Introduction
Corporate criminal liability has been applicable in Switzerland
since October 2003. The key provision is Article 102 of the Swiss
Criminal Code (SCC), which applies not only to private legal
entities, but also to public entities (with the exception of local
authorities), partnerships and sole proprietorships. For ease of
reference, the word "corporation" used here is deemed to
encompass any of the above entities.
In the first decade following its adoption, Article 102 SCC was
only used on very rare occasions. However, over the last couple of
years, the trend has changed and shows that the number of criminal
investigations launched against corporations is steadily
increasing. Some of these investigations relate to widely reported
cases such as the prosecutions launched, on a cantonal or federal
level, against Alstom, HSBC, Addax Petroleum, Petrobras, 1MDB,
SICPA and NotaSys, to name a few.
