standards, a paper form is required that does not even exist in the original. That costs time, paper and usually nerves on the part of the courts and the notaries anyway. So we have to print out a digital original and certify it in paper form – so we notaries confirm the backwardness with a seal. A sad testimony to a lack of future viability.

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If Germany wants to remain attractive for investors and founders, we need a complete rethink and reorganization of previous structures. Because the issues of data protection and technical security have to be dealt with if you want to find a solution. The biggest hurdles in digitization are an analog way of thinking paired with a lack of personnel and financial possibilities. Especially in the area of ​​justice and administration, we should finally dispose of our fax machines and do everything we can to advance digitization with decisive investments in IT and training. As long as the technical equipment with mobile hardware for judges, judicial officers and other employees in the judiciary and administration is not in place, we need not be surprised if Germany is finally left behind in terms of digitization.