Suchergebnisse für consumer protection

Das Supervisory Privilege für Akten aus dem Aufsichtsverhältnis

The Swiss Supervisory Privilege, which was added to FINMASA in 2016, is a new legal institution. It empowers FINMA to protect documents from the supervisory relationship between a supervised entity and itself by prohibiting their disclosure to third-party authorities and other third parties without FINMA’s consent if there are grounds for doing so that are particularly worthy of protection…

The New EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation and its Implications for Switzerland

The EU has adopted a new unilateral instrument to control subsidies granted by non-EU countries, such as Switzerland, to companies operating in the EU. This subsidy control combines antitrust, state aid and trade rules, but applies directly to companies rather than to foreign states or granting authorities. Companies with some activities in the EU fall within the scope of this foreign subsidy…

L’application du droit des marchés publics à l’approvisionnement en électricité

In March 2021, the Competition Commission issued a recommendation pertaining to the application of public procurement law and the Federal Internal Market Act to the procurement of electricity. The purpose of this recommendation was to examine in which cases the purchase of electricity must be subject to public tenders; it clarified that public procurement law may apply in several instances to…

The Normative Effects of ESG Expectations on Companies and their Directors

Most companies face a growing number of environmental, social and governance (ESG) expectations arising not only from their shareholders, but also from a wide array of stakeholders such as clients, investors, States, financial institutions and not-for-profit organisations. Even though a significant number of these expectations are not imposed by hard or soft law, they cannot be disregarded in…

Venture Capital, ESG and Sustainable Investments

Sustainability is a pressing issue that requires addressing various environmental, social, and governance (ESG) challenges. The venture capital industry has the potential to play a crucial role in sustainable investments due to its characteristics, such as long-term investment horizons and investor protections. However, sustainability has yet to become a major topic in private equity and venture…

Das Supervisory Privilege für Akten aus dem Aufsichtsverhältnis

The Swiss Supervisory Privilege, which was added to FINMASA in 2016, is a new legal institution. It empowers FINMA to protect documents from the supervisory relationship between a supervised entity and itself by prohibiting their disclosure to third-party authorities and other third parties without FINMA’s consent if there are grounds for doing so that are particularly worthy of protection…

The Materiality of Sustainability Information under Capital Markets Law

This paper explores the legal concept of the materiality of sustainability-related information under Swiss capital markets law. References to international standards, as well as EU and U.S. provisions, are also made with a view to highlighting the increasing importance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects in the law and regulation of capital markets. We primarily focus on the…

Innovation in Pharmaceutical Mergers: Looking for a Miracle Cure?

The European Commission’s approach to analysing the negative effects of a merger on competition has recently changed. Whereas for years, competition authorities have mainly focused on the effects of a merger on prices, the impact on output, or the creation or strengthening of a dominant position in a given market, they are now examining the effects of a merger on innovation. The analysis of the…

Recent developments in Swiss competition law

Relative Marktmacht – gerichtliche Sicht

The amendment 2021 of the Swiss Federal Act on Cartels and other Restraints of Competition provides in the new article 4 section 2^bis a concretizing definition of market power as follows: “An undertaking with relative market power is an undertaking on which other undertakings are dependent for the supply of or demand for goods or services in such a way that there are no adequate and reasonable…

Open Finance und Decentralized Finance – Entwicklungen in einem disruptiven Finanzmarktumfeld

The recent technological developments not only impact society in general but they also strongly influence financial markets, even in a disruptive way. Open finance and decentralized finance cause an opening of the financial ecosystem and challenge existing notions; for example, new concepts are needed for the regulation of data access/portability and of digital identity as well as for the…

Questions de responsabilité civile et contractuelle soulevées par la distribution de „logiciels libres“ (open source)

Since the 1980s, the free and open software («FOSS») movement promotes the open exchange of software and of its source code to disrupt the limitations brought upon by the copyrightability of software. The recent emergence of public repositories such as GitHub has however impacted the distribution model of FOSS software – as many of them can now be downloaded and operated freely by their users,…

Recent developments in Swiss competition law

Salärgovernance und neues Aktienrecht

In determining the compensation of directors and top management, the board of directors of public companies is faced with a structural conflict of interest. The aim to mitigate this conflict through an appropriate design of the procedure forms the essence of the say-on-pay rules introduced by the Swiss electorate in a public vote in 2013 and implemented on a transitional basis in the Ordinance…

Regulierung von künstlicher Intelligenz für FinTech-Anwendungen

New methods of artificial intelligence represent one of the greatest promises and most prospective developments of digitalisation. Artificial intelligence has already enabled numerous innovative applications in the areas of image recognition, medicine, language and mobility, and it is also increasingly being used in the financial market, on which this article focuses. In addition to great…

«Open Banking» in der Schweiz – Herausforderungen an den Schnittstellen von Finanzmarkt-, Datenschutz- und Kartellrecht

«Open Banking» challenges traditional financial institutions in Switzerland and around the world. It poses strategic as well as legal compliance challenges. The present study delimits the (sometimes synonymously used) terms «Open Banking» and «API Banking» to the effect that Open Banking presupposes an access to the banking account (XS2A) on the basis of non-discriminatory criteria. It thus…

Big Data and the Law: a holistic analysis based on a three-step approach – Mapping property-like rights, their exceptions and licensing practices

Given Big Data’s increasing importance, it seems important to develop a clear and coherent body of law and to organize the different relationships among all stakeholders and legal regimes that grant different property-like rights. There are already numerous studies on the interactions between Big Data and intellectual property and/or privacy, but less that map all legal regimes, including the…

Automatisierte Entscheidungen: Grundfragen aus der Perspektive des Privatrechts

Data protection law addresses the issue that more and more (complex) decisions are taken automatically. A closer look at the regulatory approaches of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Council of Europe’s Convention 108 and the draft Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (draft FADP) leads to two conclusions. On the one hand, the scope of application of these provisions is too…

Credit Scoring, AML Software & Risk Profiling: Automatisierte Entscheidungen im Rahmen von Finanzdienstleistungen

Techniques of automated decision making, including profiling are, no doubt, also of interest to financial service providers. This essay describes three such applications (credit scoring, transaction monitoring for AML purposes, risk profiling for investors) and discusses their possible compliance with the requirements under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, as well as the proposed new…

Recent developments in Swiss competition law

Obviously, steps taken by certain companies in the media sector trigger reactions from competitors in this dynamic environment which is constantly changing as a result of the digital revolution. Interestingly, Comco faced at the same time two transactions (AZ Medien/NZZ and Tamedia/Basler Zeitung) which had to be assessed in light of each other from the perspective of collective dominance:⁹⁰

Der Kundenschutz und die FINMA – heute und morgen

To effectively protect financial market clients, an integrated approach combining prudential and conduct supervision is most conducive to achieving the desired results. It has already been applied in principles-based Swiss financial market regulation and supervision and is practised in a risk-oriented manner. Besides public financial market law, further aspects such as civil law and criminal law…

Stärkung der Ombudsstelle

With the coming into force of the Financial Services Act (FinSA) and the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA), the ombudsman will be strengthened by being regulated by law and by obliging the financial…

Daten als Entgelt

The use of personal data as payment means in con­tractual relations is an economic reality that does not contradict the legal framework. In exchange for digital content a data subject may provide personal data to the supplier agreeing to have used them for further data processing. Under Swiss law, such kind of values’ exchange can be qualified as innominate contract that encompasses continuing…

In the Business of Influence: Contractual Practices and Social Media Content Monetisation

In 2018, 300 hours of content were uploaded on Youtube every minute. Most of it is generated by regular people who share content for a living, and those who amass enough followers are known as influencers. Traditionally, media laws have controlled aired content. Nowadays, broadcasting decentralisation and social media trends such as influencer marketing challenge the rationale and application of…

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…