Delisting and legal protection

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Persons placed on the Swiss sanctions list can ask the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER) to remove them. Because Swiss sanctions follow those of the European Union, the EAER usually delists persons whom the European Union has delisted and rarely delists persons whom the Union keeps on its list. Decisions of the EAER can be appealed to the Federal Administrative Court, which reviews whether the measure has a legal basis and is proportionate, while giving the Federal Council considerable discretion in foreign policy matters.¹ The General Court of the European Union has annulled a number of listings of Russian persons for insufficient evidence, although the Union has often relisted them on new grounds.²

For listed persons with assets in Zug, the legal remedies are therefore limited and slow. Their Swiss advisers usually pursue several strategies at once: they challenge the European listing in Luxembourg, apply to SECO for delisting or for exemptions and seek authorisation for payments needed for living expenses, legal fees and the maintenance of assets. The exemption procedure has become a significant field of legal practice, whose outcomes depend heavily on the documentation and the credibility of the applications.

Notes

Partly confirmed: SECO, "FAQ – Sanktionen gegen Russland", seco.admin.ch: persons, companies and organisations sanctioned by Switzerland can submit a delisting request to the EAER; SRF, 2025, srf.ch, citing SECO: ten delisting requests pending, none granted so far. Requires a subscription database: the appeal route to the Federal Administrative Court, its standard of review (legal basis, proportionality, deference to the Federal Council in foreign policy) and the EAER's practice of following EU delistings must be checked against the Federal Administrative Court's decisions on delisting requests under the Ordinance on Measures in connection with the Situation in Ukraine of 4 March 2022 (SR 946.231.176.72) and the commentary literature on the Embargo Act (SR 946.231), via Swisslex, Weblaw or bvger.ch. ↩
Court of Justice of the EU, press release No 61/24, 10 April 2024, curia.europa.eu: in Cases T-301/22 Aven v Council and T-304/22 Fridman v Council, the General Court annulled the listings for the period from 28 February 2022 to 15 March 2023; the Council had maintained both listings by acts of 13 March 2023, which were challenged separately (T-283/23 and T-296/23). ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of September 2025.

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Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

Rechtsanwalt/Attorney-at-Law

I am a Swiss attorney-at-law and also admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong and in England & Wales, with almost 25 years of experience.

Together with my multilingual team, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Ukrainian and French native speakers, I advise companies and their owners from around the world on the full range of banking, corporate, commercial and tax law matters in Switzerland, including international tax planning, fiduciary services, and legal family office services including immigration & relocation or real estate investments. My practice has a particular focus on clients from growth and frontier markets in Greater China, Central Asia and the Caucasus, the rest of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and I equally advise clients from Europe and North America. Through an affiliated Swiss trust company, we also take care of the incorporation and ongoing administration of their companies and other structures, including accounting, tax returns and corporate secretarial services, and I serve as a professional director where required. With the support of a network of first-class cooperation partners, I also implement solutions worldwide.

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Delisting and legal protection

Notes

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