One of the main objectives of the corporate law reform was to strengthen shareholders’ rights. And indeed, the reform will, albeit to a limited extent, strengthen the rights of shareholders, and those of minority shareholders’ in particular, in a number of ways. Most notably, certain threshold requirements for the exercise of minority rights are lowered, while in turn a two-thirds majority vote requirement will be introduced for certain important resolutions. Perhaps most notably, information and participation rights for minority shareholders in both listed and non-listed companies are made more accessible and to some extent likely more effective.

By Remo Decurtins / Jonas Hertner (Reference: CapLaw-2020-54)

In Switzerland, plaintiffs are forced to litigate their claims in court individually, even if they are part of a group that is affected by the same underlying damaging event. In the context of the ongoing partial revision of the Civil Procedure Code the Swiss Federal Council is seeking to facilitate actions for damages for large groups. To this end it is proposing amendments to the existing mechanism of a group action through an organization and the introduction of a novel group settlement method.

By Thomas Werlen / Remo Decurtins (Reference: CapLaw-2018-44)