{"id":9834,"date":"2026-07-14T11:34:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T09:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigges.legal\/joint-liability-of-the-shipper-under-transportation-law-in-cases-of-fraud\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T11:46:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T09:46:00","slug":"joint-liability-of-the-shipper-under-transportation-law-in-cases-of-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigges.legal\/en\/joint-liability-of-the-shipper-under-transportation-law-in-cases-of-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Joint Liability of the Shipper Under Transportation Law in Cases of Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/tigges.legal\/en\/team-member\/dr-jan-hermeling\/\" data-type=\"team-mitglied\" data-id=\"1190\">Dr. Jan Hermeling<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As early as August of last year, the Higher Regional Court of Hamm (judgment of August 21, 2025, 18 U 101\/20) clarified: A shipper who receives indications that the purchase of goods underlying a shipment may be based on fraud must take action\u2014otherwise, the shipper may be found to have contributed to any theft-related losses that occur later. For shippers and logistics companies, this means that warning signs from the supply chain must not be ignored. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The liability of a (road) carrier is governed by Section 425 of the German Commercial Code (HGB) or Article 17 of the CMR; it is generally strict liability. However, contributory negligence on the part of the shipper may reduce the carrier\u2019s liability for damages. Such contributory negligence exists if the shipper receives information from the carrier that objectively indicates fraud in the transaction involving the goods and enables the shipper to prevent delivery.  <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the case underlying the decision of the Higher Regional Court of Hamm, the carrier informed the sender by email that \u201cno one\u201d at the supposed recipient\u2019s address knew anything about the shipment. In the court\u2019s view, this information was an objective warning sign that the order might not be genuine. The court deemed this to constitute contributory negligence and reduced the sender\u2019s claim for damages by one-third.  <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Obligations &amp; Risks for Shippers \/ Consignors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Senders are required to verify whether any red flags in the supply chain indicate potential fraud (e.g., \u201cRecipient is unaware,\u201d unclear warehouse address).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Failure to conduct an obvious verification (checking with the actual recipient, conducting internal compliance checks, instructing the carrier not to deliver for the time being) may be considered contributory negligence and could reduce the company\u2019s liability ratio.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Recommendations for Logistics Companies (Sender Role)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<ol start=\"1\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Establish an alert process: Any notification from the carrier indicating that the delivery address is questionable or, for example, that delivery should be made to a different address on short notice, must trigger an immediate and predefined verification and approval process (contact with the official headquarters, verification of customer data, and, if necessary, suspension of delivery).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Internal and External Communication Requirements: The relevant departments (Sales, Logistics, Compliance) must be informed; the carrier should be advised in advance of the situations in which he must seek instructions from his client.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Decisions &amp; Documentation: Record decisions made in response to such warnings in writing; as the ruling by the Higher Regional Court of Hamm shows, prompt and clearly documented decisions are crucial later on in determining whether contributory negligence exists and the extent of the reduction in damages.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A shipper who receives information suggesting that the purchase of goods underlying a shipment may be fraudulent must take action.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":9841,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,313,207],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-transport-and-logistics-law","category-transportrends"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigges.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigges.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigges.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigges.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigges.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigges.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9836,"href":"https:\/\/tigges.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9834\/revisions\/9836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigges.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigges.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigges.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigges.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}