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…

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…

Recent developments in Swiss competition law

Over the past few months the Courts issued quite a significant number of judgments. Generally, they favoured a strict competition policy in dealing with substantive law issues. However, this was not done to the detriment of the protection of the parties’ procedural rights...

Ist die neue Finanzmarkt­regulierung funktionsfähig?

The article describes the causes of financial market crises. It assesses the advantages and disadvantages of the legislative measures taken since the crisis of 2007/­2008. Finally, it outlines what additional or alternative measures could be taken to increase the stability of the financial markets and to improve supervision.

TBTF: Do increased capital requirements, bail-in powers and resolution ­authority solve the problem?

In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, governments across the world decided that it was time to end the bail-out of too-big-to-fail financial institutions. This article considers the strategies deployed in Switzerland to solve the problem: increased capital requirements, including leverage ratios and liquidity requirements, funding of the resolution in the event of a gone-concern,…

Global agieren, lokal profitieren – und keine Verantwortung?

The debate about responsible business conduct has gained new momentum in Switzerland due to the responsible business initiative («Konzernverantwortungsinitiative») which triggered the drafting of a counter-­proposal by the National Council in the context of the ongoing revision of the company law. This contribution situates this debate in the relevant international con­text. The analysis’ focus…

Derivatgeschäfte: Anwendung der FinfraG-Regulierung auf Schweizer Handels- und Industrieunternehmen

The Swiss rules on the conduct in connection with derivative transactions and trading set out in the Federal Act on Financial Market Infrastructures and Market Conduct in Securities and Derivatives Trading (FMIA) and its implementing ordinances were enacted more than two years ago, subject to applicable phase-in periods. However, when it comes to their applicability to commercial and industrial…

Recent developments in Swiss competition law

1. The above title might raise a few eyebrows. What is the relationship between the Coty case, which was decided at the end of 2017 by the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”),¹ and the Gaba² and BMW³ judgments handed down the same year by the Federal Tribunal? In addition to the fact that these three cases deal with vertical agreements, the first interesting point of comparison is that the ECJ…

Kundenvertrauen in Banken

Banking’s most important currency is customer trust. Two recent surveys show that customer trust is multifaceted and includes a foundational, an integrity-related, a practical and a strategic dimension. The strategic dimension is the most important, as it relates to the customers’ trust that the bank puts their needs and interests at the center of its activity. This contribution analyzes the…

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…

The Extraterritorial Application of U.S. Financial Services Regulation

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeks to regulate non-U.S. domiciled financial firms when U.S. investors’ interests are affected. In 2010, in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the circumstances when extraterritorial regulation is appropriate. Although most articles about the Morrison decision focus attention on when the SEC can sue non-U.S. firms for…

Eigentum an Sachdaten: Eine Standortbestimmung

In both legal writing and the public debate, there is a noticeable trend of growing support for some type of data ownership. This article examines the ongoing debate, thereby providing some contextual insights and a starting point for future research. In particular, we argue that a potential right to data ownership does not neatly fit into existing categories of property rights and liability…

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…

Klagen gegen Finanzdienstleister im FIDLEG-Entwurf – ­eine kritische Würdigung

The draft Swiss Financial Services Act («Finanzdienst­leistungsgesetz»/«FIDLEG») aims at the improvement of customer protection. To that end, it also contains procedural rules that shall facilitate lawsuits of custo­mers. Customers do not have to advance court fees nor have to deposit a security for the counterparty’s costs. In certain situations, a customer is relieved from paying any litigation…

The Elephant in the Chalet

Switzerland is currently reforming the legislative framework of its financial industry. The legislative ­debate is focused on gaining market access into the ­European Union through equivalence, understood as unilateral transposition of EU financial legislation by Switzerland. It is very much an “us against them” ­rhetoric which is erroneous on several levels: First of all, the discussion focuses…

L’individu face à la surveillance financière suisse : état des lieux et ­discussion sur un assujettissement direct

This article analyses the legal position of individuals subject to the Swiss supervisory provisions. First, it discusses the emphasis and scrutiny placed on individuals when FINMA is considering the granting of authorisations to financial institutions. Secondly, the article analyses the development of legal requirements that apply to individuals as well as the strengthening of FINMA supervisory…

Wettbewerb zwischen internationalen Standards

Competition between different standards can bring about efficiencies but the financial crisis has shown that the coordination and partial harmonization of these standards has advantages that are not to be underestimated. The following contribution analyses the possible competition of standards with a view towards the actors and the recipients of regulation. The theore­tical approach is clarified…

Verfassungsrechtliche Erwägungen zu Informationsverboten der Finanz­marktaufsicht

Im Zusammenhang mit dem grenzüberschreitenden US-Kundengeschäft der Bank Frey & Co. AG (Bank Frey)¹ erliess die FINMA am 30. August 2013 eine ­Verfügung, die unter anderem die folgenden Ziffern…

Conference Proceedings

This year’s annual conference of the University Research Priority Program (URPP) Financial Market Regulation¹ – the third in the history of the URPP – was devoted to “International Aspects of Financial Regulation: Competition vs. Coordination” and took place at the University of Zurich on June 1 and 2, 2015. In line with the URPP’s interdisciplinary approach, the conference program blended…

The Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility

Is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) a matter of law? Despite the fact that the role of national states is being increasingly impinged upon by the process of globalization, the prevailing notion of law today continues to be based on the maintenance of the stability of the existing national structures. The function of law is still seen as consisting primarily in shielding expectations from the…

Standing and Passing-on in the New EU Directive on Antitrust Damages Actions

This article critically evaluates private enforcement of the competition rules in Switzerland and compares them to recent developments at EU level, particularly regarding indirect purchaser standing and the passing-on defence. The article addresses the question of whether, and under what conditions, the new EU Directive on Antitrust Damages Actions, along with the Recommendation on Common…