News

The annual Jazz Brunch is as much a part of BGPartner as the negotiation competence or the different legal services. For the 23rd time over 240 guests enjoyed culinary delights, fantastic jazz music, great weather and a relaxed atmosphere on the Gurten Hill (Berne). This year, after more than two decades of powerful welcome addresses, Senior Partner Michael Bader officially handed over the microphone to CEO Elena Mégevand-Valli.

A big thank you to the Gurten - Park im Grünen crew under the new leadership of Patrick Vogel for the smooth running of the event and the Imelda Gabs Jazz band, who has remained loyal to us over the years, despite her rising fame. Here you can find the photo gallery. 

"The World's Toughest Row" is the ultimate rowing competition across the Pacific ocean. 14 teams gather to test themselves against mother nature and to compete the 4,500 kilometers from California to Hawaii. BGPartner is proud to be a partner of the Swiss Kiwi Fondue Team.

As negotiation experts, we want to explore the parallels between tough negotiations and rowing at the limit. We will accompany the team during this challenge and discuss these parallels with them. Besides the impressive athletic and mental performance of the rowers, it is remarkable that the Kiwi Fondue Team will donate USD 60,000 to help rebuild coral reefs. The funds will go to the charity Coral Vita. Interested in making a donation as well? Click here.

Negotiations are in everybody's mind. Hardly a report in the news, a field report from the business world or a further training course fails to mention this topic. The relevance of negotiation skills in professional life across all industries and companies seems undisputed. Nevertheless, little is known about how executives actually negotiate in the Swiss business world.

BGPartner AG, in cooperation with the Negotiation Academy Potsdam (NAP), has conducted the first scientifically based practical study on the negotiation behavior of Swiss executives. More on the topic of negotiation.

The results of the study "How do Swiss executives negotiate?" were presented to around 100 invited guests at the Kongresshaus Zurich on May 25, 2023. In the subsequent panel discussion, experts from business and science discussed the study results and their significance for practice. Click here for the aftermovie.

Three important key findings from the study are briefly summarized here once again:

1. Only 48% of all Swiss executives had the topic of negotiation as part of their training. Although the trend is rising, there is a considerable need to catch up: In Germany, for example, 70% of all executives already enjoy negotiation training.
2. 62% of all Swiss executives are not prepared by their companies for upcoming negotiation tasks. Here, too, there is a considerable need for action, especially since it has been proven that much better negotiation results can be achieved with appropriate training and continuing education.
3. Only 32% of all Swiss executives regularly negotiate in teams, although team negotiations have been proven to achieve better results. The potential here is also not fully exhausted.

The panel members were: Andrea Wucher (entrepreneur and independent board member), Marc Lüthi (Chairman and CEO of SCB Eishockey AG), Yusuf Savmaz (Member of Executive Committee, BNP Paribas Wealth Management Switzerland) and, on the part of the study authors, Prof. Dr. Uta Herbst (NAP, University of Potsdam), Prof. Dr. Markus Voeth (NAP, University of Hohenheim) as well as Elena Mégevand (lawyer, partner and CEO of BGPartner) and Oliver Gnehm (lawyer, partner and chairman of BGPartner). Download complete media release.

Banking and financial markets law: In the pilot case of a PostFinance customer against PostFinance, the question is whether the customer must accept a negative balance on his account that arose due to a software error with the payment processor of a PostFinance partner (online casino). The case already made headlines more than two years ago and has now been decided by the Higher Court of the Canton of Bern.

Specifically, the present case concerns amounts that were transferred from the PostFinance account to a Jackpots.ch gaming account but were not debited directly. Customers thus believed that their PostFinance balance was still in the black; they played with money they did not actually have. After discovering the glitch with the online casino's payment processor, PostFinance debited the pending orders in one fell swoop, driving around 1,000 online gamblers in Switzerland into partly massive negative balances.

The Regional Court of Bern - Mittelland ruled on July 26, 2022 that all debits that violated the agreed overdraft limit had been made unlawfully, which is why PostFinance had no claim for reimbursement regarding the negative balances. The court of first instance accused PostFinance of a gross breach of duty.

PostFinance appealed against this decision to the High Court of the Canton of Berne. The High Court has now confirmed the decision of the Regional Court of Bern - Mittelland in a decision dated May 17, 2023 (with slightly different reasoning in procedural points), but in the result in full.

The case was conducted on behalf of BGPartner by Kathrin Straub (Of Counsel).

PostFinance can now still appeal the ruling to the Federal Supreme Court.

According to BILANZ Wirtschaftsmagazin and Le Temps, BGPartner is one of the top law firms in Switzerland in 2023 – for the 5th time in a row. BGPartner achieved a top ranking of 5 out of 5 stars in the area of "Private Equity and Venture Capital". Click here for the article. 

We are of course very proud of our outstanding BGPartner team and would like to thank our faithful clients and trusted partners as well as our colleagues, who have rated our services so positively.