SHAB (Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce)

Illustrative example; names are placeholders and the facts are invented. Company A AG changes its name to Company B AG. The register enters the change and the SHAB publishes it among the change notices: from that day the new name is in force (OR Art. 936a(1)), and nobody can claim not to know it (OR Art. 936b(1)). Two years later the company is dissolved. The SHAB carries the dissolution, the call to creditors whose addresses are unknown (OR Art. 742(2)) and, at the end, the deletion, so a buyer or creditor can read the whole sequence in order.

Entries. Entries in the commercial register are published electronically in the SHAB and take effect on publication. (OR Art. 936a(1))

Every other notice. All other publications the law provides for are made electronically in the SHAB as well. In a liquidation, for example, creditors are called on to register their claims, by notice in the SHAB where they are not known. (OR Arts. 936a(2) and 742(2))

Knowledge. Once a fact is entered in the commercial register, nobody can claim not to have known it. (OR Art. 936b(1))

Where to read it. The SHAB is published online at shab.ch by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). Its commercial register notices are grouped by rubric, among them new entries (HR01), changes (HR02) and deletions (HR03). (SHAB)