This lawsuit could have cost Lukas Hässig his livelihood: In December, the Swiss financial journalist announced that the major Swiss bank Credit Suisse, which was still independent at the time, was suing him and his portal Inside parade ground had submitted. The blog, almost a one-man operation, is read intensively in banking circles. Regardless of the always polemical tone and often rough exaggerations, Hässig is a recognized researcher, he already has several scoops on Inside parade ground published and important research initiated.
The bank targeted 52 articles and around 200 comments from the second half of 2022. She saw the personal rights of her managers violated in the texts and therefore demanded their deletion. She also demanded that Hässig hand over the profit he has made with the contributions since the end of July. The lawsuit against the lone fighter Hässig was not well received in the Swiss media world. After all, at that point Credit Suisse was already a dangerously stumbling bank with existential problems. Why did you take the time for such a lawsuit?
UBS inherited the lawsuit from Credit Suisse and has now ended it
A lot has happened since then: Credit Suisse no longer exists in this form, it was merged into its competitor UBS when its situation had deteriorated dramatically in March of this year. So UBS inherited the legal dispute with Lukas Hässig – and has now ended it with a settlement, like Inside parade ground announced on Tuesday and confirmed by UBS upon request.
In four brief paragraphs, Hässig describes that the bank and Inside parade ground had reached an agreement before the Zurich Commercial Court on August 24. The blog “deleted numerous reader comments and deleted or adjusted three passages in two publications”. In the future, comments from readers would be carefully checked and personal infringements against the bank would no longer be permitted. The other claims were dropped as part of the settlement, including the surrender of profits.
The threatening procedure for Hässig, which according to him had a value in dispute of 300,000 francs, has thus been averted. However, checking reader comments is likely to be time-consuming for the small portal. For Lukas Hässig and also for press freedom in Switzerland, the comparison is at best a partial victory.