Article 149a of the Swiss Law on Debt Collection and Bankruptcy (SchKG) provides that claims based on a loss certificate become time-barred within 20 years after the date of its issuance. According to the transitional provisions, this time limit applies equally to loss certificates issued prior to the enactment of article 149a which came into force on 1 January 1997.1 Prior to that change in the law, claims based on loss certificates were not subject to prescription. 

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Wenn ein Gläubiger einen Schuldner betreibt und der Schuldner keine (genügenden) Vermögenswerte hat, um die Forderung des Gläubigers zu decken, stellt das Betreibungsamt bzw. das Konkursamt einen Verlustschein aus, in welchem festgehalten wird, dass die Forderung bzw. ein Teil der Forderung ungedeckt geblieben ist.

Zu Unrecht erhobene Betreibungen können für Privatpersonen und Gesellschaften zu schweren Konsequenzen führen: Banken z.B. können aufgrund eines Eintrags im Betreibungsregister eine Finanzierung verweigern und Vermieter Personen als potentielle Mieter ablehnen. Mit der geplanten Änderung gewisser Bestimmungen des SchKG will der Bund die Situation für den unrechtmässig Betriebenen endlich erleichtern.

48 IFLR/May 2015 www.iflr.com The collapse in 2001 of Switzerland’s national airline Swissair, until then regarded as a symbol of the country’s reliability and efficiency, sparked a debate over the need to amend Swiss insolvency laws. Criticism was raised that the Swiss Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law (DEBL) had proven ineffective in facilitating the restructuring of companies in distress and was not adequate to deal with the insolvencies of large groups of companies.

Introduction
Measures against abusive insolvencies

Licences – whether relating to technologies, trademarks, images, audiovisual materials or software – are increasingly important corporate assets. The insolvency of a licensor or licensee can have diverse implications for the fate of those assets, depending on factors such as place of jurisdiction, applicable law, the insolvency mechanisms available and their effect on such agreements.

What effect does a licensor filing for insolvency have on a licence?

On October 14 2015 the Federal Council published a revision project for the Private International Law Act regarding the recognition and coordination of foreign bankruptcy proceedings in Switzerland.

Current situation

A foreign insolvency decree can be recognised in Switzerland, at request of the foreign liquidator or a creditor, only if:

Introduction

1. Applicable Law

1.1.1 On 1 January 2011 Switzerland faced the dawn of a new era in litigation. Due to its federal state structure, until this date civil procedural law was regulated on a cantonal level with 26 civil procedure codes. Since 1 January 2011, the Swiss Civil Procedure Code (CPC) replaces the cantonal codes.

1.1.2 Interim measures are mainly governed by the CPC. In order to determine whether provisions other than the CPC are (also) applicable to an interim measure, the applicant has to check two issues:   

Introduction

The insolvency proceedings for the Swissair companies have yet again proved to be one of the biggest and most important cases in the history of Swiss insolvency law. The Federal Supreme Court recently rendered a groundbreaking decision in the liquidation proceedings for SAirGroup and changed its jurisprudence regarding the legitimacy of an insolvent company's estate to claim for damages incurred by company creditors.