To enforce an arbitral award in Switzerland you need no exequatur, but a properly certified file and a ten-day clock. A Vaud case shows what that means.

Few things complicate a cross-border dispute as reliably as a second set of proceedings in the same matter: The same contract, the same parties, the same money — but one action pending in Switzerland and another in Paris, Milan or Frankfurt. Each party naturally prefers its own forum: for the language, the procedure, the judges, sometimes simply for the delay. The result is a race to the courthouse, and every developed system of private international law needs a rule for deciding who wins it....

A recent set of Swiss Federal Court rulings reaffirms the protective forum at the employee's domicile On 10 March 2026, the Swiss Federal Court issued three parallel rulings — BGer 4A_103/2025, 4A_105/2025 and 4A_107/2025 — disposing of a Swiss employer’s appeal against the refusal of Ticino’s appellate court to hear its cases against three Italy-domiciled former employees.. The appellant in all three cases was a Ticino joint-stock company that had employed the three employees, each domiciled...