What is the commercial register in Switzerland?

What is the commercial register?

In short, the commercial register is a public, officially maintained directory of legal events relating to companies and other private-law organizations. It is a public database administered by the cantons that contains the most important information about companies and organizations.

Regulations governing the commercial register are set out in the Swiss Code of Obligations and the Commercial Register Ordinance (HRegV). Each canton has its own commercial register. The federal government is responsible for overall supervision and maintains the central register (Central Company Index).

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What are the functions of the commercial register?

Once a company is entered in the commercial register, the provisions on company protection and bankruptcy proceedings apply. The commercial register also makes the legal relationships of companies public and thus transparent. The most important functions of the commercial register are:

• Positive publicity effect: According to the positive publicity effect, every entry in the commercial register is deemed to be public knowledge. Third parties cannot object in business transactions that they were not aware of a commercial register entry.
  
• Negative publicity effect: According to the negative publicity effect, third parties can rely on the contents of the commercial register unless they are aware of any contrary information. If information should have been entered and deleted but has not been, this cannot be used against third parties.

The commercial register creates transparency and legal certainty for companies in Switzerland. Registration brings advantages, but also obligations – an important step for every company.

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