Swiss Civil Procedure Code
(Civil Procedure Code, CPC)

¹ The can­tons may des­ig­nate a spe­cial court that has jur­is­dic­tion as sole can­ton­al in­stance for com­mer­cial dis­putes (com­mer­cial court).

² A dis­pute is con­sidered com­mer­cial, if:

a.

it con­cerns the com­mer­cial activ­ity of at least one party;

b.¹⁸

the value in dis­pute ex­ceeds CHF 30,000 or the dis­pute is not a prop­erty dis­pute;

c.¹⁹

the parties are re­gistered as leg­al en­tit­ies in the Swiss Com­mer­cial Re­gister or in an equi­val­ent for­eign re­gister; and

d.²⁰

it is not a dis­pute arising from a em­ploy­ment re­la­tion­ship, un­der the Re­cruit­ment Act of 6 Oc­to­ber 1989²¹, un­der the Gender Equal­ity Act of 24 March 1995²², or re­lat­ing to the rent­ing or leas­ing of res­id­en­tial and com­mer­cial premises or to ag­ri­cul­tur­al leases.

³ If only the de­fend­ant is re­gistered as a leg­al en­tity in the Swiss Com­mer­cial Re­gister or in an equi­val­ent for­eign re­gister, but all the oth­er con­di­tions are met, the plaintiff may choose between the com­mer­cial court and the or­din­ary court.²³

⁴ The can­tons may also as­sign to the com­mer­cial court:

a.

the dis­putes men­tioned in Art­icle 5 para­graph 1;

b.

the dis­putes re­lat­ing to the law of com­mer­cial com­pan­ies and co­oper­at­ives;

c.²⁴

dis­putes in which all the fol­low­ing con­di­tions are met:

1.

The dis­pute con­cerns the busi­ness activ­it­ies of at least one party.

2.

The value in dis­pute is at least CHF 100,000.

3.

The parties agree to the jur­is­dic­tion of the com­mer­cial court.

4.

At the time of this agree­ment, at least one party has its dom­i­cile, ha­bitu­al res­id­ence or re­gistered of­fice abroad.

⁵ The com­mer­cial court is also com­pet­ent to or­der in­ter­im meas­ures be­fore an ac­tion is pending.

⁶ If ac­tions con­cern joint parties that are not all re­gistered as leg­al en­tit­ies in the Swiss Com­mer­cial Re­gister or in a com­par­able for­eign re­gister, the com­mer­cial court shall only have jur­is­dic­tion if all ac­tions fall with­in its jur­is­dic­tion.²⁵