The Swiss Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Act (DEBA) allows the initiation of debt enforcement proceedings before a court becomes involved. A creditor can request the competent debt enforcement office (normally at the domicile of the debtor) to issue a payment order to the debtor. The office serves that payment order without verifying the existence and enforceability of the purported claim; however, the debtor may declare its objection, within 10 days, to the debt enforcement office.

Swiss Civil Procedure Law in a Nutshell (Volume 9 of 12)

This blog series provides litigators and corporate counsel from other jurisdictions with a practical understanding of the mechanics, advantages, and limits of litigation before State Courts in Switzerland.

No Class Actions

Mit einer Änderung des Schuldbetreibungs- und Konkursgesetzes (SchKG) per 1. Januar 2019 sollen Personen, die grundlos oder missbräuchlich betrieben wurden, besser geschützt werden. Konkret wird ein neues und einfaches Verfahren eingeführt, mit welchem man sich gegen ungerechtfertigte Eintragungen im Betreibungsregister wehren kann. Folgender Beitrag vermittelt einen allgemeinen Überblick über die wichtigsten Rechtsbehelfe, die einem zu Unrecht Betriebenen ab dem 1. Januar 2019 zur Verfügung stehen.

Betreibungsverfahren in der Schweiz

On 1 January 2019, certain changes to Swiss debt enforcement and bankruptcy law will enter into force. The revised law aims to offer better protection for debtors against unjustified debt enforcement steps and to facilitate the recognition of foreign bankruptcy proceedings.

Restriction on disclosure in debt enforcement register

Starting point

The Swiss Federal Council recently released a comprehensive report on the embedding of the Blockchain technology into the Swiss legal framework: This report shall guide the way to bringing the legal certainty for the Swiss Blockchain ecosystem to the next level.

The Swiss court in Zug, the Handelsblatt, Trado GmbH, Bloomberg and a shareholder of Envion AG have now confirmed that the bankruptcy court of Zug decided to liquidate Envion AG on 14 November 2018.

As already reported, the reason for initiating liquidation was that Envion AG did not appoint an auditor within the time limit set by the court. Envion AG therefore suffers from a so-called "lack of organs" which, according to Swiss law, leads to the liquidation of the company in the absence of remedy.

Cross-border insolvencies are often complicated and time-consuming. In the regulated financial sector, significant efforts have already been made in Switzerland and internationally to streamline these processes and to facilitate cooperation between the relevant authorities across jurisdictions. Forthcoming changes to the Swiss Law on Private International Law (PILA) seek to modernise the general regime applicable in Switzerland to cross-border insolvencies outside of the regulated financial sector. The revised rules are expected to enter into force at some point in 2019.

The attachment of a debtor's assets is a very convenient tool for securing the recovery of an outstanding claim. Besides conventional assets, such as bank accounts or real estate, the creditor may also consider attaching more exotic items owned by the debtor: luxury cars, artworks or, why not, a private jet. We set out below the key requirements and certain practical aspects to consider when seeking the attachment of an aircraft located in Switzerland.

The requirements for attaching an aircraft: two different routes

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.