Type of refusal
Refusal to recognise with a counterparty in Switzerland
A refusal to recognise usually comes from the entity that took the money. Before any national process starts, three things can be checked. They are the exact legal entity behind the counterparty, whether a cross-border recognition regime reaches Switzerland, and what the public record shows about that structure. The refusal to recognise overview explains how this differs from non-payment, and related O7 analysis covers recurring patterns.
Who is actually on the other side
The counterparty is usually a company, a fund vehicle, or a nominee structure registered in Switzerland. Swiss commercial register entries are public. They show the registered name, legal form, registered office, and the individuals recorded as authorised signatories. They do not show who controls the entity economically. A mismatch between the person who negotiated the deal and the registered signatory shows up often in disputes over diluted or unpaid private stakes. It changes who a claim would actually need to name. The pattern is described in this note on demanding money back after a stake was diluted.
What to secure before the counterparty reacts
Once a counterparty senses a claim is coming, records tend to get harder to obtain. Before making contact, keep the original agreement, every payment confirmation, and any message describing what was promised. Save screenshots of a platform, portal, or dashboard showing a balance or a stake, dated and stored outside that platform. Keep any commercial register extract already obtained. Note who actually negotiated the deal, apart from the entity they claimed to represent. This is evidence preservation, done before any filing and independent of which recovery route gets chosen later. Structuring and disputing a stake is covered separately in the shareholder and stake disputes service page.
Where a judgment would have to be enforced
A judgment against a Swiss counterparty is enforced in Switzerland. The applicable framework depends on where the judgment was issued. Judgments from EU or EFTA states fall under the Lugano Convention, applied in place of Brussels Ia [N130]. Switzerland is not party to the 2019 Hague Judgments Convention [N131]. Documents produced abroad generally need an apostille; Switzerland applies the Apostille Convention with a reservation under position 6, in force since 11 March 1973 [N404]. Filing order and domestic stages are set by the case and are not published here. See Switzerland, enforcement into Switzerland, and, for UAE judgments, enforcement from the UAE to Switzerland. There is no success-only fee here, and the firm's registration is checkable in the public register, as set out in verifying a law firm.