The Legal 500

With Judgement n. 19509 dated 14 September 2010, the Italian Supreme Court handed down its decision on the long-debated issue of how to treat mergers completed prior to the 2003 revision of the Italian Civil Code.

1. Introduction On the 1st of January 2011 the new Swiss Code of Civil Procedure entered into force. Among other things, it introduces a new remedy, referred to as an «enforceable public instrument»

Michel Jaccard (TMT|IP, Corporate) lists in the Bilan magazine the 10 challenges in 2012 for the media and technology industries.

The European Commission adopted on October 20 its draft proposal for a Directive on markets in financial instruments (MIFID II) repealing Directive 2004/39/EC, which surprisingly remained almost uncommented in Switzerland so far.

The Revision of the Unfair Competition Act increases the requirements for general terms and conditions for contracts with consumers as of July 2012 and introduces specific disclosure obligations in e-commerce as of April 2012.

Foreword Switzerland and its Financial Market

Securities

TinaWu« stemann* and Delphine Pannatier Kesslery

Though the Swiss economy appeared to come out of the economic crisis relatively unscathed, it’s not all plain sailing, says Baer & Karrer’s Eric Stupp.

The Swiss domestic bond market virtually died after the Swiss federal stamp tax act came into force back in 1973. Swiss insurance stamp tax must be paid on the insurance bonds by, among others, a Swiss-resident company or the Swiss-registered branch of a foreign resident company.

1. Reasons to revise Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) 2. Status of new Protocol to DTAA 3. Application of new Protocol to DTAA 4. Development of Swiss policy of tax information exchange