{"id":10399,"date":"2025-12-17T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T05:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/honert.de\/?p=10399"},"modified":"2025-12-17T14:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T12:32:08","slug":"vesting-clauses-in-employee-participation-programs-put-to-the-test-a-follow-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/vesting-clauses-in-employee-participation-programs-put-to-the-test-a-follow-up\/","title":{"rendered":"VESTING CLAUSES IN EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION PROGRAMS PUT TO THE TEST \u2013 A FOLLOW-UP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-4choal8-ec556779048ed89d8043bee7b6b6b6b7\">\n.avia-section.av-4choal8-ec556779048ed89d8043bee7b6b6b6b7{\nbackground-repeat:no-repeat;\nbackground-image:url(https:\/\/honert.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/3629.jpg);\nbackground-position:0% 0%;\nbackground-attachment:scroll;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div id='av_section_1'  class='avia-section av-4choal8-ec556779048ed89d8043bee7b6b6b6b7 main_color avia-section-default avia-no-shadow  avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_section  avia-builder-el-first  hide_on_print avia-full-stretch avia-bg-style-scroll av-minimum-height av-minimum-height-40 av-height-40  container_wrap sidebar_right'  data-section-bg-repeat='stretch' data-av_minimum_height_pc='40' data-av_min_height_opt='40'><div class='container av-section-cont-open' ><main  role=\"main\" itemprop=\"mainContentOfPage\"  class='template-page content  av-content-small alpha units'><div class='post-entry post-entry-type-page post-entry-10399'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'>\n<\/div><\/div><\/main><!-- close content main element --><\/div><\/div><div id='av_section_2'  class='avia-section av-eja3lo-612f03e802db481fa43f0b718ee10d37 main_color avia-section-default avia-no-shadow  avia-builder-el-1  el_after_av_section  avia-builder-el-last  avia-bg-style-scroll container_wrap sidebar_right'  ><div class='container av-section-cont-open' ><div class='template-page content  av-content-small alpha units'><div class='post-entry post-entry-type-page post-entry-10399'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-3d6dekc-c136ad5e97379238c4b1823b3558c6f6\">\n.flex_column.av-3d6dekc-c136ad5e97379238c4b1823b3558c6f6{\nborder-radius:0px 0px 0px 0px;\npadding:0px 0px 0px 0px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='flex_column av-3d6dekc-c136ad5e97379238c4b1823b3558c6f6 av_two_third  avia-builder-el-2  el_before_av_two_third  avia-builder-el-first  first flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding  '     ><style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-mj9y83oz-fd3d712db14fcce7b1030c8ad6c5165c\">\n#top .av-special-heading.av-mj9y83oz-fd3d712db14fcce7b1030c8ad6c5165c{\npadding-bottom:10px;\n}\nbody .av-special-heading.av-mj9y83oz-fd3d712db14fcce7b1030c8ad6c5165c .av-special-heading-tag .heading-char{\nfont-size:25px;\n}\n.av-special-heading.av-mj9y83oz-fd3d712db14fcce7b1030c8ad6c5165c .av-subheading{\nfont-size:15px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='av-special-heading av-mj9y83oz-fd3d712db14fcce7b1030c8ad6c5165c av-special-heading-h1 blockquote modern-quote  avia-builder-el-3  avia-builder-el-no-sibling '><div class='av-subheading av-subheading_above'>17. December 2025\n<\/div><h1 class='av-special-heading-tag '  itemprop=\"headline\"  >VESTING CLAUSES IN EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION PROGRAMS PUT TO THE TEST \u2013 A FOLLOW-UP<\/h1><div class=\"special-heading-border\"><div class=\"special-heading-inner-border\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-32yb8e4-f08b38c89b27486d0fbbbf8db21b96fc\">\n.flex_column.av-32yb8e4-f08b38c89b27486d0fbbbf8db21b96fc{\nborder-radius:0px 0px 0px 0px;\npadding:0px 0px 0px 0px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='flex_column av-32yb8e4-f08b38c89b27486d0fbbbf8db21b96fc av_two_third  avia-builder-el-4  el_after_av_two_third  el_before_av_two_third  first flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding  column-top-margin'     ><section  class='av_textblock_section av-mj9yaew5-3f59a5eb7afec5aaf68ec03c5d95efdc '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><p><strong>In July, we already discussed the new ruling by the German Federal Labour Court (BAG) regarding virtual share option rights (ESOP \/ VSOP). The now published written judgments with full reasoning provide further insight into the landmark decisions from March and warrant renewed analysis. In its reasoning, the BAG emphasizes that virtual share options are to be regarded as consideration for work performed and that, when deciding whether and to what extent such rights are to be taken into account in calculating non\u2011compete compensation, the decisive factor is the purpose of that compensation \u2013 to safeguard the employee\u2019s previous standard of living.<\/strong><!--more--><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-2h23gm4-ea6092fcbd209cff43fef432e8955d8d\">\n.flex_column.av-2h23gm4-ea6092fcbd209cff43fef432e8955d8d{\nborder-radius:0px 0px 0px 0px;\npadding:0px 0px 0px 0px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='flex_column av-2h23gm4-ea6092fcbd209cff43fef432e8955d8d av_two_third  avia-builder-el-6  el_after_av_two_third  el_before_av_one_third  first flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding  column-top-margin'     ><section  class='av_textblock_section av-mj9yjjqw-e6c2ac9590f75bb826021af0be8908fd '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><h2>I. Introduction and Recap<\/h2>\n<p>In our newsletter dated <a href=\"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/vesting-clauses-in-employee-participation-programs-put-to-the-test\/\">16 July 2025<\/a>, we discussed two decisions by the BAG regarding employee participation programs. At that time, the written judgments with full reasoning had not yet been published, and a conclusive assessment could not be provided. With this follow-up article, we now aim to provide such assessment.<br \/>\nEmployee participation programs granting option rights (VSOPs \/ ESOPs) aim to promote long\u2011term employee retention and incentivize performance and commitment. In addition to monthly remuneration, the employee typically is granted the right to receive a future payment from the company, the amount of which is linked to the company\u2019s performance and depends on the occurrence of certain exercise events. The number of options earned generally depends on how long the employee has been working for the company. Over a certain period, and upon completion of defined intervals (for example, monthly or quarterly), the employee gradually \u201cearns\u201d option rights. These earned (or \u201cvested\u201d) option rights may later be exercised upon the occurrence of an agreed event, such as a company \u201cexit\u201d or an IPO, thereby giving rise to a payment claim.<\/p>\n<h2>II. Invalidity of Forfeiture Clauses<\/h2>\n<p>The first decision (BAG judgment of 19 March 2025 \u2013 Az. 10 AZR 67\/24) concerned agreements under which the employee could earn option rights over a total period of four years. The dispute concerned the validity of the forfeiture clauses for the option rights. Among other things, it was agreed that the employee would lose all option rights in the event of resignation. It was further agreed that, following termination of employment, the vested option rights would begin to lapse gradually after three\u202fmonths and would fully expire after twenty\u2011four\u202fmonths. The BAG deemed both clauses to be invalid.<br \/>\nWith regard to the first forfeiture clause, the BAG concluded that the provision unreasonably disadvantages the employee and does not sufficiently take the employee\u2019s interests into account; the clause does not consider the reason for the employee\u2019s resignation and would also apply in cases where the resignation was prompted by a breach of contract on the part of the employer. The court considered this a restriction on the employee\u2019s right to terminate the employment relationship.<br \/>\nAccording to the court, the vested option rights earned are remuneration within the meaning of Section 611a para 2 of the German Civil Code (<em>B\u00fcrgerliches Gesetzbuch<\/em> \u2013 BGB) for work performed by the employee. Once the work has been performed, the employer owes the agreed remuneration, regardless of whether the employee continues to be employed by the company. The court reached this conclusion because of the close connection between the vesting of option rights and the employee\u2019s entitlement to remuneration; for example, periods of incapacity for work, parental leave, or unpaid leave are disregarded for vesting purposes. This conclusion is not contradicted by the fact that the employee\u2019s work only indirectly influences the company\u2019s value. The same applies to other forms of remuneration such as profit-based bonuses or profit-sharing arrangements. In those cases, too, a direct impact on the company\u2019s success is not required, even though the special remuneration depends on it. By contrast, it can be assumed that the forfeiture of option rights that are not yet vested is permissible, since no work has yet been performed by the employee for such option rights.<br \/>\nHowever, the court emphasized that forfeiture provisions for vested options are not per se unreasonable. The employer\u2019s interest in limiting or precluding an employee\u2019s claims arising from option rights, where there is no longer a connection between the work performed and the company\u2019s success, is justified. This might be the case, for example, when an employee leaves the company several years before the trigger event that gives rise to the payment claims from option rights occurs. However, according to the BAG, there is not yet such a lack of connection between the work performed and the company\u2019s success at the moment of termination. Immediate forfeiture of vested options upon resignation therefore disproportionately interferes with the employee\u2019s constitutionally protected freedom to choose an occupation (article 12 para. 1 of the German Constitution (<em>Grundgesetz<\/em> \u2013 GG), as it unduly restricts the employee\u2019s ability to exercise their right to termination.<br \/>\nThe court also considered the gradual forfeiture of vested options unreasonable. As mentioned above, the court recognizes the employer&#8217;s legitimate interest in not granting option rights for an indefinite period, as the influence of a former employee\u2019s work performance on the company\u2019s success diminishes over time. However, it must be ensured \u2013 and this is what the court takes issue with in the present case \u2013 that the respective periods for acquiring the option rights and their expiry are proportionate to each other. The BAG held that there is an unreasonable disadvantage to the employee if option rights can only be exercised after one year, but expire just three months after leaving the company. The same applies to the overall time frame for vesting and expiry of option rights. If, as in the present case, the option rights are vested over a period of 48 months but expire within 24 months of leaving the company, i.e., twice as fast as they were vested, this violates the principle of proportionality. Employees must retain their consideration for at least as long as it took them to acquire it.<\/p>\n<h2>III. Consideration of Virtual Options in Non-Compete Compensation<\/h2>\n<p>The second decision (BAG judgment of 27 March 2025 \u2013 Az. 8 AZR 453\/21) involved a similar employee participation program. Here too, the employee had to remain employed at this employer for a four-year vesting period and was then entitled to exercise vested options in the event of a company sale. The dispute, however, concerned whether and to what extent the option payments should be included in calculating non-compete compensation. The parties had agreed on a post-contractual non-compete clause for which the employer owed compensation under section 74 para. 2 of the German Commercial Code (<em>Handelsgesetzbuch<\/em> \u2013 HGB). Under this provision, the employee is entitled, for the duration of the restriction, to half of the remuneration last received under the employment contract. The employee exercised option rights both before and after the termination of his employment and received payments on each occasion. However, the employer did not take into account such payments for the calculation of the non\u2011compete compensation. The employee challenged this and was partially successful, succeeding only with regard to the options exercised before termination.<br \/>\nThe BAG held that, when calculating non\u2011compete compensation under sections 74\u202fet\u202fseqq.\u202fHGB, benefits from virtual stock options are to be considered only to the extent that the corresponding options were exercised during employment. Payments received for options exercised after termination must be disregarded. The BAG did not consider a payment received after termination to constitute contractual remuneration within the meaning of section\u202f74b\u202fpara.\u202f2\u202fHGB.<br \/>\nIn its reasoning, the BAG relied on the wording of section 74\u202fpara. 2\u202fHGB as well as on the purpose of the non\u2011compete compensation. Under section 74b\u202fpara. 2\u202fHGB, the amount of compensation in cases of variable remuneration is determined on the basis of the average earnings of the last three years of employment. The purpose of the compensation is to secure the standard of living that the employee has attained through previous employment. If an option right has only been vested but not yet exercised, it has not yet affected the employee\u2019s standard of living. Whether the employee will be able to exercise the option rights in the future and whether they will in fact result in income depends on unforeseeable factors. Moreover, the exact value of the option rights at the end of the employment relationship would be difficult to determine.<\/p>\n<h2>IV. Outlook and Practical Implications<\/h2>\n<p>As discussed in our previous article, these decisions are of considerable practical importance. Employee participation programs are a popular tool, particularly in the start-up and venture capital sectors, offering attractive incentives for all parties involved. The recent rulings once again underscore the importance of sound and careful structuring of participation plans. Existing employee participation programs should be reviewed in light of the new case law, and vesting provisions adjusted where necessary.<br \/>\nAt the same time, some questions remain unanswered, for example, whether the new case law also applies to option rights granted in group structures, where employees of a domestic subsidiary receive options from a foreign parent company with which they have no direct employment relationship. Further developments in this area will therefore be followed with interest.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-88z8kc-0c30e94e3ebc256b038f0df3af92e3b6\">\n.flex_column.av-88z8kc-0c30e94e3ebc256b038f0df3af92e3b6{\nborder-radius:0px 0px 0px 0px;\npadding:7px 0px 0px 0px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='flex_column av-88z8kc-0c30e94e3ebc256b038f0df3af92e3b6 av_one_third  avia-builder-el-8  el_after_av_two_third  avia-builder-el-last  sy-only-desktop hide_on_print flex_column_div  column-top-margin'     ><p><div  class='avia-builder-widget-area clearfix  avia-builder-el-9  el_before_av_textblock  avia-builder-el-first '><section id=\"categories-3\" class=\"widget clearfix widget_categories\"><h3 class=\"widgettitle\">Newsletter issues<\/h3>\n\t\t\t<ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t<li class=\"cat-item cat-item-272\"><a href=\"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/category\/2026-q1\/\">2026 Q1<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\t<li class=\"cat-item cat-item-267\"><a 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itemprop=\"text\" ><h2>Downloads<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"#\" onclick=\"window.print();return false\">Print<\/a><br \/>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"dkpdf-button-container\" style=\" text-align:left \">\n\n\t\t<a class=\"dkpdf-button\" href=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10399?pdf=10399\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"dkpdf-button-icon\"><i class=\"fa fa-file-pdf-o\"><\/i><\/span> Download (PDF)<\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><!-- close content main div --><\/div><\/div><div id='after_section_2'  class='main_color av_default_container_wrap container_wrap sidebar_right'  ><div class='container av-section-cont-open' ><div class='template-page content  av-content-small alpha units'><div class='post-entry post-entry-type-page post-entry-10399'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In July, we already discussed the new ruling by the German Federal Labour Court (BAG) regarding virtual share option rights (ESOP \/ VSOP). The now published written judgments with full reasoning provide further insight into the landmark decisions from March and warrant renewed analysis. In its reasoning, the BAG emphasizes that virtual share options are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[267],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2025-q4-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10399"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10409,"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10399\/revisions\/10409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honert.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}