SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Mani Reinert and Pascal Hachem, Bär & Karrer
12. Appeals 12.1 Basis of Appeal
10.2 Alternative Dispute Resolution Generally, the parties must conduct a conciliation pro - ceeding before filing a lawsuit.
Decisions of the courts designated to decide on antitrust litigation can be appealed to the Federal Supreme Court. The appeal is generally only on points of law. The factual grounds of the appealed decision are reviewed only in exceptional circumstances.
11. Funding and Costs 11.1 Litigation Funding
Third-party funding is permissible if the funder acts independently of the party’s attorney. However, third- party funding is not yet widely used in Switzerland; one of the reasons for this is the lack of collective redress in Swiss civil procedure. 11.2 Costs There are two types of costs: • court costs; and • fees of the opposing party’s attorney. The court costs are typically determined in relation to the value of the dispute. The court costs have to be borne by the losing party. If a party loses only in part, the court costs are divided proportionally. The court requires the plaintiff to advance the estimated court costs (generally up to half the amount; in exceptional cases, the entire estimated court costs). As regards the fees of the opposing party’s attorney, the losing party has to pay these. However, the court determines the amount based not on the actual fees of the attorney but on criteria that differ in each canton (value of dispute, complexity, appropriate efforts, etc). The fees awarded to the winning party generally do not cover the fees of the attorney.
13. Looking Forward 13.1 Legislative Trends and Other Developments
See 1.2 Recent Developments regarding chang - es to the Cartel Act (expected in July 2027). These changes were made with a view towards strengthen - ing civil antitrust litigation in Switzerland. However, these changes may be expected to not fundamentally change the antitrust litigation landscape. A true true game-changer would be the adoption of a collective action regime or of a consumer protection organisa - tion outside assigned claims.
186 A NTITRUST LI T IGATI O N 2026
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