When was a party “properly” summoned?

As mentioned earlier, proper summons can be carried out in two ways:

• Personal notification:
  The scheduling of the oral hearing must generally be carried out by personal notification of the known parties. If other persons are also considered parties, the hearing must also be announced by posting in the municipality or by publication in the newspaper designated for announcements or in the electronic official gazette of the authority.
• Double notification:
  To prevent preclusion consequences due to defective personal notification, there has been the possibility of conducting an oral hearing through so-called “double notification” for some time now – since the AVG amendment in 1998.

The conditions are that the oral hearing:

1.  is announced by posting in the municipality or by publication in the newspaper designated for announcements or in the electronic official gazette of the authority, and additionally
2. in a form provided for by the administrative regulations or – if no such form is provided for – in an appropriate form.

For example, Section 356 of the Trade Act provides for posting at the municipal notice board, publication on the authority’s website, posting on the company’s premises, and posting in neighboring houses of the company’s premises as special forms of notification. Notification is considered suitable if it is ensured that a party is likely to become aware of the hearing.