A founder reportedly paid a €30,000 German notary fee to have a 90-page investment contract read aloud, a session required by law.
Stripe CEO Patrick Collison asked the founder whether the horror stories about German startup bureaucracy were exaggerated, only to fin out that they are understated. The founder’s first company paid the bill and lost the day. His second company was incorporated somewhere else.
Why a German Notary Fee Can Reach €30,000
The rule sits in Section 13 of the Beurkundungsgesetz, Germany’s notarization law. A notary must read the full deed aloud, get approval from everyone in the room, and collect handwritten signatures.
Funding rounds get caught because the standard German company, the GmbH, cannot transfer shares or raise capital without a notarized deed.
The price is set by the state, not the notary. A second law ties the fee to the size of the deal. The Higher Regional Court of Karlsruhe recently upheld a ruling that blessed a €63,110.85 reading fee on a €7 million funding round.
Small deals stay cheap. A German founder told BeInCrypto his own session lasted 90 minutes and cost €590 including tax. His complaint was the ritual, not the bill.
“Because you receive the contract beforehand and we all have access to AI today, I do not really feel that it helped me understand something I would not have been able to understand with AI. So, in my opinion, it is an outdated model.”
Crypto firms know the pattern. Germany leads the EU in MiCA licenses, yet its crypto startups are leaving, and smaller firms say compliance costs under MiCA outweigh the benefits.
Can Brussels Fix It?
Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham said that US investors close on a standardized SAFE, a simple agreement for future equity, after checking only the names and the numbers.
Just Eat Takeaway founder Jitse Groen said his own Lieferando reading ran through the night and cost an estimated €200,000.
The European Commission has proposed a fix. EU Inc., an optional EU-wide company form unveiled in March, promises fully digital formation within 48 hours.
One clause is the flashpoint. Article 14 of the draft still lets member states keep notarial control over company documents.
Collison has skin in this fight. Five days before his post, he launched the Rhine Group with former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi to push European competitiveness reforms.
Whether notaries survive the EU Inc. talks will decide if the reading ritual retires or simply moves online.
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