NDJC: Successful representation of a client in a case of injunctive relief

My first LinkedIn post under this format NDJC (i.e., no deals, just cases), dated 30 May 2018, dealt with a successful summary litigation pursuant to Art. 257 of the Swiss Civil Procedure Code (CPC). I am pleased that I can now post information about another interesting matter.

Recently, I successfully represented a defendant against a competitor before the Commercial Court of the Canton of Zurich (Zurich Commercial Court) in a case of injunctive relief.

The claimant had filed a request for injunctive relief against my client with the Zurich Commercial Court asserting that my client had violated the Swiss Unfair Competition Act that, among other things, prohibits the dissemination of wrong or misleading information about a company’s products, services, etc. The Zurich Commercial Court rejected the claimant’s request for injunctive relief.

The above-mentioned proceedings were led by Dr. Johann Zürcher, a judge at the High Court of the Canton of Zurich. In the proceedings mentioned herein, Dr. Zürcher acted as a single judge at the Zurich Commercial Court. He is probably one of the leading experts in Switzerland regarding requests for injunctive relief, having even written a doctoral thesis on the topic of injunctive relief, published in 1998 (title: Der Einzelrichter am Handelsgericht des Kantons Zürich : einstweiliger und definitiver Rechtsschutz für immaterialgüter- und wettbewerbsrechtliche Ansprüche im summarischen Verfahren).

Interestingly, Dr. Zürcher had ordered in the proceedings at issue a double exchange of written submissions of the parties, although requests for injunctive relief are dealt with in summary proceedings and Art. 253 of the CPC does, in the sense of a general rule to be applied in summary proceedings, refer to only one exchange of submissions. This shows in my opinion that at least the Zurich Commercial Court is prepared to give the parties in more complex matters two possibilities to fully present their arguments in summary proceedings, which is a reasonable and to be welcomed approach in my view.

PHH, Zurich, 4 July 2018 (www.haberbeck.ch)

The information contained in this post is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal advice. Readers of this post should not take any actions or decisions without seeking specific legal advice.

Rechtsgebiete: Wettbewerbs- und Kartellrecht