Regulatory

On 25 September 2020, the Swiss parliament adopted the entirely revised Data Protection Act (revDPA), which largely follows the regime provided by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with very limited Swiss finishes. On 3 March 2022, the target date for entering into force of the revDPA has been set for 1 September 2023….

Collective redress has been one of the most debated topics in the field of civil procedure over the last decades in both Switzerland and the European Union. Recently, there have been several new developments: In the European Union, member states are in the process of adopting national laws implementing the EU directive on collective redress,…

On 1 January 2022 the Swiss Financial Services Act (“FinSA“) and the Swiss Financial Institutions Act (“FinIA“) entered into force. While the FinSA provides for a wide range of new rules applicable to financial service providers, irrespective of their licensing status, and new documentation rules applicable to financial instruments, the FinIA introduced, among other things,…

The Financial Services Act and its implementing ordinance require prospectuses to be supplemented in case a new price-sensitive fact has arisen between the time of approval of the prospectus and final completion of a public offer or opening of trading on a trading venue. Such supplements have to be approved by the competent Reviewing Body,…

Recent years have seen regulatory institutions around the world introduce mandatory corporate disclosure regimes related to climate and environmental, social and governance (“ESG“) matters, largely as a response to the increasing materialization of ESG risks, in particular global heating and climate-driven natural catastrophes, as well as the growing awareness of the importance of full and…

As the second batch of regulations concerning distributed ledger technology (DLT) just entered into force on 1 August 2021, this article highlights some of the key changes made to the Blanket Ordinance in the Area of Blockchain (Mantelverordnung im Bereich Blockchain) between the draft subject to consultation on 19 October 2020 and the final version…

As of 1 July 2021, SIX Exchange Regulation Ltd (SER), the supervisory authority for issuers listed at SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX), revises the rules on ad hoc publicity in the Listing Rules (LR) and the Directive on Ad hoc Publicity (DAH). While the changes might not seem substantial at first, some details of the revised…

The Swiss Federal Council proposes the abolition of withholding tax on bond interest in its dispatch. The proposed abolition will make it easier for companies to issue their bonds from Switzerland. There is also a chance that intra-group financing activities will increase in Switzerland. By Stefan Oesterhelt / Philippe Gobet (Reference: CapLaw-2021-35)

As of 1 January 2021, the legal framework governing the commercial register in Switzerland has been modernized. The new rules primarily comprise amendments to the Swiss Code of Obligations (CO, article 927 et seq.) and to the Commercial Register Ordinance (CRO). The author highlights the key changes that the new rules did—and did not—bring about. By Daniel…