Suchergebnisse für légitimation

Digitale Generalversammlungen und Verwaltungsratssitzungen

The 19 June 2020 revision of the provisions on the limited by shares company contains various facilitations for the use of technical means in the conduct of general meetings and board meetings. What are the concrete options available and what are the practical implications of these innovations? What do banks need to consider from a prudential perspective? After an overview of the digitization in…

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…

Aktien als individualisierte Rechte und die dadurch in der Trias Mitgliedschaft –Wertpapier/Wertrecht –Bucheffekte verursachten Probleme

Shares (Aktien) in the sense of memberships (Mitgliedschaften) in corporations are in principle individualized, non-fungible rights. They come into existence as non-certified shares (unverbriefte Aktien). In order to make them more negotiable such non-certified rights are often wrapped into a cover (Hülle). By this wrapping process (Umhüllung) the non-certified shares are transformed into…

Tokenisierung von Aktien unter dem neuen DLT-Gesetz (insb. Art. 973d ff. OR) und CMTA Standard

With the entry into force of the Swiss Federal Act on the Adaptation of the Federal Legislation to Developments in Electronic Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT Act) in 2021, various uncertainties relating to the tokenization of financial instruments have been clarified. In particular, the legal framework of such tokenization, understood as the association between digital tokens and certain…

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…

Zivilrechtliche Aspekte von Geschäftsabwicklungen auf DLT-Handelsplattformen

Following FINMA’s definition of the framework conditions for the creation of digital assets (tokens) under financial market law, the DLT Act of September 2020 has now also clarified legal issues relating to the transfer of and trading in such assets. Thanks to the newly created normative order, business transactions on DLT trading platforms can be conducted in a largely legally secure manner…

Les effets des nouvelles règles sur la prescription en droit bancaire et financier

The partial reform of limitation rules in the Code of obligations, effective since 2020, has limited impact on the banking and financial sector. Yet specific matters call for renewed attention. We analyse the consequences of the new 3-year and 10-year limitation rule for claims based on torts and unjust enrichment, specifically in connection with defective transfers of funds, intermediated…

Prospektrechtliche Gleichbehandlungspflicht bei Ausnahmen von der Prospektpflicht

In the absence of a duty to publish a prospectus, art. 39 of the Swiss Financial Services Act (FinSA) obliges offerors and issuers to treat investors equally when providing them with material information on a public offer of securities. This provision is applicable in cases in which securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading on a trading platform if the obligation to publish a…

Datenportabilität und ihre Umsetzung

The right to data portability will be introduced, as a first for Switzerland, with the revised Swiss Data Protection Act. Inspired by the GDPR but with a “Swiss finish”, data subjects may (if certain conditions are met) request the controller to transfer “their” personal data to them or another controller. However, a number of questions remain open, for example: Which type of data is subject to…

Dokumentenherausgabe nach FIDLEG vs. datenschutzrechtliche Auskunftserteilung

The claim for disclosure according to FinSA is supposed to enable the customer to obtain evidence to effectively enforce his or her rights from the contractual relationship with the financial service provider. The right to request information according to FADP is meant to enable the data subject to control his or her personal data and thus to protect and enforce his or her personal rights…

Kartellrechtliche Fragen bei der Gründung eines Joint Ventures

Opening up new markets or pursuing major projects can often only be achieved with partners, which is why companies form joint ventures. When planning and implementing such cooperation projects, economic and contractual considerations are in practice the main focus. However, the influence of antitrust law on this form of cooperation should not be underestimated. The relevance of antitrust law is…

Digitalisierung des Aktienrechts – Die Ausgabe von Aktien als Registerwertrechte

Increasing digitisation is changing the society and economy, and therefore also affects the law regulating stock corporations. Wherever possible, physical processes are replaced by digital ones. With the emerging of distributed ledger technology (hereinafter DLT), a tendency towards dematerialization can be observed. DLT, or the technology of distributed electronic registers, is the technology of…

Prüfungsrecht und -pflicht der AG in Bezug auf das Aktieneigentum ihrer Aktionäre, v.a. auch im Zusammenhang mit den neuen Vorschriften des Global Forum-Gesetzes

In the recent past the ownership (title) due diligence in share deals, i.e. the due diligence regarding the seller’s unencumbered ownership in the sold shares, became more and more important in practice, as experience shows that in a high percentage of cases there are se­rious issues in this respect. This leads to the question on the scope of the examination rights and examination obligations of…

Les clauses statutaires relatives au transfert des actions de la société anonyme

This article deals with the admissibility of statutory acquisition clauses with regard to the right of the free transmissibility of shares (Art. 685 ss of the Swiss Code of Obligations, CO) and the prohibition of additional obligations at shareholders’s cost (Art. 680 CO). In order to resolve this issue, a distinction must be made between statutory acquisition clauses relating to the shares of…

Schutzzweck der Inhaltskontrolle von allgemeinen Geschäftsbedingungen

This article examines the reason for and justification of controlling the content of general terms and conditions by the legislator and the courts. Based on various individual and institutional protection concepts, it analyzes what the purpose of such content control can and actually should be. This contribution uses a legal theo­ry and law and economics research approach. The results of the…

Konzept und Praxis der aktienrechtlichen Sanierung

This essay deals with capital loss and overindebtedness and the related duties of the Board of Directors according to the current Swiss Code of Obligations. Furthermore, a look is taken at the future Swiss restructuring law. It has been concluded that Swiss restructuring law does little credit to its name as most restructuring proceedings end in bankruptcy of the respective company. One possible…

Aktien als digitalisierte Werte

Shares issued on a distributed ledger have already been designated as a future market standard. The potential of these dlt-shares is also acknowledged by the Swiss government, which has published a preliminary draft on the adaptation of federal law to developments in distributed ledger technology earlier this year. This essay focuses on various mainly private law issues related to the issuance…

Aktuelle Rechtsprechung zur Haftung im Konzern

Federal court rulings on liability of the parent company in a Group have developed further since the classic decisions of the nineties in the matters of Swissair and Motor-Columbus. This article provides an overview of the handed down by the Federal Supreme Court over the past ten years. The article shows that the Court did not decide these cases based on principles of director’s liability,…

Le droit à l’information de l’administrateur et sa mise en œuvre judiciaire

This article deals with the right to information and ­inspection of a member of the board of directors (Article 715a of the Swiss Code of Obligations, CO) and the possibility, recently acknowledged by the Federal Tribunal, to raise a claim based on such right. The implementing of Article 715a CO in court gives rise to a number of questions. Often, time is of the essence and a court decision may…

Betrugsversuche im Zahlungsverkehr im digitalen Zeitalter

Money transfers have always been the target of fraudsters. For decades Swiss banks limited liability in their contracts with clients to intent and gross negligence. The Federal Supreme Court, however, often denied applying this broad liability exclusion. Today, banks usually commit themselves to verify the identification of the client with customary due diligence but also request from the client…

«Exit» aus der Nachlassstundung nach erfolgreicher Sanierung – ­Erste Erkenntnisse zum neuen Art. 296a SchKG

Under Swiss insolvency laws, companies in financial distress aiming at a restructuring rather than a winding-up can opt for a debt-restructuring moratorium (Nachlassstundung) as an alternative to bankruptcy proceedings. While composition proceedings are significantly less frequent in practice than formal bankruptcy proceedings, they are often used by major companies with numerous employees and a…

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.

Bankgeschäfte nach der Krise: Safer, simpler, fairer?

Ten years after the global financial crisis, the Financial Stability Board reports that regulation has built a «safer, simpler and fairer financial system». While there are indeed notable improvements in the regulatory architecture, the question remains whether banking, as seen from a retail customer perspective, has become safer, simpler, and fairer. This article argues that, overall, retail…

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…

Wie die Arbeit, so der Lohn – Vergütung in privaten und kotierten Gesellschaften

Rising executive pay is a vital topic for shareholders, proxy advisors, academics and the wider public. It is worth noting that the remuneration of auditors for their audit services has hardly attracted shareholder attention even though falling audit fees may be a reason for weaknesses in corporate control. In this perspective it looks like an anomaly that the remuneration of the party…

Aktuelle Rechtsprechung zum Aktienrecht

Over the last two years, Swiss company law jurisprudence has been subject to numerous developments and clarifications. The following article discusses selected examples of recent federal and cantonal case law. A first section deals with a Federal Supreme Court decision on the attribution of company bodies’ knowledge to the legal entity. It provides an in-depth analysis of the de­cision and sets…

Verwendung von Software aus dem Bereich der künstlichen Intelligenz bei der Due Diligence im M&A- und Kapitalmarktbereich

This article is a first review of how artificial intelligence could be used in M&A and capital markets due dili­gence. Today available products have similar fields of application and functionality. They are mainly used in contract review. Their core function is to help to identify clauses of a certain type and to provide first summaries of contracts. They all have the ability to learn and thereby…

Digitalisation dans le domaine bancaire et aperçu des risques juridiques

There is today a strong trend towards digitization in the banking sector in line with the constant development of new technologies. Swiss legislation authorizes online bank account opening processes and can be seen as pretty liberal in terms of reception and recording of banking documentation in electronic form. In this context, Swiss banks may be interested to evaluate the feasibility of, and…

Legitimationsprüfung und Risikotransfer bei E-Mail-Zahlungsaufträgen

Fraudulent falsifications of payment orders have been a long-known issue in banking. Pursuant to statutory law banks are obliged to verify the authenticity and integrity of payment orders and, thus, bear the financial risks of undetected falsifications. In practice however, this legal situation is commonly, and permissibly, modi­fied by specific contractual clauses which transfer the financial…

Die virtuelle Generalversammlung

On November 23, 2016, the Federal Council published its proposal for a revised law on companies limited by shares. This article deals with the virtual general assembly, one of the key aspects in the pursued modernisation of the general assembly in the context of the proposed revision. First, it addresses the proposed amendments regarding the virtual general assembly. Second, the article analyzes…

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…

Vertrauen im Kapitalmarkt

Trust is an essential element of a capital market. The market participants want to be confident that the other actors behave as expected. Financial market regulation supports the underlying expectations by ensuring transparency, prohibiting market abuses, stipulating various duties and imposing sanctions or liability in the event of breach. The objectives of most regulation, i.e., the protection…

Finanznotlagerecht

The Bill of 2016 for a revision of the Swiss Corporation Law addresses, with new and quite lengthy dispositions, the thorny problem of corporate reorganizations in the event of upcoming financial difficulties. On the one hand, the classical and quite formal equity-related ­approach of European Continental Law to prevent ­«unlawful trading» is maintained, i.e. the Board’s duty to take immediate…

Stimmrechtsaktien und andere bevorzugte Aktien

There are many ways to grant privileges to specific categories of shareholders and one can distinguish between financial privileges and privileged voting rights in the general assembly of all shareholders. In future, this is to remain unchanged, and accordingly the November 2016 draft of Swiss Law on corporations does not propose any decisive modifications. With regards to the new rules for…

Vorschläge zur Aktienrechtsrevision

On November 23, 2016, the Federal Council published its proposal for a revised law on companies limited by shares. After the proposal was mainly well received it’s ready to take the next step: Since the Legal Affairs Committees decided to enter into the proposal the National Council will probably hold discussions 2017 (Winter Session). This year’s SZW Conference strongly focused on the proposal…

Vinkulierung an der Bruchstelle zwischen kotierter Gesellschaft und nicht kotierten Aktionären

This article contains a selective analysis of the current system of share transfer restrictions (Vinkulierung), in particular with regard to the scope of application of the relevant provisions in relation to direct and indirect investments in publicly held companies, that has raised public interest in connection with the “Sika”-case. The authors illustrate the current state of established…

Besserstellung der Revisionsstelle in der aktienrechtlichen Verantwort­lichkeit? – Prozessrechtliche Bemerkungen zu Art. 759 Abs. 2 E-OR

The draft for the revision of the stock corporation law proposes to limit auditor liability. In case the audit firm has merely caused damage by negligence, it shall be liable only up to the amount it would have to pay due to a recourse claim (draft art. 759 (2) CO). The proposal, which dates back to 1983, does not reliably limit auditor liability. This is because art. 148 (3) CO provides that…

Fusions-, Spaltungs- und Vermögensübertragungsverträge aus Sicht der Gesellschaft und der Gesellschafter

The Federal Act on Merger, Demerger, Transformation and Transfer of Assets (Merger Act) contains the minimal contents of the merger agreement, the demerger agreement and the transfer of assets agreement («the reorganisation agreement»). In addition, the Merger Act regulates which bodies of the involved companies have to give their consent to the reorganisation agreement and in which form to…

Kernfragen der Aktienrechtsrevision

On November 23, 2016, the Federal Council published its proposal for a revised law on companies limited by shares. This article deals with four key aspects of the proposed revision. First, it addresses the proposed amendments regar­ding the capital structure. The authors thereby focus on the rules for capital increases, decreases and the possibility to introduce a so called «capital band». Secon…

Stimmenmehrheit unter Verdacht: Wege und Irrwege im aktienrechtlichen Minderheitenschutz

Recent developments in the area of corporation law ­indicate a dichotomy between calls for more “shareholder democracy” and an increasing suspicion about “shareholders’ majority decisions”. Corporations have to date been governed following the model of “subjection of the minority to the majority”, with the steady approval of the courts. This guiding principle, which is at the core of a…

Aktienrechtliche Notariatspraxis: Frequently Asked Questions

Within the context of a general meeting of shareholders, the notary public assumes various duties. He/she counsels and informs his/her clients in preparation of the meeting. During the meeting he/she is in charge of preparing the notarized deed and minutes all the statements and decisions of the parties. The notary public does not get involved in the content of the meeting but he/she may…

Business Judgment Rule und Rechtsrisiken

Legal risks are currently the most dangerous threat for global corporations. This article analyses the question whether the Swiss Business Judgment Rule (BJR) may also provide a “safe harbour” for decisions based on legal uncertainties. This may look surprising, since corporations are bound to comply with the legal environment in which they are operating, therefore illegal behaviour should not be…

Les sanctions en matière d’obligation d’annonce des actionnaires (art. 697m CO)

The Federal Act of 12 December 2014 on the implementation of the revised recommendations 2012 of the ­Financial Action Task Force introduced in the Code of Obligations new provisions on transparency in force since 1^st of July 2015. Since that date, holders or ­purchasers of bearer shares and the beneficial owner of shares are bound by an obligation to report to the ­company (articles 697i and …

Zusicherungen und Garantien zugunsten von Investoren im Rahmen einer Finanzierungsrunde

Before committing to provide additional funds to a target company, investors will typically seek to secure their investment with appropriate representations and warranties. In order to do so, the investors may rely on various stakeholders and, among other options, request that appropriate representations and warranties be provided by the target company itself. This article addresses the statutory…

Know Your Customer : Quo Vadis ?

Know your client (KYC) is now an essential due diligence requirement for all banking business. The concept only appeared relatively recently in legislation, however, in conjunction with increased efforts to combat organised crime and money laundering. For around 40 years, the scope and content of know your client has continued to expand, sometimes in stark contrast to other standards. This article…

Disgorgement Remedy for Duty of Loyalty Violations

Wrongdoing should not be rewarded. – Although this is considered a core idea of Swiss law’s understanding of justice, the legal system is struggling with the principle’s satisfactory implementation when it comes to wrongfully obtained profits. One would expect the law to provide for suitable legal instruments to disgorge any gains unduly made by wrongdoers, particularly if the wrongdoer is a…

Was heisst «Internationale Standards»?

International standards have become more and more important with and also through the globalisation of the financial markets. In consequence, they are most important in corporate law and in particular in the field of financial reporting, i.e. IFRS or US GAAP. This is not only true for Switzerland, but also for the European Union. International standards are often enacted by a panel of experts…

Globale Finanzstabilität – Wer setzt die Standards?

Standards are norms that are used to calibrate actions and behaviour. They are adopted and adhered to because they promote the common good and are in the interest of all concerned. In a world of sovereign states, they are a promising means to create a coherent framework for international financial activity. The process of international standard setting in the financial arena has always been…

Internationale Standards in der schweizerischen Finanzmarktaufsicht

This article illustrates that a general commitment to internationally agreed standards in financial market regulation is in Switzerland’s best interest. It allows Switzerland to participate and shape decisions in standard-setting fora, thus fostering global financial stability and ensuring a level playing field for all players. Compliance with key standards is also a precondition for defending…

OR 2020: Braucht die Schweiz ein neues Vertragsrecht? – Eine Einführung

In spring 2013, the draft for a new General Part of the Swiss Code of Obligations was published under the title “Schweizer Obligationenrecht 2020” (OR 2020; in French “Code des obligations suisse 2020” [CO 2020]). The OR 2020 draft contains model rules for a new General Part of the existing Swiss Code of Obligations in German, French, Italian and English, as well as explanatory notes on each…