Suchergebnisse für administrative procedure

Réflexions critiques sur l’adoption par la Suisse des normes du GAFI en ­matière de transparence des sociétés : du bricolage législatif à l’abolition des actions au porteur ?

As a result of the revised FATF recommendations issued in 2012, Switzerland, under international pressure, had no choice but to enact requirements aiming at creating more transparency with regard to the ownership and control of limited by share companies. In this context, the widespread possibility for Swiss companies to issue bearer shares was particularly at stake. Switzerland inserted these…

Das Gesellschaftsrecht 2016/2017 / Le droit des sociétés 2016/2017

Im vergangenen Jahr stachen neben dem Fall Sika vor allem eine Reihe von Urteilen zum Verantwortlichkeitsrecht ins Auge. Diese bestätigen einerseits die klärende neuere Rechtsprechung zur Business…

Protection des données et nouvelles procédures de communication aux autorités fiscales et de surveillance étrangères

At a time when banking secrecy is shrinking, the lawmaker has decided to redefine the role of data protection in international cooperation procedures with regulatory and tax authorities. The law allows a supervised entity, typically a bank, to transmit confidential information to certain foreign authorities and organizations, but requires it to safeguard the rights of its clients and other third…

Relevance of WTO Law for Financial Services Lessons from “Argentina – Financial Services”

In the past debates about financial markets regulations the fact that most countries are Member States of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was often neglected. Through its recent decision “Argentina – Financial Services” the WTO Dispute Settlement Body now shifted the focus to the impact of WTO law on financial services. Even if very concrete findings have not been given, the assessment of the…

Le traitement fiscal des sanctions financières

Until recently, the question of whether penalties of a criminal law nature were to be treated as deductibles expenses for tax purposes was fuelled with controversy. In a judgment delivered on 26 September 2016, planned for publication in the official collection of judgments, the Swiss Federal Court settled the matter in the negative. In essence, the Court held that penalties of a criminal (or…

Swiss Bank Program: Non Prosecution Agreements Implementation & Beyond

The United States Department of Justice’s Swiss Bank Program undoubtedly accounts for one of the most ­ambitious global foreign enforcement of U.S. tax laws. The resulting Non-Prosecution Agreements – signed by a record of 80 banks – were reached after long, demanding internal investigations and cooperation efforts with U.S. authorities. But, these NPAs are not the end. To the contrary, they…

Swiss Multinational Enterprises and Transnational Corruption: Management Matters

In 2016, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland sanctioned a Swiss corporation for having bribed a Libyan Minister. The same year, it opened a criminal proceeding against the Swiss bank BSI for its involvement in the corruption scandals surrounding the Malaysian company 1MDB. Swiss corporations are also currently under investigation in the Brazilian Petrobras scandal. At the…

Contracts on Digital Content in Europe: Balancing between ­Author-Protective Copyright Policies and Consumer Policies

The online distribution of digital content is generally based on a chain of contractual relationships that can frequently consist of an upstream relationship between an author and a supplier, and a downstream relationship between the supplier and the consumer. Protected digital content transactions are thus potentially subject to two distinct sets of rules, i.e. copyright and consumer protection…

Recent developments in Swiss competition law

1. «Wettbewerbskomplexität»! After reading the 347-page long judgment handed down by the Federal Administrative Tribunal in the Swisscom ADSL price strategy case,¹ one can only agree with the expression used by the court in its decision.² Although an appeal before the Federal Tribunal is pending, we must emphasize the high quality of this judgment and, in particular, its clarity and educational…