German cabinet adopts second deregulation package

Relieves businesses and citizens by around €600m per year (cumulatively over €10bn since Nov 2025); the GeDIG law digitalizes healthcare (approx. €445m/year), merger procedures are accelerated, notification duties reduced

On 15 July 2026, the German cabinet adopted a package of measures in its second 'relief cabinet' session: including the GeDIG health data and digital innovation law (digital referrals and medication plans), simplified company acquisitions with fewer notifications and faster merger procedures, a modernization of cooperative law, and relaxed public-holiday truck driving bans. Update (15 Jul 2026): Part of the package is a transport relief package from the Federal Transport Ministry, consisting of a law and an ordinance, which is meant to relieve business, citizens and administration by about EUR 65 million a year in total. It includes, among other things, scrapping the nationwide expertise test for taxi and hire-car drivers (the Länder decide for themselves), digital proof documents for long combination lorries, abolition of the inconsistent holiday driving bans, faster changes to rail carriage conditions without state approval, deemed-granted permits in inland shipping where authorities let deadlines pass, and fewer duplicate checks for railway test experts. (LOK Report, 15 Jul 2026)