This study analyses the bureaucratic burden caused by regulations of the EU, central government, federal states and municipalities in the German machinery and equipment manufacturing industry. Based on a case study method with three owner-managed companies this research quantifies exactly the cost of bureaucracy in the day-to-day business. The results vary significantly across the different companies, which was shown also in a previous study: The cost of bureaucracy is 1.3 % of sales for the biggest company in the study and around 6.0 % of sales for the smallest company. The distribution of these bureaucratic costs across different functional areas, however, is similar in all three companies. Especially the regulations in occupational safety, and accounting, taxes and customs require substantial financial and human resources. The two responsible ministries in these areas, Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and Federal Ministry of Finance, do not account for the greatest number of regulations. However, they do cause the highest bureaucracy costs in the three companies