SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Jodok Wicki, Daniel Zemp, Fabienne von Moos and Doruntina Dembogaj, CMS von Erlach Partners Ltd
Expected Underwriting Changes SLECs are likely to become more granular, reflect- ing multi-jurisdictional exposure. War, terrorism and political-violence wordings may be refined for hybrid threats, including state-sponsored cyber operations. Reinsurance capacity for geopolitically exposed risks may tighten, bringing higher retentions and more Evolving sanctions, armed conflicts and fragile sup- ply chains point to continuing geopolitically driven disputes. Claims teams and underwriters will need to co-ordinate earlier, preserve the rationale for payment decisions and test policy language against realistic cross-border scenarios before loss occurs. restrictive terms. Dispute Outlook 8. Emerging Risks 8.1 Market Overview of Emerging Risks Digital Concentration Cyber, AI and digital concentration are closely con- nected. Traditional property, business-interruption, general liability, D&O and professional indemnity poli- cies may respond to cyber or AI loss despite conven- tional assumptions, creating silent exposure. A major cloud or connectivity failure can affect many insureds, while AI-generated decisions or products may gener- ate allegations against developers, users and D&O. Climate and PFAS Climate risk is entering ordinary liability, property and financial-lines work. PFAS is an emerging long-tail environmental exposure that may create disputes about coverage, causation and policy years. Geopolitical and Infrastructure Risk Geopolitical tension affects supply chains, trade credit, political risk, aviation, marine, property and contingent business interruption, particularly where sanctions or export controls interrupt performance or payment. Data centres and next-generation nucle- ar projects concentrate values and dependencies. Underwriters must assess common suppliers, power, cooling, connectivity, control systems and regulatory dependencies, not only the asset.
Dispute Prevention Emerging-risk disputes usually begin with uncertainty about intended cover, aggregation, policy year, exclu- sion clarity and causation. Advisory work therefore focuses on sharper questions, scenario analysis, co- ordinated sublimits and exclusions, and early preser- vation of scientific, engineering and digital evidence. 8.2 Impact of ESG on Underwriting and Insurance Litigation ESG is increasingly a governance and underwriting issue. From the claims side, claims may allege that directors or advisers overstated transition plans, cli- mate resilience or product characteristics. The issues are: • accuracy; • supporting evidence; • consistency with internal risk processes; • causation; • reliance; • loss measurement; and • the distinction between regulatory concern, corpo- rate loss and insured liability. In the current soft market, there is a push for extending covers when renewing existing policies, that may seek to include or improve cover for ESG-related claims. PFAS contamination may generate product, tort, premises and safety claims, but latency, multiple sources and uncertain scientific attribution remain obstacles; regulatory developments may revive older conduct. PFAS disputes may engage D&O, general liability, product liability and environmental policies across policy years. 8.3 Data Protection Laws Switzerland’s revised Federal Act on Data Protec- tion (nDSG/FADP) has been in force since 1 Septem- ber 2023, together with FINMA’s tightening cyber- risk supervision. FINMA’s supervisory reviews have exposed recurring deficiencies, which are also rel- evant outside the financial industries sector – unclear governance lines, inadequate identification of critical data, weak access controls and untested backup/ recovery plans – that directly inform risk selection. Outsourcing is a particular focus: over half of reported
238 I NSURANCE L I T IGATI O N 2026
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