Clauses de modification unilatérale des conditions générales des banques
Revue de l’approche suisse à l’occasion d’un revirement de jurisprudence allemande
The use of General Terms and Conditions (GTC) is essential for the rational management of banking business – to the benefit of both banks and their customers. Over the often lengthy duration of a banking relationship, it is also important that these GTC can be adapted. In general, a change to the GTC is a change to the contract and should be made in accordance with the general rules. Swiss law, however, allows this to be done in a less bureaucratic way, namely through unilateral amendment clauses combined with a right of immediate termination for the contracting party. Until very recently, German law was as accommodating as Swiss law, but the German Supreme Court has just declared such an approach unlawful. Given the relevance of this issue to Swiss practice, it would seem useful to analyse whether the arguments of the German Supreme Court call for a reassessment of the Swiss approach. In the view of the authors, this is not the case.
