Competition Update Switzerland - Q4 2008

Extract

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Competition Update Switzerland - Q4 2008

INVESTIGATIONS

Swiss Supreme Court acknowledges limited privilege for

in-house solicitors

On 28 October 2008, the Swiss Supreme Court handed down an

important ruling in which it extended in some way the scope of

legal professional privilege to communications between parties and

their in-house solicitors in the context of Swiss competition law.

The Swiss Supreme Court confirmed the view, already expressed by

some commentators, according to which privilege extends to protect

internal communications involving in-house solicitors from

disclosure during competition investigations by the Federal

Competition Commission (FCC), provided that such communications

have not been made available by the company's corporate bodies

to other persons within the company and have been subject to steps

by the solicitor concerned to keep the information under his

control. That protection only applies to communicati...

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