Newsletter: A New Option on the Horizon - The Zurich International Commercial Court

At the 2025 Swiss Arbitration Summit, Wartmann Merker hosted a panel discussion on the Zurich International Commercial (ZICC). With insights from Martin Bernet (counsel and arbitrator; head of the Zurich Bar Association's working group on the ZICC), Aurélie Conrad Hari (vice-president of the Geneva International Legal Association) and Daniel Schwander (judge at the Zurich Commercial Court), the panel—introduced and moderated by Wartmann Merker’s Peter Reichart and Anne-Catherine Hahn—discussed the ZICC's potential as a new avenue for resolving international commercial disputes.

Building on Established Traditions

The Zurich Commercial Court is known for actively facilitating settlement discussions at a relatively early stage of the proceedings. It does so with the help of industry experts who serve as commercial judges, along with professional judges from the Zurich High Court.

Following the creation of international commercial courts in other European countries, the Zurich Bar Association has been exploring the possibility of "internationalizing" this offering since 2018. This initiative would allow the Zurich Commercial Court to conduct proceedings in English and provide parties with the right to choose not only Zurich as the place of jurisdiction but also the Zurich Commercial Court as the competent court in cross-border disputes.

With the recent revision of the Swiss Code of Civil Procedure, this has now become a reality. Under the revised rules, the cantons can allow proceedings to be conducted in English. In addition, commercial disputes can be referred to a commercial court if the following requirements are met:

• The parties have agreed to the jurisdiction of the commercial court.

• At least one party is domiciled or has its registered office abroad.

• The dispute concerns the business activities of at least one party.

• The dispute value amounts to CHF 100,000 or more.

Based on these changes, the ZICC is expected to go live in 2027 as a specialized section of the existing Zurich Commercial Court.

Settlement Facilitation as a Key Characteristic of Proceedings

The Zurich Commercial Court usually holds settlement hearings after the first exchange of written submissions, typically within six to nine months after the commencement of proceedings. At this hearing, a delegation of the court provides a preliminary—yet thorough—assessment of the parties' legal positions and, based on this assessment, moderates settlement discussions. The settlement rate at these hearings is very high, in the range of 80-90%.

The judges' active involvement in the settlement process may seem unusual for practitioners from common law jurisdictions. Nevertheless, commercial parties seeking a swift resolution of their disputes tend to see this element, along with the involvement of industry experts, as a main advantage of the Zurich Commercial Court.

How the ZICC Will Operate

The ZICC will build on this established record while expanding the court's international reach.

The ZICC will administer proceedings fully in English: the parties' briefs, the court orders, the settlement hearing, and the judgment will all be in English. Otherwise, the framework for proceedings before the ZICC will essentially mirror that of the existing Zurich Commercial Court. This means that decisions are only subject to one level of appeal, namely to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, and only on limited grounds.

As in other proceedings, court fees and compensation for legal fees will be determined based on the amount in dispute, in accordance with the cantonal tariff. For full proceedings up to a judgment on the merits, court fees for a dispute of CHF 10 million are approximately CHF 120,000, while a dispute over CHF 50 million incurs fees of around CHF 300,000. The prevailing party is awarded legal fees comparable to the court fees. In the case of a settlement, however, court fees are significantly lower and generally split between the parties, with each side bearing its legal fees.

Easy Enforceability of ZICC Decisions

Thanks to the Lugano Convention (which mirrors EC Regulation 44/2001), decisions of the ZICC will be easily enforceable in Member States of the European Union, as well as in Norway and Iceland. Under the Lugano Convention, enforcement is based on ex parte applications, with the grounds for refusal being defined narrowly. As noted during the panel, enforcing Swiss court decisions across Europe is therefore much faster and less burdensome than the enforcement of arbitral awards under the New York Convention.

As more states accede to the new Hague Conventions on Choice of Court Agreement and on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, the enforcement framework in relation to the United Kingdom and non-European countries will be further strengthened.

Outlook

Unlike international arbitral tribunals, commercial courts conduct proceedings based on national civil procedure rules in accordance with local usages. The initiative for the creation of the ZICC responds to a growing demand for dispute resolution by courts rooted in the civil law tradition.

Parties choosing to submit disputes to the ZICC must be aware that they have only limited influence over the conduct of proceedings. This also applies to the taking of evidence: as a rule, the Zurich Commercial Court relies heavily on documentary evidence. It hears witnesses only if settlement efforts have failed and only if necessary to prove relevant, disputed facts. In practice, this creates a strong incentive for frontloading, as the parties are well-advised to present and document their case as fully as possible in their initial submissions.

This procedural framework, combined with comparatively low costs and the easy enforceability of judgments in Europe, can be an attractive option for contractual disputes involving Swiss and international companies—such as those arising from cross-border supply or distribution agreements, or from M&A transactions with Swiss or European parties. For other types of disputes, or for parties from outside continental Europe, arbitration may be more suitable. In any case, as highlighted during Wartmann Merker's panel discussion, the ZICC builds on the Zurich Commercial Court’s established practice and reputation for efficiency, further reinforcing Switzerland’s status as a premier dispute resolution hub in Europe and providing parties with an additional option well worth considering.