Droit international et droit des étrangers

Validité et efficacité de la clause shotgun en droit suisse

A shotgun clause establishes a mechanism intended to resolve deadlocks in companies with two shareholders with equal stakes. It enables one of the two shareholders to trigger a procedure which will ultimately result in the purchase of all the shares at a fair price. The offeror initiates the procedure by proposing a certain price for the shares. The offeree then decides whether to sell its shares…

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…

Europareport

Mit zwei Urteilen vom 15. Dezember 2016 hat das Gericht der Europäischen Union (nachfolgend: «Gericht» oder «EuG») die Anfechtungsklagen der Unternehmen Infineon Technologies AG (nachfolgend: «In­fineon») und Koninklijke Philips NV und Philips France (nachfolgend: «Philips») im Smartcard-­Chips-Kar­­tellfall abgewiesen (Rs. T-758/14 und Rs. T-762/14).

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…

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…

Das schweizerische Bankprivatrecht 2016 / Le droit bancaire privé suisse 2016

Das Bankprivatrecht regelt diejenigen Rechtsbeziehungen der Bank, die ihre Grundlage im Privatrecht haben, wobei die vertragsrechtlichen Bindungen zwischen der Bank und ihren Kundinnen zum Kernbestand gehören. Die diesjährige Rechtsprechungsübersicht will dies nicht in Frage stellen. Was allerdings auffällt, ist die Häufung von bankprivatrecht­lichen Sachverhalten, die gleichzeitig eine…

Europareport

Mit Urteil vom 12. Januar 2017 hat der Gerichtshof der Europäischen Union (nachfolgend auch: «Gerichtshof» oder «EuGH») das Rechtsmittel zweier Gesellschaften der Roullier-Gruppe zurückgewiesen und damit die von der Europäischen Kommission im Jahr 2010 gegen die Unternehmensgruppe verhängte Geldbusse in Höhe von fast EUR 60 Mio. im sogenannten Tierfutterphosphat-Kartellfall bestätigt (Rs.

Europareport

Am 16. März 2017 hat die Europäische Kommission bekannt gegeben, dass sie ein neues Tool gestartet hat, das es Einzelpersonen ermöglichen soll, ihr anonyme Hinweise und Informationen auf Verstösse gegen das EU-Wettbewerbsrecht zu geben.