Spahn's Mask Deals Could Cost German Taxpayers up to €10bn

Taken together, the €5.9bn ($6.8bn) in procurement costs, follow-up expenses, settlements, and possible further payments and interest could push the total burden on taxpayers close to €10bn ($11.5bn). Just how high the final figure turns out to be will depend largely on the outcome of the still-pending proceedings, for which the BGH's ruling is expected to set the direction. The verdict is scheduled to be announced on 15 December.

Too Many Masks Purchased

According to Germany's Federal Court of Auditors, the country's independent financial oversight body, the ministry ordered around 5.7 billion masks at the time, worth roughly €5.9bn ($6.8bn). The watchdog also found massive overprocurement, with more than two-thirds of the masks never used. By the end of 2023, follow-up costs for storage, logistics, quality checks and external consulting had climbed to €460m ($530m), and continued rising through 2024.

While the masks themselves have largely been disposed of by now, the dispute over the money continues. The federal government refused to accept or pay for numerous deliveries, citing late deliveries and quality defects, and many suppliers now consider the ministry's contract terminations invalid, insisting the contracts remain in force and demanding the agreed purchase price.

Taxpayers Face a Mounting Tab

The Health Ministry's mask purchases have already been before the courts multiple times, at considerable cost to German taxpayers. In one such case, the Cologne Higher Regional Court ordered the federal government in 2026 to pay around €220m ($254m), on top of which could come more than €100m ($115m) in interest, a figure not yet finally determined since the ruling is not yet legally binding. According to a response from the federal government, the German state has already paid out roughly €390m ($450m) across some 120 settlements and clarifying agreements related to the botched mask purchases.

The affair has had political fallout not only in court but also in the German Bundestag, though without consequences for those responsible at the time. Jens Spahn himself tried to justify the chaotic procurement effort before the Bundestag's COVID inquiry commission, arguing that other procurement bodies had initially struggled to secure any deliveries at all and that, given the possibility of further pandemic waves, extensive stockpiling had been necessary. In practice, various government bodies simultaneously ordered masks at grossly inflated prices that, in the end, no one needed.

The decision on the underlying legal questions now rests with the BGH, whose ruling will determine how much more must be paid out of the federal budget, and thus from taxpayer funds, over contracts for medical masks that were destroyed before they were ever paid for.

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