Protection of minority shareholders rights versus combating abusive use of shareholders rights from a European perspective

Abstract

The protection of the rights of minority shareholders is an important pillar of the European company law framework as well as of national company laws. Measures of the company law aim at the protection of the share of a minority shareholder as property and of the status as a shareholder with controlling rights. On the other hand, there is a legitimate interest of the company, other minority shareholders and majority shareholders that there are effective measures against the abusive use of shareholder rights. The following dissertation will assess this field of tension and how the European company law and national company laws, in particular those of Germany and Austria, try to solve the occurring problems.