Internationales und ausländisches Recht

Trois modèles de contrôle des investissements transfrontaliers

The screening of foreign investment has become a growing concern for many countries. In the midst of a trade war between the US and China as well as issues related to state-owned companies’ interference in the EU, it is bound to become a subject of heated debates in Switzerland. As we continue to live through a global pandemic, some countries are seeing themselves lacking or at least vulnerable…

Banking and finance disputes: to arbitrate or not to arbitrate, that is the question

“It has been said that “[b]ankers have traditionally preferred judges to arbitrators”. Indeed, where banks or financial institutions are involved in a dispute, state courts have usually been preferred, while arbitration has, so far, often been overlooked. However, in the last decade, the financial landscape has endured colossal changes worldwide. The 2008 crisis led to a paradigm shift. Banks –…

Förderung der ökologischen und sozialen Verantwortung durch den Bund im öffentlichen Beschaffungswesen und in der Privatwirtschaft

The Federal government has committed itself to setting a good example in the Sustainable Development Strategy 2016–2019 and in the 2030 Agenda. Sustainable development is a constitutional mandate that must also be taken into consideration in public procurement procedures. The pressure from parliamentarians seems to be bearing fruit and accordingly, as part of the total revision of the Swiss…

Entreprises et droits humains – La directive européenne sur la publication d’informations non financières, un modèle à suivre en droit suisse?

Since 2014, a European Union directive requires large companies to publish non-financial information relating to human rights and other issues such as social and environmental challenges. Taking up a…

Seuils d’intervention ou examen ex post pour le contrôle des concentrations dans les marchés digitalisés?

Digital markets are open in principle. But network effects may rapidly favour the first successful entrant and establish high entry barriers for followers. In addition, the exchanges are often valued in data access rather than in traditional money terms. These characteristics challenge our merger control regimes. Mandatory notification systems are particularly vulnerable since merger projects in…

La digitalisation du point de vue des consommatrices et consommateurs

Digitalization from the consumer’s point of view can take several forms. Sharing economy, social networks, e-commerce: the digital world for consumers is a vast planet whose various aspects have to be understandable. And consumers cannot be summarized in only one category. This rapid development implies that our legislation must be adapted without hindering the ­dynamism of these markets…

Europareport

Im ABl. vom 14. Januar 2019 ist die neue Richtlinie (EU) 2019/1 des Europäischen Parlamentes und des Rates vom 11. Dezember 2018 bekannt gemacht worden. Diese Richtlinie enthält wichtige Harmonisierungsvorgaben für das nationale Wettbewerbsrecht der Mitgliedstaaten. Die EU-Mitgliedstaaten müssen diese Vorschriften nun bis zum 4. Februar 2021 in ihr eigenes Recht umsetzen.

Crowdinvesting mittels Initial Coin Offering – Regulierungsaufgaben im -Token-Universum

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are a phenomenon with similar characteristics as the cryptocurrency boom. Projects that typically have no history of producing a product or revenue raise capital by issuing their own tokens to investors. Therefore, the Federal Council adopted in December 2018 a report on the legal framework for blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) in the financial…

Fortress Europe: Die Äquivalenzverfahren der EU im Bereich der Finanzdienstleistungen

The European Union is by far the most important ­market for Swiss cross-border financial services. So far, the key strategy for market access has been to tailor Swiss financial regulation so as to achieve equivalence with EU law. However, the analysis of the current equivalence procedures reveals that equivalence is not the door opener one had hoped for. Core activities such as deposit-taking,…

Europareport

Nach der am 6. Februar 2019 von der Kommission verfügten Untersagung der geplanten Zusammenschlüsse Wieland–Aurubis im Bereich der Kupferindustrie und Siemens–Alstom im Bereich der Schienenfahrzeuge und Eisenbahnsignaltechnik ist eine neue wettbewerbspolitische Diskussion entfacht um die Sinnhaftigkeit nationaler bzw. europäischer Champions. Befürworter der Stärkung nationaler Anbieter, die im…