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.
Introduction
Since January 22 2015 the Swiss National Bank has charged a negative interest rate (currently 0.75%) for sight deposit account balances that Swiss banks hold with the Swiss National Bank, provided that the sight deposit account balance exceeds a given exemption threshold.(1)
Der Konkurs der weltweit siebtgrössten Containerreederei Hanjin erschüttert gegenwärtig den Welthandel. Es wird angenommen, dass Güter im Wert von ca. USD 14 Milliarden auf den Schiffen dieser Reederei blockiert sind bzw. blockiert waren. Die Bemühungen um eine Freigabe dieser Waren laufen, doch stellen sich dabei erhebliche Probleme.
The insolvency of the container shipping company Hanijn freezes cargo on vessels and ports in amount of USD 14 Billions. Worldwide, all concerned parties try to defreeze their cargo and face complex legal problems.
Swiss companies must now analyse the implications of these problems in Switzerland which can be outlined as follows (see in detail Raphael Brunner, KOLT-Newsletter, in German):
The Swiss Federal Council presented to parliament its dispatch for a reform of Swiss corporate law. The draft Act amending the Swiss Code of Obligations (Draft Act) seeks to modernize corporate governance by strengthening shareholder rights and promoting gender equality on corporate boards and senior management. It also replaces the provisions of the (interim) Ordinance on Excessive Compensation (Minder-Ordinance) by a federal act of parliament with only a few changes.
A creditor of a debt in Switzerland can file a debt collection request against the debtor to enforce its claim. The debt collection proceedings will eventually lead to the seizure of the debtor's assets. If the enforcement proceedings are unsuccessful and the debtor's assets are insufficient to cover the creditor's claim, the debt collection authorities will issue a loss certificate confirming the part of the claim which was not covered by the proceeds.
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.
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.
A foreign insolvency decree can be recognised in Switzerland, at request of the foreign liquidator or a creditor, only if: