WilmerHale worked closely with Bitkom, the German Association for information technology, technology, telecommunications and new media, to develop a system that offers producers an efficient and economically attractive solution to providing the required insolvency-proof guarantee for financing the collection and disposal of all equipment that they sell on the German market.
Bitkom’s system aids to their common mission of working to improve the regulatory framework in Germany, modernize the education system, and promote innovation. Within a month of its launch, the system proved to be a tremendous success, covering 60% – 70% of the entire market volume and comprising all big market players such as IBM, HP, Siemens, Sony, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone. The system has been approved by the German Federal Cartel Office (BKartA), the German Authority for Financial Services (BaFin) and the German Agency for Electronic Waste (EAR).
Dr. Jörg Karenfort spearheaded the efforts of the WilmerHale team, along with Dr. Oliver Bugge, Dr. Heiner Feldhaus and Henning Grotelüschen.