A German board member can make a business decision that fails and still have done nothing wrong. Section 93 of the Stock Corporation Act, the Aktiengesetz, says so: Eine Pflichtverletzung liegt nicht vor, wenn das Vorstandsmitglied bei einer unternehmerischen Entscheidung vernünftigerweise annehmen durfte, auf der Grundlage angemessener Information zum Wohle der Gesellschaft zu handeln. There is no breach of duty if the board member could reasonably assume that he was acting on the basis of appropriate information and for the good of the company. The rule goes back to the ARAG/Garmenbeck judgment of the Federal Court of Justice of 21 April 1997. Parliament wrote it into the law with the UMAG of 22 September 2005. The courts give a board einen weiten Handlungsspielraum, a wide room for action. That room includes accepting the danger of Fehlbeurteilungen und Fehleinschätzungen, misjudgments and wrong estimates. In 2022 the Federal Court of Justice applied the same principles to the criminal offense of breach of trust. A court asks what the board knew and how it decided at the time, from the ex ante view. The later outcome is not the test.