In 2024, Swiss competition law saw significant developments. The first instance of abuse of relative market power was determined based on the novel offense introduced in 2022. The Secretariat of the Swiss Competition Commission (“ComCo”) also determined that antitrust principles apply to labor markets, marking a pioneering stance among authorities in its detailed examination of…
In last week’s leading case on the abuse of a dominant position (2C_698/2021), the Federal Supreme Court sweepingly redefines the interpretation of abusive pricing and margin squeezes as well as the interplay between competition law and sector regulation. The court rules that Swisscom had not acted abusively and, therefore, lifts the sanction of around CHF…
The year 2023 was an eventful year from a Swiss Competition perspective. With the merger of the two Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse in March 2023, the Swiss financial market and Swiss merger control were immediately in the news around the world. However, there were also other important competition law developments in 2023. Namely,…
Introduction Most recently, the Swiss Federal Administrative Court (the “Appeals Court”) rendered a series of judgments on the Swiss leniency regime. All cases handle suspected unlawful agreements affecting competition in the construction industry in Engadin, a mountainous region in South East Switzerland. Besides common geographic roots, the cases share another feature: they all concern appellants…
The Swiss government aims at a partial revision of the Swiss Cartel Act. Now that the consultation process is completed, the Federal Council has unveiled its draft legislation. The revision aims at modernizing merger control and strengthening private damage litigation. The draft legislation remarkably also provides for a re-introduction of the effects test for hardcore…
2022: The Year of Series of Judgments The year 2022 was an eventful year from a Swiss Competition jurisdictional perspective. Case law on unlawful competition agreements/cartels was at the forefront of the discussion on Swiss competition law. In the following, we take a closer look at the series of judgments of the Swiss Federal Supreme…
New Cooperation Agreement On November 1, 2022, Switzerland and Germany signed an administrative agreement on cooperation between their competition authorities (“Agreement”). The Agreement is expected to enter into force in September 2023 at the earliest because the Swiss Federal Assembly still has to approve the Agreement. The ratifying German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate…
Following the revision of the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation in the European Union, the Swiss Competition Commission is now also proposing to amend its Vertical Notice and Guidelines. Although the proposed amendments are based on the new EU distribution rules, they still depart from them on key issues, resulting in a “Swiss Finish”. Background…
Switzerland is one of the world’s largest recipients of foreign investments – but does not yet have a general regime for the systematic screening of foreign investments. As mandated by Parliament, the Federal Council, the Swiss government, has now issued a preliminary draft legislation for public consultation proposing to introduce a foreign investment regime in…
2021: Less case law, more legislation While the year 2021 was a rather unspectacular year regarding relevant new case law, the legislative made sure it provided for quite noteworthy developments in competition law nonetheless. The Swiss Competition Commission (“ComCo“) and especially the courts produced relatively few leading decisions in 2021, with still a lot of…
