SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Annemarie Lagger, Amina Chammah and Isabell Schellhas, Walder Wyss Ltd
Legal Protection Insurance Since the threshold for receiving legal aid is high and the costs for initiating proceedings are considerable, legal protection insurance is becoming increasingly common among consumers. Even standard insurance packages include a legal protection policy. While the conditions of such policies vary significantly and most insurance policies tend to avoid litigation and to settle potential disputes, it is, however, difficult to quantify the impact of legal protection insurance on product liability claims. 2.16 Existence of Class Actions, Representative Proceedings or Co-Ordinated Proceedings in Product Liability Claims There are no real collective redress procedures in Switzerland. However, it is possible to jointly bring several claims (eg, by a number of claimants filing their claims together when there are similar facts and legal grounds) in one proceeding or by way of an assignment of the individual claims to a claimant party. However, since this is usually cumbersome, it is rarely used. When the general revision of the Swiss Civil Procedure Code was launched in 2018, it included proposals to introduce collective redress mechanisms, but these were later spun off into a separate legislative project due to political controversy. The bill, which aimed at improving access to justice for groups of affected individuals, particularly in consumer and environmen - tal matters, was met with strong resistance on the grounds that it was incompatible with the Swiss legal system and risked its “Americanisation”. The bill was ultimately rejected by the Swiss Parliament in Sep - tember 2025. 2.17 Summary of Significant Recent Product Liability Claims There are not many published decisions concern - ing product liability in Switzerland as most cases are resolved through settlement. However, the following cases are noteworthy. In its landmark decision 4A_648/2024 of 30 January 2026, the Federal Supreme Court ruled that claims for damages based on tort (and supported by prod - uct liability law) brought by a child for prenatal injury
essary costs are charged to the party that caused them, independently of whether it was the losing party. 2.15 Available Funding in Product Liability Claims Third-Party Funding Third-party funding is permitted in Switzerland and does exist, although it is not very common. In princi - ple, there are no restrictions on third-party funding, as long as the funded party is still in control of the claim. If the funded party is represented by legal counsel, it is important to avoid any set-up that might impair the counsel’s ability to act independently and to pursue only their client’s interests. Otherwise, such a set-up might interfere with the counsel’s obligations pursuant to the rules of professional conduct. Contingency Fee Agreements “No win, no fee” and contingency fee agreements are not permitted under Swiss law since they are consid - ered to stand in contradiction to the counsel’s obliga - tions to act independently. According to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, the attorney’s rules of profes - sional conduct require a base salary, which does not only cover the attorney’s costs but must also guaran - tee a certain profit. Only if this precondition is met may the parties agree on an additional success fee element in the sense of a top-up fee. Legal Aid Legal aid is available (mostly) for private individuals under the preconditions that (i) the requesting party does not have the funds to finance the proceedings, and (ii) the case is not devoid of any chance of suc - cess. The request must be placed with the same court that is also deciding on the merits. The court will decide on the request in a formal, preliminary pro - ceeding, during which the requesting party must fully disclose its financial situation and state its position on the merits. If legal aid is granted, the applicant is relieved from the obligation to pay any court costs (including any advance on costs) and the state will cover any reasonable lawyer’s fees. However, legal aid does not relieve the applicant from the obligation to pay party compensation to the opposing party in the case of defeat.
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