<ol>
<li>In seiner Sitzung vom 29. November 2023 hat der Bundesrat die Verordnung über die wettbewerbsrechtliche Behandlung im Kraftfahrzeugsektor (<a href="https://www.newsd.admin.ch/newsd/message/attachments/84872.pdf">KFZ-Verordnung</a>) verabschiedet. Die KFZ-Verordnung wird per 1. Januar 2024 in Kraft gesetzt. Damit wird der Auftrag der Eidgenössischen Räte gemäss <a href="https://www.parlament.ch/de/ratsbetrieb/suche-curia-vista/geschaeft?AffairId=20183898">Motion Pfister</a> («Effektiver Vollzug des Kartellgesetzes beim Kraftfahrzeughandel»; <a href="https://www.homburger.ch/de/insights/vertriebskartellrecht-im-automobilsektor-annahme-der-motion-pfister" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vgl. zur Motion unser Push vom 17. März 2022</a>) umgesetzt und die bisherige KFZ-Bekanntmachung der Wettbewerbskommission (WEKO) in eine Verordnung umgegossen.</li>
<li>Mit dem Erlass der KFZ-Bekanntmachung sollen für den Wettbewerb schädliche Abreden und eine Abschottung des schweizerischen Automobilmarktes verhindert werden. Hierfür wird die KFZ-Bekanntmachung – die Verhaltensweisen nennt, die im Automobilvertrieb qualitativ schwerwiegende Wettbewerbsbeeinträchtigungen darstellen – inhaltlich im Wesentlichen unverändert übernommen. Insbesondere ist ein Kontrahierungszwang weiterhin nicht vorgesehen. Materielle Neuerungen beschränken sich auf eine moderate Nachführung infolge technischer Entwicklungen; z.B. gelten Beschränkungen des Zugangs zu technischen Informationen und/oder Werkzeugen für moderne Fahrzeugassistenzsysteme und Batteriemanagementsysteme als qualitativ schwerwiegend.</li>
<li>Schon bisher richteten die im Automobilvertrieb tätigen Unternehmen ihre Händlerverträge an den hohen und teilweise über das europäische Kartellrecht hinausgehende Anforderungen der KFZ-Bekanntmachung aus. Durch die Überführung in eine Verordnung wird dieses Sonderkartellrecht zementiert: Die KFZ-Verordnung ist – anders als Bekanntmachungen der WEKO – auch für Gerichte verbindlich. Es ist zu erwarten, dass diese Zementierung die Anpassung der Regeln an den in hohem Tempo voranschreitenden Strukturwandel der Branche und innovative Vertriebsmodelle erschwert.</li>
</ol>
Betroffenen Unternehmen wird empfohlen, die Einhaltung der verbindlichen KFZ-Verordnung zu überprüfen, insbesondere bei Anpassungen von Vertriebsvereinbarungen.

Automobilvertrieb: Bundesrat verabschiedet KFZ-Verordnung

Switzerland has joined the growing number of countries reviewing possible regulatory approaches to AI. At its November 22, 2023 meeting, the Swiss Federal Council commissioned the Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy, and Communication (DETEC) to draft an overview of possible regulatory approaches by the end of 2024. The Federal Council intends to use DETEC&#8217;s analysis as the basis for issuing an AI regulation proposal in 2025.  As we wrote in our <a href="https://www.homburger.ch/en/insights/ai-regulation-update-en">November 8 AI Regulation Update</a>, since the public launch of Chat-GPT a year ago, governments around the world have been racing to catch up with the rapid progress of AI.
According to the Swiss Federal Council&#8217;s <a href="https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start/documentation/media-releases.msg-id-98791.html">announcement</a>, DETEC&#8217;s analysis will build on existing Swiss law to identify regulatory approaches compatible with the EU&#8217;s forthcoming AI Act, the Council of Europe&#8217;s AI Convention, and fundamental rights. The analysis will also consider the effects that various regulatory regimes have on technological standards, the economy, and governance.
The Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) and the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, specifically the Interdepartmental Coordination Group on EU Digital Policy, will review the EU regulations. Other governmental bodies will also be involved, including the so-called «<a href="https://www.bakom.admin.ch/bakom/en/homepage/ofcom/international-activities/un-world-summit-on-the-information-society/wsis.html">Plateforme Tripartite</a>», an OFCOM stakeholder exchange platform for topics relating to the internet, digital governance, and AI.
The <a href="https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/regulatory-framework-ai">EU&#8217;s proposals</a> regarding the future AI Act contemplate analyzing and classifying AI systems according to the risk they pose to users. Under the EU’s proposal, systems considered a threat to people, such as cognitive behavioral manipulation, social scoring (i.e., classifying people based on behavior, socio-economic status, or personal characteristics), and real-time facial recognition, would be banned. High-risk systems, including those affecting critical infrastructure, education, employment, and law enforcement, would be subject to risk assessment and mitigation, as well as other regulations, before implementation. Limited risk systems, such as chatbots, would be subject to transparency obligations. The EU aims to reach agreement on a draft AI Act by the end of 2023.

AI-Regulation-CH_Web-Preview 1000x1000_03

Swiss Federal Council Launches AI Regulatory Regime Review

Since OpenAI made ChatGPT publicly available almost a year ago, the massive potential of AI has become apparent to the broader public. AI holds great promise, but it also poses significant risks to civil society, law, and government. The pursuit of progress raises important and difficult policy and ethical questions. Governments around the world have been racing to catch up with technology&#8217;s progress and formulating plans for future regulation.
These regulatory initiatives will significantly impact the development and future use of AI. We expect that few industries will remain competitive without embracing these technologies, so everyone should pay close attention to these regulatory developments and incorporate them into their own AI strategy and roadmap.
Below we summarize the most recent developments. On October 30, 2023, President Biden issued an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/10/30/executive-order-on-the-safe-secure-and-trustworthy-development-and-use-of-artificial-intelligence/">executive order</a> on the development and use of artificial intelligence. On November 1, 2023, 29 countries attending the AI Summit in the UK, including Switzerland, issued the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-safety-summit-2023-the-bletchley-declaration/the-bletchley-declaration-by-countries-attending-the-ai-safety-summit-1-2-november-2023">Bletchley Declaration</a>, a policy agenda intended to identify and mitigate AI safety risks. President Biden&#8217;s executive order and the Bletchley Declaration follow the <a href="https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/regulatory-framework-ai">EU&#8217;s announcements</a> regarding a regulatory framework proposal on AI and various related regulations in China, including <a href="http://www.cac.gov.cn/2023-07/13/c_1690898327029107.htm">interim measures</a> for the management of generative AI.
<h3>I. President Biden&#8217;s Executive Order</h3>
President Biden&#8217;s executive order directs agencies across the U.S. federal government to undertake regulatory action in response to AI technology. It will also release resources to promote AI development, including funding and research grants, in addition to streamlining the visa process for highly-skilled workers with relevant expertise. It does not create new laws or regulations, but it will likely form the basis for future federal regulations.
Salient features of the executive order include the following:
<ul>
<li>Broad approach to AI. The executive order broadly defines AI as any «machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations or decisions influencing real or virtual environments,» which encompasses generative AI, or systems leveraging neural networks, as well as other forms of statistical and computational tools.</li>
<li>Banking sector regulation. The U.S. Treasury Department has until March 2024 to publish a report on how the banking sector can manage cybersecurity risk from the use of AI tools.</li>
<li>Competition. U.S. federal agencies are encouraged to foster competition in AI. The Federal Trade Commission has identified AI as an area of possible anticompetitive conduct.</li>
<li>Deep fakes. The U.S. Commerce Department has until June 2024 to identify and propose standards for authenticating, detecting, labeling, and preventing as necessary the creation of «synthetic content».</li>
<li>Healthcare. U.S. federal agencies will establish a program for reporting and remedying harms and unsafe healthcare practices involving AI.</li>
<li>International engagement. The U.S. Commerce and State Departments will lead efforts to implement AI-related standards. Federal agencies must establish plans for global engagement to develop AI standards, including as they relate to best practices regarding data capture, processing protection, and privacy, as well as trustworthiness, verification, assurance of AI systems, and risk management.</li>
<li>Intellectual property. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office must provide guidance regarding AI-related IP issues, including the scope of protection for AI-produced works and the treatment of copyrighted works in AI training. Other federal agencies are tasked with developing guidance, as well as a training, analysis, and evaluation program to mitigate the risk of AI-related IP theft. The program calls for government personnel dedicated to collecting and analyzing reports of AI-related IP theft, investigating such incidents with implications for national security, and, where appropriate and consistent with applicable law, pursuing related enforcement actions.</li>
<li>Reporting. To ensure no dual-use foundation models<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a> are used for illegitimate purposes, within 90 days of the executive order companies developing such models will be required to report on the model&#8217;s training, development, and production, as well as ownership and possession of its model weights and measures taken to protect them. Further, companies will be required to report the results of any developed dual-use foundation model&#8217;s performance in relevant AI «red-team testing,»<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2">[2]</a> which will be performed based on governmental guidance, and descriptions of any associated measures taken to meet safety objectives, such as mitigation to improve performance on red-team tests and strengthen overall model security. Additionally, companies that have, develop, or acquire a «large-scale computing cluster»<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3">[3]</a> will be required to report the existence and location of the clusters and the computing power in each cluster to the federal government.</li>
<li>Security. The Commerce Department will propose regulations that require U.S. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) providers to report the «foreign persons»—any non-U.S. person, including companies—with whom they train large AI models that could be used for malicious activities. At a minimum, the reports must include the identity of the foreign actor and each instance in which a foreign person transacts with the foreign reseller to use the U.S. IaaS product to conduct a training run.</li>
</ul>
<h3>II. Bletchley Declaration</h3>
At the beginning of November, as part of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/ai-safety-summit-2023">AI Safety Summit</a>, government officials and business leaders gathered at Bletchley Park in England, famous as the main center of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War, to discuss AI-related risks and mitigation. The Bletchley Declaration sets forth a policy agenda for mitigating AI risks by investing in research, demanding transparency from private AI developers, and adopting evaluation metrics and tools for safety testing.
Like President Biden&#8217;s executive order, the Bletchley Declaration focuses on the particular safety risks that arise at the «frontier» of AI, or general-purpose AI models, including foundation models, that can perform a wide variety of tasks, cybersecurity, biotechnology, and disinformation. It recognizes the need for international cooperation, but also acknowledges that countries should consider the importance of innovation and adopt proportionate regulations that maximize benefits.
This general approach accommodates the <a href="https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/regulatory-framework-ai">EU&#8217;s proposals</a> regarding a future AI Act, which contemplate analyzing and classifying AI systems according to the risk they pose to users. Under the EU&#8217;s proposal, systems considered a threat to people, such as cognitive behavioral manipulation, social scoring (i.e. classifying people based on behavior, socio-economic status, or personal characteristics), and real-time facial recognition, would be banned. High-risk systems, including those affecting critical infrastructure, education, employment, and law enforcement, would be subject to risk assessment and mitigation, as well as other regulations, before implementation. Limited risk systems, such as chatbots, would be subject to transparency obligations. The EU aims to reach agreement on a draft AI Act by the end of 2023.
China is also a signatory to the Bletchley Declaration. Like the EU&#8217;s AI Act proposals, China&#8217;s new interim regulatory measures for the management of generative AI, which came into force on August 15, 2023, emphasize the need for risk prevention and contemplate a regulatory regime predicated on use.
President Biden&#8217;s executive order, the Bletchley Declaration, the EU&#8217;s AI Act proposals, and China&#8217;s interim measures suggest broad convergence regarding the need to adopt minimal safety and security measures to regulate AI based on use and risk profile. Companies that use, develop, or acquire AI technology will want to review the relevant documents, stay abreast of developments, and adopt applicable guidance in their policies and procedures.
<h6><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a>        Dual-use foundation models are defined as “an AI model that is trained on broad data, generally uses self-supervision, contains at least tens of billions of parameters, is applicable across a wide range of contexts and that exhibits, or could be easily modified to exhibit, high levels of performance at tasks that pose a serious risk to security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination of those matters.”</h6>
<h6><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2">[2]</a>        Red-team testing refers to a «structured testing effort to find flaws and vulnerabilities in an AI system, often in a controlled environment and in collaboration with developers of AI.»</h6>
<h6><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3">[3]</a>        The executive order directs various federal agencies to define «large-scale computing cluster.» For the time being, the phrase includes «(i) any model that was trained using a quantity of computing power greater than 1026 integer or floating-point operations, or using primarily biological sequence data and using a quantity of computing power greater than 1023 integer or floating-point operations; and (ii) any computing cluster that has a set of machines physically co-located in a single datacenter, transitively connected by data center networking of over 100 Gbit/s, and having a theoretical maximum computing capacity of 1020 integer or floating-point operations per second for training AI.»</h6>

Bulletin-Preview-1000x1000

AI Regulation Update 

Gesellschaftsrecht / M&A

Steuern

Finanzierungen und Anlageprodukte

Regulierung

Wettbewerb

Woehrle-web-640x140

Homburger News

Share-Image Teamplate Deals-and-Cases

On November 30, 2023, Wöhrle Group, headquartered in Wildberg, Germany, has announced that it had acquired Oskar Rüegg Holding AG, headquartered in Jona, Switzerland, and its subsidiaries (Switzerland / Bulgaria / Mexico).
Both companies specialize in the manufacture of sophisticated stamped parts and assemblies and are established players in the industry. Both companies together have revenue of around EUR 100 m in the automotive and other industries.
Homburger advised the Wöhrle Group on this transaction. The Homburger team was led by Daniel Häusermann and included Claudine Schär and Erik Habich (all Corporate / M&amp;A), Reto Heuberger, Peter Müller and Philippe Weber (all Tax), Stefan Kramer and Fabrice Eckert (both Banking / Finance) as well as Jonas Krull (Regulatory / Competition).

Homburger advised Wöhrle Group on its acquisition of Oskar Rüegg Group

Technologie und Digitalisierung

IP / IT

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Kandou Holding SA Deal News

On September 13, 2023, Kandou Holding SA (Kandou) announced that it has successfully closed the first portion of its USD 100 m Series E equity financing. This brings the total equity investment in Kandou to USD 280 m, reinforcing its strong position in the marketplace.
Swiss-based Kandou is a specialist in high-speed, high-quality signal conditioning committed to revolutionizing wired connectivity for everyone. Kandou uses its chips and Tier 1 supply chain to make wired connections faster, clearer and more meaningful.
The Homburger team includes Andreas Müller, Anna Peter and Oriana Schöni (all Corporate / M&amp;A; Technology and Digital Economy), Luca Dal Molin and Joel Fink (IP / IT), Richard Stäuber (Regulatory), and Laetitia Fracheboud (Tax).

Homburger advises Kandou on its USD 100 m Series E equity financing

Arbeitsrecht und Vergütung für Führungskräfte

Homburger and Vencora and Constellation Software Inc.

On November 16, 2023, Vencora UK Limited, an indirect subsidiary of Volaris Group Inc. and Constellation Software Inc. (CSI), a Canadian-based international provider of software and services (TSX: CSU), and Crealogix Holding AG, a Swiss-based global leader in digital banking technology (SIX: CLXN), jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive transaction agreement, under which Vencora agreed to submit an all-cash public tender offer to acquire all publicly held registered shares of Crealogix for CHF 60 per share, for an aggregate equity value for Crealogix of approximately CHF 84 m. Vencora published its pre-announcement of the offer today. Certain shareholders of Crealogix have concurrently entered into a share purchase agreement with Vencora for the sale of a total of 51.66% of all shares in Crealogix to Vencora.
The offer and the share purchase agreement with the selling shareholders are conditional upon the receipt of regulatory clearances in certain jurisdictions and other customary conditions.
Homburger AG advises Vencora and CSI on the transaction. The Homburger team is led by Daniel Hasler (Corporate / M&amp;A) and comprises Micha Fankhauser, Carlo Sulser, Léonard Aeschlimann Perales, Oliver Kneubühl, Thierry Burckhardt, Héloïse De Jamblinne, Aron Belegu, Thomas Waidacher, Jana Waldvogel and Sabrina Vieli (all Corporate / M&amp;A), Manuel Baschung (Financing and Investment Products), Richard Stäuber and Christoph Grüninger (both Competition, Regulatory), Joel Fink (IP / IT) and Giulia Menegon (Employment and Executive Compensation).

Homburger advises Vencora UK Limited, an indirect subsidiary of Volaris Group Inc. and Constellation Software Inc., with respect to its announced public tender offer for all publicly held shares of Crealogix Holding AG

Regulierung

Hauptkontakte

Automobilvertrieb: Bundesrat verabschiedet KFZ-Verordnung

Swiss Federal Council Launches AI Regulatory Regime Review

AI Regulation Update

Homburger advised Wöhrle Group on its acquisition of Oskar Rüegg Group

Homburger advises Kandou on its USD 100 m Series E equity financing

Homburger advises Vencora UK Limited, an indirect subsidiary of Volaris Group Inc. and Constellation Software Inc., with respect to its announced public tender offer for all publicly held shares of Crealogix Holding AG

Fintech 2024: Switzerland

Kommentierungen von Art. 86, 87a und 87b BV

Fintech 2023: Switzerland