Federal Act
on the Protection of the Environment
(Environmental Protection Act, EPA)

¹ The op­er­at­or of an es­tab­lish­ment or an in­stall­a­tion that rep­res­ents a spe­cial threat to the en­vir­on­ment is li­able for the loss or dam­age arising from ef­fects that oc­cur when this threat be­comes real­ity. In the case of loss or dam­age that arises from the hand­ling of patho­gen­ic or­gan­isms, Art­icle 59a^bis ap­plies.¹³⁹

² As a rule, the fol­low­ing es­tab­lish­ments and in­stall­a­tions are re­garded as rep­res­ent­ing a spe­cial threat to the en­vir­on­ment:

a.

those that the Fed­er­al Coun­cil makes sub­ject to the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions in terms of Art­icle 10 on the basis of the sub­stances or or­gan­isms used or the waste pro­duced;

b.

those that are used for waste dis­pos­al;

c.

those in which li­quids which may pol­lute wa­ter are handled;

d.¹⁴⁰

those in which sub­stances are present for which the Fed­er­al Coun­cil has in­tro­duced a li­cens­ing re­quire­ment or oth­er spe­cial reg­u­la­tions to pro­tect the en­vir­on­ment.

³ Any per­son who proves that the loss or dam­age was caused by force ma­jeure or by gross neg­li­gence on the part of the in­jured party or of a third party is re­lieved of li­ab­il­ity.

⁴ Art­icles 42–47 and 49–53 of the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions¹⁴¹ ap­ply.¹⁴²

⁵ The re­ser­va­tion in Art­icle 3 ap­plies to li­ab­il­ity pro­vi­sions in oth­er fed­er­al acts.

⁶ The Con­fed­er­a­tion, can­tons and com­munes may also be held li­able in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 1–5.