[heipei]

One thing I still haven't completely figured out yet is the difference in liability between a UG (Haftungsbeschränkt) and Einzelunternehmen in Germany. As an Einzelunternehmen, you (as the sole proprietor) are liable with your private assets for any outstanding bills etc, I get that part. But is there anything else you're on the hook for? Am I'm missing something?

Let's say I started a SaaS company as an Einzelunternehmen. What's the risk for me personally since I can always spin up and immediately cancel cloud resources with hourly billing as customers come and go. I don't see a lot of financial risk in terms of customer churn. Again: What am I missing?

[arghwhat]

Customer and legal problems put you at great financial risk. E.g. customers get out of paying one way or another and you cannot cover operational costs, you lose customer data and get sued for damages, you screw up on GDPR and get fined, etc.

Bugs in your infrastructure could also cause you to accidentally spin up a shitton of instances far exceeding your operational budget, but that isn't the primary concern.

[heipei]

OK, I get that lawsuits would be a good example of "liability", but my question is this: Are you really not liable for the things you mentioned (GDPR, customer data) if you're the CEO of a UG/GmbH and it falls back on you because you're the one that designed the whole product?

[throwawayheyhey]

Only if they can prove that you willingly or carelessly neglected your duties as a CEO. These are very narrowly defined, though: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GmbH-Geschäftsführer-Haftung

[nik736]

There is also always the chance of getting sued. If you lose in court as a Einzelunternehmen, you personally will have problems If your UG or GmbH loses in court, you personally don't have any problems.