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- Art. 5a FC
- Art. 6 FC
- Art. 10 FC
- Art. 16 FC
- Art. 17 FC
- Art. 20 FC
- Art. 22 FC
- Art. 29a FC
- Art. 30 FC
- Art. 32 FC
- Art. 42 FC
- Art. 43 FC
- Art. 43a FC
- Art. 55 FC
- Art. 56 FC
- Art. 60 FC
- Art. 68 FC
- Art. 75b FC
- Art. 77 FC
- Art. 96 para. 2 lit. a FC
- Art. 110 FC
- Art. 117a FC
- Art. 118 FC
- Art. 123b FC
- Art. 136 FC
- Art. 166 FC
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- Art. 11 CO
- Art. 12 CO
- Art. 50 CO
- Art. 51 CO
- Art. 84 CO
- Art. 143 CO
- Art. 144 CO
- Art. 145 CO
- Art. 146 CO
- Art. 147 CO
- Art. 148 CO
- Art. 149 CO
- Art. 150 CO
- Art. 701 CO
- Art. 715 CO
- Art. 715a CO
- Art. 734f CO
- Art. 785 CO
- Art. 786 CO
- Art. 787 CO
- Art. 788 CO
- Transitional provisions to the revision of the Stock Corporation Act of June 19, 2020
- Art. 808c CO
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- Art. 2 PRA
- Art. 3 PRA
- Art. 4 PRA
- Art. 6 PRA
- Art. 10 PRA
- Art. 10a PRA
- Art. 11 PRA
- Art. 12 PRA
- Art. 13 PRA
- Art. 14 PRA
- Art. 15 PRA
- Art. 16 PRA
- Art. 17 PRA
- Art. 19 PRA
- Art. 20 PRA
- Art. 21 PRA
- Art. 22 PRA
- Art. 23 PRA
- Art. 24 PRA
- Art. 25 PRA
- Art. 26 PRA
- Art. 27 PRA
- Art. 29 PRA
- Art. 30 PRA
- Art. 31 PRA
- Art. 32 PRA
- Art. 32a PRA
- Art. 33 PRA
- Art. 34 PRA
- Art. 35 PRA
- Art. 36 PRA
- Art. 37 PRA
- Art. 38 PRA
- Art. 39 PRA
- Art. 40 PRA
- Art. 41 PRA
- Art. 42 PRA
- Art. 43 PRA
- Art. 44 PRA
- Art. 45 PRA
- Art. 46 PRA
- Art. 47 PRA
- Art. 48 PRA
- Art. 49 PRA
- Art. 50 PRA
- Art. 51 PRA
- Art. 52 PRA
- Art. 53 PRA
- Art. 54 PRA
- Art. 55 PRA
- Art. 56 PRA
- Art. 57 PRA
- Art. 58 PRA
- Art. 59a PRA
- Art. 59b PRA
- Art. 59c PRA
- Art. 62 PRA
- Art. 63 PRA
- Art. 67 PRA
- Art. 67a PRA
- Art. 67b PRA
- Art. 75 PRA
- Art. 75a PRA
- Art. 76 PRA
- Art. 76a PRA
- Art. 90 PRA
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- Vorb. zu Art. 1 FADP
- Art. 1 FADP
- Art. 2 FADP
- Art. 3 FADP
- Art. 5 lit. f und g FADP
- Art. 6 Abs. 6 and 7 FADP
- Art. 7 FADP
- Art. 10 FADP
- Art. 11 FADP
- Art. 12 FADP
- Art. 14 FADP
- Art. 15 FADP
- Art. 19 FADP
- Art. 20 FADP
- Art. 22 FADP
- Art. 23 FADP
- Art. 25 FADP
- Art. 26 FADP
- Art. 27 FADP
- Art. 31 para. 2 lit. e FADP
- Art. 33 FADP
- Art. 34 FADP
- Art. 35 FADP
- Art. 38 FADP
- Art. 39 FADP
- Art. 40 FADP
- Art. 41 FADP
- Art. 42 FADP
- Art. 43 FADP
- Art. 44 FADP
- Art. 44a FADP
- Art. 45 FADP
- Art. 46 FADP
- Art. 47 FADP
- Art. 47a FADP
- Art. 48 FADP
- Art. 49 FADP
- Art. 50 FADP
- Art. 51 FADP
- Art. 54 FADP
- Art. 57 FADP
- Art. 58 FADP
- Art. 60 FADP
- Art. 61 FADP
- Art. 62 FADP
- Art. 63 FADP
- Art. 64 FADP
- Art. 65 FADP
- Art. 66 FADP
- Art. 67 FADP
- Art. 69 FADP
- Art. 72 FADP
- Art. 72a FADP
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- Art. 2 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 3 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 4 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 5 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 6 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 7 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 8 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 9 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 11 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 12 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 25 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 29 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 32 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 33 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 34 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
FEDERAL CONSTITUTION
CODE OF OBLIGATIONS
FEDERAL LAW ON PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW
LUGANO CONVENTION
CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
CIVIL PROCEDURE CODE
FEDERAL ACT ON POLITICAL RIGHTS
CIVIL CODE
FEDERAL ACT ON CARTELS AND OTHER RESTRAINTS OF COMPETITION
FEDERAL ACT ON INTERNATIONAL MUTUAL ASSISTANCE IN CRIMINAL MATTERS
DEBT ENFORCEMENT AND BANKRUPTCY ACT
FEDERAL ACT ON DATA PROTECTION
SWISS CRIMINAL CODE
CYBERCRIME CONVENTION
- I. Nature of the seat and general principles
- II. Delimitations
- III. Determination of the registered office
- IV. Legal significance of the seat
- V. Transfer of registered office
- Bibliography
I. Nature of the seat and general principles
1 Legal persons require a local connecting factor at which they can be spatially anchored. The ratio of the seat as the local connecting factor of the legal person can be explained in terms of organisational and economic law: Thus, in order to deal with the commercial register, supervisory, court, tax and, if applicable, debt collection authorities, a place is required where the legal relationships of the legal person concerned are concentrated. This need for concentration and fixation means two things: on the one hand, that every legal person must have a registered office, and on the other hand, that in principle it may only have one registered office (and not several) (so-called principle of unity of the registered office, although there are exceptions for historical and political reasons).
II. Delimitations
A. Branches
2 The seat must be distinguished from so-called branches ("succursale"), i.e. business establishments which are independent of the main enterprise from a local and economic point of view, but not from a legal point of view. The independence required for a branch requires that "the branch business could be run independently without substantial changes". It must be examined on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the external relationship, whether this is the case. Internal directives or internal procedures are not essential, but rather it must be determined whether there is a separate office organisation with its own management, in which at least one employee is authorised to sign. While in practice there are gradations and the overall situation is always decisive, mere production sites, goods depots, delivery points and the like are not likely to constitute branches.
3 Under certain circumstances, branches can establish a special place of jurisdiction (Art. 12 CPC), but not a special place of debt collection, which – subject to the so-called branch bankruptcy of Swiss branches of foreign legal entities – always remains at the place of the legal entity's registered office (cf. Art. 46 para. 2 SchKG).
B. Legal domicile
4 Not to be confused with the seat or branch is the so-called legal domicile, i.e. the address at which the legal entity can be reached at its seat (i.e. at its own office premises or as a c/o address) (Art. 2 lit. b and 117 HRegV).
III. Determination of the registered office
A. General
5 Whereas the territorial connection for natural persons is compulsorily predetermined by the legislator (Art. 23 para. 1 CC: place of permanent residence), Art. 56 CC grants the founding persons or organs of the legal person the possibility of a privately autonomous determination of the seat. In other words: Legal persons may in principle freely choose their seat in their articles of association at their own discretion (so-called "statutory seat"). Subject to deviating provisions of public law and the prohibition of abuse of rights pursuant to Art. 2 para. 2 CC, a seat may also be determined that deviates from the place of the legal person's actual administration (see below n. 7). In the absence of a statutory seat, Art. 56 CC provides for a substitute statutory provision according to which the seat in such a case is at the place of actual administration (see below n. 9 f.). However, this legal determination of the seat only applies to associations and foundations, because the determination of the seat in the articles of association is part of the necessary content of the articles of association for the corporations of the CO and the substitute regulation of Art. 56 CC cannot therefore apply (see n. 6 and 9 below). Thus, with regard to the seat, a distinction must be made between the legal entities of the CC and those of the CO, without this being directly expressed in Art. 56 CC.
B. Determination of the registered office in the articles
6 All legal persons can (and those of the CO must) designate their seat in the articles. The principle of freedom of choice applies, a regulatory principle under civil law and not an expression of the freedom of establishment under constitutional law. Freedom of choice means that the statutory seat does not have to be located either at the place of actual activity or at the place of intellectual management of the legal person.
7 In addition to any provisions of public law (such as concessions, state contracts or the receipt of subsidies) and the prohibition of abuse of rights (such as the choice of remote seats that make it excessively difficult to enforce simple creditor claims) as barriers, the following elements in particular must be observed: Legal persons must have a fixed address for service at their registered office at which they can be reached, whereby a letterbox (which also effectively ensures that a natural person can receive notices for the legal person) is sufficient. In addition, legal persons must be able to show that they have chosen their domicile when dealing with third parties (e.g. when initiating debt collection proceedings or lawsuits).
8 The actual determination of the place of the registered office is regularly made by naming a Swiss political municipality in the articles (Art. 117 para. 1 HRegV), in which the fixed address for service guarantees effective accessibility (cf. n. 7 above). Since the domicile of associations and foundations – unlike that of corporate bodies under the CO – does not have to be determined by statute, a link to an objectively determinable criterion is sufficient. Thus, the determination of a floating or alternating seat ("siège errant") is also permissible for these legal entities, as long as it remains objectively determinable. Often mentioned in this context is, for example, the domicile of the respective chairperson of the board of directors or president of the foundation board. Furthermore, it is possible for associations and foundations to provide for a delegation of the determination of the domicile in the articles of association and to delegate this in favour of the board of directors (board resolution) or the foundation council (foundation council resolution or foundation regulations). This makes it more flexible than the statutory seat, which – especially in the case of foundations – is difficult to change.
C. Legal determination of the seat
9 Since the determination of the registered office is part of the compulsory minimum content of the articles of association of corporate bodies under the Swiss Code of Obligations (Art. 626 No. 1, Art. 764 para. 2, Art. 776 No. 1, Art. 832 No. 1 CO), Art. 56 CC can only have an effect in the remaining area of legal persons under the CC. For associations and foundations, the CC does not formulate an obligation to determine the registered office in the articles. In the absence of such a provision, the registered office is located "at the place where its administration is conducted" (so-called actual registered office). Normatively, this ensures that associations and foundations always have a registered office.
10 Doctrinal opinions differ as to the exact content of this objective connection: While one doctrine assumes that the place of the actual administrative centre is meant, according to a divergent opinion, the place where the decisive instructions are issued is to be taken into account. The Federal Supreme Court, on the other hand, follows a pragmatic approach that can probably also be described as "mediating": According to this approach, the place of actual management is the place where the acts that in their entirety serve to achieve the statutory purpose are performed; if these management acts are not concentrated locally at a single connecting point, the focus of action is to be taken (for example, the place where the legal person concludes its contracts; the naming of corresponding c/o addresses in the correspondence of the legal person, which indicate a specific place of action; as well as, in the area of trade, the trade volumes that are processed via a specific place). By its very nature, this also requires a case-by-case approach.
IV. Legal significance of the seat
A. Jurisdiction of authorities
11 As a general rule of thumb, the local authority jurisdiction follows the seat of the legal person. However, this principle is not absolute and should be specified as follows:
Commercial register authorities: Legal entities are to be entered in the commercial register of the place of domicile. The decisive factors are, on the one hand, the political municipality (Art. 117 HRegV) and, on the other hand, the legal domicile (Art. 2 lit. b HRegV) as the address for service. If there is no legal domicile, the legal consequences of Art. 152 HRegV apply. The commercial registry office sets a deadline for the legal entity with the request to make the required application or to prove that no registration, amendment or deletion is required (para. 1). The request also contains a reference to the relevant provisions and the legal consequences in the event that it is not complied with (para. 2).
Judicial authorities: In principle, the courts at the domicile of legal persons have territorial jurisdiction for actions against them (Art. 10 para. 1 lit. b CPC). However, this principle – based on the guarantee of the court of domicile – is qualified by a large number of exceptions (cf. Art. 12 ff. CPC). See also, in the context of international private law, Art. 151 para. 1 PILA, which establishes jurisdiction for corporate actions at the seat of the company, and Art. 165 PILA on the recognition of foreign decisions on corporate claims.
Debt enforcement and bankruptcy authorities: The ordinary place of debt collection for legal entities registered in the Commercial Register is their (civil law) registered office; that of legal entities not registered in the Commercial Register is the head office of their administration (Art. 46 para. 2 SchKG). It should be noted that not every place of debt collection also constitutes a place of bankruptcy; in addition to the ordinary place of debt collection, the following may be considered for legal persons: the place of business of a debtor domiciled abroad (Art. 50 para. 1 SchKG), the place of assets in the case of an auxiliary bankruptcy (Art. 166 et seq. PILA).
Retention of title: a retention of title under Art. 715 para. 1 CC must be entered at the registered office of the legal person in a public register to be kept by the debt enforcement office in order to be effective.
Tax authorities: The registered office has limited significance in tax law. First of all, it should be noted that the concept of domicile for tax purposes is not the same as that under civil law. Furthermore, although "personal affiliation" in principle gives rise to a tax liability under federal or cantonal law (cf. e.g. Art. 20 para. 1 StHG; § 55 StG ZH; § 62 StG AG), tax law often focuses on economic aspects, which is why a mere domicile in a letterbox is not yet able to establish a domicile relevant under tax law if the actual business activity takes place at another location.
Other authorities and in particular supervisory authorities: As a connecting factor for the jurisdiction of supervisory authorities, the domicile is of importance above all in social security law (cf. Art. 61 para. 1 BVG for pension funds in general; Art. 89a para. 6 item 12 ZGB for staff welfare foundations). In the case of ordinary foundations, on the other hand, the domicile is not the sole decisive factor for the establishment of supervision, but the sphere of activity; thus, in the case of foundations operating throughout Switzerland or internationally, the Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA) is always the supervisory authority.
B. Further aspects
12 The registered office may also be of importance for company law. In principle, geographical designations, such as names of mountains, passes, rivers, lakes or seas, may be used freely. However, because the average public perceives municipality names and other indications of place as an indication of the registered office of the legal entity, federal court jurisprudence, commercial register practice and doctrine are of the unanimous opinion that the indication of the name of a political municipality (or a locality within it) is permissible as a company component if this corresponds to the actual registered office of the legal entity in question. This must be taken into account in particular with regard to the truthfulness requirement of Art. 944 CO, according to which a misleading company name could even have consequences under the law of unfair competition.
V. Transfer of registered office
A. Transfer of domicile within the country
13 A necessary correlate of the free choice of the registered office in the articles of association is that domestic relocations of the registered office must in principle always be permissible. Supervised foundations are an important exception if the seat has been determined in the articles: In this case, a change of organisation is regularly required pursuant to Art. 85 et seq. ZGB, which may require the involvement of the supervisory authority.
14 Under commercial register law, Art. 123 para. 1 HRegV applies, according to which a legal entity must apply for registration at the new registered office if it moves its registered office to a district other than the previous register district. The application and registration procedure is then governed by Art. 123 para. 2–6, Art. 124 ff. HRegV. In the case of a transfer of registered office that is subject to registration (e.g. in the case of a company limited by shares, cf. Art. 647 CO), the validity is governed by Art. 936a para. 1 CO. Seat transfers not subject to registration (for example, of certain associations) become binding at the time of the effective passing of the resolution.
15 Subject to certain exceptions – such as the fixing of the place of debt collection under Art. 53 SchKG and the perpetuatio fori in the case of lis pendens under Art. 64 para. 1 lit. b CPC – the transfer of the registered office establishes the principal jurisdiction of the authorities at the new place of business.
16 Finally, changes of domicile due to mergers, demergers and transformations are governed by the provisions of the Merger Act.
B. Transfer of registered office abroad
1. The domicile of legal persons in Swiss private international law
17 In private international law, the term "company" rather than "legal person" is used. According to Art. 150 para. 1 PILA, this includes both organised associations of persons and organised property units. Although this evokes the definition of Art. 52 para. 1 CC, the international private law definition does not presuppose legal personality. In other words, the international private law definition can encompass more entities than that of the CC.
18 According to Art. 21 para. 1 PILA, the seat of companies and trusts is deemed to be the "domicile". The domicile of a company is understood to be the place designated in the articles of association of a legal entity or in the partnership agreement of a partnership. Subsidiarily, the place of actual administration is deemed to be the domicile. Thus, the PILA mirrors the provision of Art. 56 CC.However, the statutory seat is subject to a fiction reservation with regard to questions of jurisdiction.
19 For jurisdiction in the area of the PILA, see above n. 11. The law applicable to companies under international private law is determined according to Art. 154 PILA: According to its para. 1, the personal statute is determined on the basis of the incorporation or formation theory, i.e. the company is subject to the law under whose rules it was formed and organised, irrespective of its current place of administration. If, however, this state does not have such registration or publicity regulations or the company does not comply with them, paragraph 2 applies as a subsidiary rule, according to which the law applicable to the company is that of the state in which it is actually administered (so-called seat theory).
2. Transfer of seat under Swiss private international law
a. Preliminary note on terminology
20 From the perspective of Swiss private international law, the immigration or emigration of a Swiss company always requires an actual "change of law", because on the basis of the theory of incorporation prevailing in Switzerland, the mere "change of domicile", understood as a simple transfer of the administrative seat, has no effect on the company's statute.
b. Transfer from abroad to Switzerland
21 The transfer of the registered office of a foreign company to Switzerland is governed by Art. 161 et seq. PILA. According to Art. 161 para. 1 PILA, a foreign company may subject itself to Swiss law without liquidation and new formation if the foreign law (so-called emigration statute) permits it, the company fulfils the requirements of the foreign law and the adaptation to a Swiss legal form is possible (due to the principle of fixation of forms). Ratio legis of this provision is a possibility to adopt a personal statute as far as possible in accordance with the formation theory.
22 In relation to the member states of the EU, the (limited) scope of application of the freedom of establishment (Art. 49 and 54 TFEU) to companies must also be taken into account, which has, however, been successively extended by the ECJ.
c. Transfer from Switzerland to a foreign country
23 Mirroring Art. 161 para. 1 PILA, Art. 163 para. 1 PILA provides for the possibility of a formal transfer out of Switzerland: A Swiss company may subject itself to foreign law without liquidation and re-incorporation if the requirements under Swiss law are met and it continues to exist under the foreign law (Art. 163 para. 1 PILA).
d. Immigration and emigration merger
24 Finally, it should be noted that cross-border seat transfers may also result from merger situations, which are each possible as absorption or combination mergers (Art. 163a f. PILA).
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