In 2018, the German Constitutional Court decided that the search of the Volkswagen company’s law
firm and the seizure of documents generated in an internal investigation undertaken in order to defend
against US charges did not violate the company’s constitutional rights. In the following paper, this
decision is analysed from the point of view of EU Law. The main focus of the analysis is the EU law
on legal professional privilege. It will be shown that EU legal professional privilege is applicable in
national criminal procedure law under certain circumstances. Accordingly, it has a large impact on
the question of the seizure of documents generated in internal investigations in national criminal
procedure law and ought to have been taken into account in the Constitutional Court decision.