Corporate Law Reform 2020

With the Corporate Law Reform, the Swiss legislator aims to improve the corporate governance of listed and private companies and enhance flexibility with regard to changes in the capital structure. In our series of legal updates on the Corporate Law Reform, we will keep you up to date on relevant new provisions and changes in corporate law.

On 19 June 2020, Swiss Parliament adopted the final text of the long-awaited Corporate Law Reform. While the Federal Office of Justice currently expects the bulk of the changes not to be enacted until 2023, important new provisions on gender quotas for large listed companies and on transparency in the commodities sector already entered into force as at 1 January 2021.

In a series of clear and concise legal updates on the Corporate Law Reform, Pestalozzi's specialists will regularly summarise the new corporate law provisions and changes of relevance for legal practice.

We have already issued legal updates on the following topics:

• Changes in corporate law as at 1 January 2021
• Share capital (part 1) – foreign currency
• Share capital (part 2) – changes in share capital and capital band
• Ledger-based securities: introduction of DLT shares in Switzerland
• Transfer of the provisions on compensation in listed stock corporations to the Swiss Code of Obligations
• Publicly traded companies
• Personal membership rights
• New provisions concerning shareholders’ meetings
• Board of directors, management and auditors

We will regularly send further legal updates in the Corporate Law Reform series to our newsletter subscribers and publish them here on our website. Would you like to receive our legal updates on Corporate Law Reform automatically? Then register here and select ‘Corporate / M&A’ as your area of interest.