Suchergebnisse für contract for work and services

La banque et le créancier prêteur face à l’insolvabilité de l’emprunteur : moyens préventifs et curatifs

In a contractual relationship, a bank, or more generally a lender, on the one hand, and a borrower on the other, harmoniously blend, as long as the borrower complies with the repayments’ obligations arising from the loan agreement. However, in such an agreement, risk lies primarily on the lender. Indeed, as soon as the money has been made available, the lender takes the default’s risk. This…

Are Credit Institutions in the Banking Union (BU) Resolvable?

This study discusses whether credit institutions established in the Member States participating in the (European) Banking Union (BU) are resolvable. It is structured in five Sections: Section I provides an overview of the legislative acts which constitute the “EU banking resolution framework” (including the rules on credit institutions’ loss absorption and recapitalisation capacity), as these…

Recent developments in Swiss competition law

Floating Charge as Security in Debt Finance Transactions

The granting of security by the way of a floating charge is a common law concept which allows the entirety of a company’s assets to be used as collateral. Borrowers and lenders profit from this highly flexible means of providing a comprehensive security interest in debt finance transactions. This article examines whether the concept of floating charge is recognized under Swiss law or not. For…

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…

Les enjeux de la CSRD pour les entreprises suisses

The CSRD, which substantially expands the scope of companies forced to publish sustainability-related data, has a direct and indirect extraterritorial effect on Swiss companies. Size is not the only relevant criterion. Engaging with the EU market or with European companies can have (unexpected) implications. This worldwide impact is coupled with comprehensive and granular disclosures covering a…

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…

Sustainable Purpose-Driven Enterprises

Social enterprises (in a broad sense), including those launched by social (or sustainable) entrepreneurs (or Sustainable Purpose-Driven Entities) are important players to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Developing a legal framework that allows them to prosper has been a priority of the European Commission since 2010. These entities have recently been endorsed by the United…

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…

La banque et le créancier prêteur face à l’insolvabilité de l’emprunteur : moyens préventifs et curatifs

In a contractual relationship, a bank, or more generally a lender, on the one hand, and a borrower on the other, harmoniously blend, as long as the borrower complies with the repayments’ obligations arising from the loan agreement. However, in such an agreement, risk lies primarily on the lender. Indeed, as soon as the money has been made available, the lender takes the default’s risk. This…

Cyberattaque et ransomware: risques juridiques à payer et assurabilité des rançons

Legal risks of paying ransom following a ransomware attack need to be clarified, as such attacks are constant­ly increasing and victims always face the same dilemma: whether to pay the ransom or not? Insurability of ransomware needs also to be clarified, as some cyber insurance companies offer to cover the risk of ransomware without knowing whether such clauses are really insurable. This…

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

Editorial

As we publish this issue of the Swiss Review of Business and Financial Markets Law, war is raging in Europe. On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. There are no words that do justice to this…

Sanctions Américaines: Extraterritorialité et Risques Bancaires

A Swiss bank operating in the US must comply with applicable US laws. Difficulties may arise from the „off-shore“ application of US sanctions. The US sanctions regime is well known¹, especially through the publications of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)² and through the calls for caution issued by the banking supervisory authority³. This contribution provides an update on the…

To Infinity and Beyond: U.S. Dollar-Based Jurisdiction in the U.S. Sanctions Context

The power to print the world’s dominant currency gives the United States enormous leverage in pursuing its geopolitical objectives. This is particularly evident in the sanctions context, where the mere “use” of the U.S. financial system will pull parties into U.S. jurisdiction even if they are located outside the United States. This article highlights the recent extensions of jurisdictional…

Le droit bancaire privé suisse 2021 / Das schweizerische Bankprivatrecht 2021

Au moment où nous écrivons ces lignes, la Russie envahit l’Ukraine. L’Union européenne et les États-Unis ont adopté de nouvelles sanctions contre plusieurs centaines de personnalités liées au régime…

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…

Do Robots Rule Wealth Management? A Brief Legal Analysis of Robo-Advisors

What are the legal duties of robo-advisors in Switzerland? In this article, we focus on the legal framework arising from Swiss financial market law, contract law and data protection law. We also make a comparison with European law. We first explain how robo-advisors work and conclude that, contrary to what their name may suggest, they are primarily portfolio managers. As financial service providers…

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

DLT-basierte Finanzprodukte

DLT-based financial products are digitally created assets that can be transferred and stored on a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) infrastructure. Internationally, such digitally stored «tokens» are mostly referred to as «crypto assets»; however, there is still a lack of recognized, clear and internationally uniform definitions. Parallel to the spread of crypto assets being treated according…

Intelligence artificielle: licence libre et gouvernance collective des données à travers l’altruisme des données et les data trusts

Data access is central for the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Data may be however subject to a multitude of rights and actors (e.g. copyrighted works or personal data posted on social media or collected through captcha and used for AI training purposes), leading to a fragmented legal framework and legal frictions. This contribution explores how to apply open and free licenses to all…

Intelligence artificielle: la titularité des données

Data are at the heart of AI systems. Without data, AI systems are valueless. Data come into play at different phases, both at the input level (training sets, validating sets, testing sets), as well as at the output level. Although the Proposal for AI Regulation released on 21 April 2021 by the European Commission offers a promising regulatory framework as to the governance related to the design…

Digitale Inhalte und Dienstleistungen

The legal classification of access to digital content and services can have a significant impact on the rights and obligations of the parties. While customers regularly assume a comprehensive right of use and disposal, providers want to retain control over assigned digital copies of goods by means of technical precautions and contractual mechanisms. Based on an analysis of the legal foundations…

Editorial

Late in the spring (sometimes very late), the second issue of this journal brings its readers a bouquet of highlights on the laws and regulation of banking and finance. This issue reflects some trends…

Consolidation in the Swiss Portfolio Management Industry – Selected Aspects of M&A Transactions

In the ongoing consolidation wave sweeping the wealth management industry in Switzerland and the rest of the world, Swiss portfolio managers have to be alert. Both as a potential buyer or seller, there are important points to keep in mind to gauge whether a share deal or asset deal is the right choice, whether the timing is right, and how to maximise the value of the transaction, while limiting…

Rechtsfragen des LIBOR-Wegfalls

For decades, the LIBOR has been the most widely used benchmark interest rate for financial contracts. At the end of 2021, following major manipulation scandals and a dwindling reliability of the rate as a benchmark, LIBOR will be discontinued for most currencies including the Swiss franc. As numerous LIBOR agreements such as credit agreements or capital market instruments (mainly OTC interest…

Recent developments in Swiss competition law

1. In economic theory, transparency of information is usually seen as a positive condition, which contributes to effective competition. When one turns to competition law, however, it seems that…

Daten-Governance und Cloud Banking im neuen Datenschutzrechtsumfeld

Banking is a data-sensitive business. With the adoption of the new Data Protection Act the data protection level will also be increased in Switzerland, amongst others in the data security context. Banks, often using cloud services for efficiency reasons, will have to adapt their data governance framework in the near future: Data processing and storing must meet the data protection and data…

Entreprises et Big Data: peut-on forcer les entreprises à partager leurs données non-personnelles (par des licences obligatoires ou des licences „FRAND“)?

In the digital age where big data is of key value, companies generate a massive amount of data and make intensive use of data. Given that companies may depend on the access to non-personal data (industrial data) held by other companies to remain competitive, the question arises as to whether companies should be forced to share their non-personal data with each other (B2B data sharing) on the…

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…

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 –…

Corporate Purpose and Board of Directors: Means and Ends of Corporate Governance

(Enlightened) shareholder value is a widespread opinion among legal scholars and lawmakers in Switzerland. In other countries, we observe today a clear shift in favor of stakeholder governance. In this article, we advocate that shareholders are one among several constituencies that make possible the achievement of corporate purpose. Hence, corporate law and practice should promote corporate…

La fin des rapports de travail du banquier : concurrence et bonus

The end of the banker’s working relationship is sometimes conflicting. The sticking points generally concern non-competition clauses and the payment of bonuses. The purpose of this article is to set out the rules applicable in this area in a way that both presents the legal principles and promotes practical solutions. In particular, the possibility of imposing a non-competition clause on the…

Les données bancaires pseudonymisées – Du secret bancaire à la protection des données

Law strictly restricts the transfer of personal data and data protected by banking secrecy, especially outside of Switzerland. Personal data is defined as all information relating to an identified or identifiable person. Similarly, legal scholarship and case law hold that banking secrecy protects only client identifying data. The ability to identify the relevant person is thus core to both data…

Le droit bancaire privé suisse 2019 / Das schweizerische Bankprivatrecht 2019

Cette chronique s’allonge chaque année. Sa consultation en devient moins aisée. Pour faciliter son accès aux lecteurs nous avons introduit trois nouveautés.

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

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…

Gewährleistung bei vernetzten Geräten

The networking of devices leads to new legal issues. The following article examines how contracts around networked devices are legally classified. In particular, it will be examined whether the classical warranty rights of sales and works contract law are sufficient to adequately protect the needs of individual users.

Pouvoir de marché dans le secteur numérique: l’accès à de larges quantités de données est-il suffisant?

In the digital sector, access to large sets of data may provide strategic advantages and thus raises the question as to whether it may be the source of market power within the meaning of competition law. In light of recent case law, we argue that access to big data may confer such power only when particular conditions are met. The data at stake should notably be correlated to specific users. In…

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...

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,…

Le régime de responsabilité civile en matière d’émissions publiques de jetons digitaux (ICO)

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) consist of an innovative form of capital raising. In the digital era, it has become technically possible to raise substantial funds within a very short period of time. This paper analyses the civil liability regime applying to misrepresentations communicated to investors acquiring tokens in an ICO. Pursuant to the prospectus liability provisions of the Swiss Code of…

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…

Die regulatorische Antwort auf FinTech: Evolution oder Revolution? Eine Verortung aktueller Entwicklungen

While technological improvements have shaped the financial industry and its regulation for decades, FinTech is the buzzword of the hour. Rapidly developing digital technologies allow new market entrants to disrupt the traditional intermediary-based provision of financial services (I.). These new businesses – in particular those that operate payment systems or engage in crowdfunding – may clash…

Financement intragroupe et Cash Pooling : Quelle évolution ?

Cross-financing between affiliated companies, a subject at the heart of a group’s strategy, is a daily reality that remains largely ignored by current law and jurisprudence. The latest developments in court decisions seem to increase the discrepancy between the economic needs of the group and the legal requirements for protection of capital of each entity. Thus, since the Swisscargo ruling of the…

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…

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…