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ARTICLE · 20 MARCH 2023

Federal Act On Combating Abusive Bankruptcy

Lenz & Staehelin
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The new Act aims at increasing the hurdles for a company to release its debts to the detriment of its creditors.

SwitzerlandInsolvency/Bankruptcy/Re-Structuring
Tanja Luginbuhl
Tanja Luginbuhl
Roman Graf
Roman Graf
Dominique Müller
Dominique Müller
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In addition to amendments to the Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Act (DEBA) and the Criminal Code (SCC), the Federal Act on Combating Abusive Bankruptcy also brings important changes to the Code of Obligations (CO) and the Commercial Register Ordinance (CRO). The new Act aims at increasing the hurdles for a company to release its debts to the detriment of its creditors. The amendments to the law and ordinances are expected to enter into force in January 2024.

Background

With the Federal Act on Combating Abusive Bankruptcy, the Swiss Federal Council and Parliament intend to reduce the potential to abuse bankruptcy proceedings through specific amendments of the law. In the future, debtors shall no longer be able to abuse bankruptcy proceedings to obtain a release of their financial obligations such as salary payments and other debts at the expense of creditors and social security insurances or to compete unfairly with other companies.

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