Liability within Corporate Groups

Corporate Groups are a common phenomenon in modern economic reality. Nearly all big international companies are organised as a group of companies made up of individual legal entities within one group managing parent or holding company. In such groups of incorporations, there is usually a separation between the management of the group - performed by the parent or holding company - and the everyday decisions of the subsidiaries. However, the parent company has managing power over its subsidiaries and the decisions of the subsidiaries are based often on a decision or an instruction from the parent company. In such case the subsidiaries do not only work exclusively for their own interests. The question arising is now: Who is liable for a suit against a subsidiary in such a Corporate Group?