The Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce — SOGC in English, SHAB in German, FOSC in French — is the Confederation’s official publication organ for business notices, run by SECO and published online every working day at sogc.ch. Every commercial register entry (incorporations, changes of directors, liquidations, deletions), every call to creditors and every bankruptcy or composition notice appears there. The SOGC date is legally decisive: register entries become effective against third parties from the working day following publication, and statutory periods — such as creditor claim windows — run from it.
What the SOGC is — one gazette, three acronyms
SOGC, SHAB and FOSC are the same publication in Switzerland’s three working languages (Schweizerisches Handelsamtsblatt / Feuille officielle suisse du commerce). First issued in 1883, it has been exclusively electronic since 2018: the legally binding version is the online edition at sogc.ch, published by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) each working day, under the SOGC Ordinance (SR 221.415).
Do not confuse it with the Federal Gazette (Bundesblatt / Feuille fédérale), which publishes laws and government business. The SOGC is the business gazette: its content comes largely from the commercial register and from courts and liquidators.
What gets published in the SOGC
- Commercial register entries: incorporations, appointments and removals of directors, changes of company name, seat, purpose or capital, entry into liquidation, deletions.
- Calls to creditors (Schuldenruf / appel aux créanciers): published by the liquidator when a company is wound up voluntarily — the trigger for the statutory waiting period before assets can be distributed (see our guide to the liquidator of a Swiss company).
- Bankruptcy and debt-enforcement notices under the SchKG: openings, suspensions, schedules of claims, closures.
- Composition and restructuring notices, merger and demerger publications with their creditor-protection windows (Merger Act), and cancellations of lost securities.
The SOGC date — what it means and which deadlines run from it
Every notice carries its publication date, and that date does legal work — it is the answer to the recurring question “what does the SOGC date mean?”:
| Publication | What the SOGC date triggers |
|---|---|
| Commercial register entry | The entry becomes effective against third parties from the working day following publication (art. 936a CO) — before that, good-faith third parties may rely on the previous state of the register |
| Call to creditors | Creditors are on notice to file claims; the liquidation’s statutory waiting period before distributing assets is counted by reference to the call |
| Bankruptcy notices | Deadlines to file claims and to contest the schedule of claims run from publication |
| Merger / demerger notices | The window in which creditors may demand security runs from publication |
In due diligence, the SOGC date also serves as the timestamp of a company’s history: Zefix links each register entry to its gazette publication, so you can reconstruct exactly when a director joined, when the seat moved, or when the liquidation started.
How to search and monitor the SOGC free of charge
- Go to sogc.ch and search by company name or UID number (CHE-XXX.XXX.XXX); filter by notice type and date range.
- Set up a subscription/alert on the same portal to be notified of new publications matching your criteria — the simplest standing watch on your own company or a counterparty.
- Cross-check from the register side: a company’s Zefix record lists its SOGC publications entry by entry.
Everything above is free — no commercial “gazette monitoring” subscription is needed for basic coverage.
What directors of a Swiss company should watch in the SOGC
- Your own publications: after every filing, verify that the published entry is accurate — the published text is what binds third parties, and correcting it late is harder than checking it the day it appears.
- Scam mail that follows publication: newly published companies are systematically targeted with official-looking invoices for private directories. Only the cantonal register office’s fee note is official; gazette publication itself is not separately invoiced to you by third parties.
- Counterparties: an alert on key customers and suppliers surfaces bankruptcies, calls to creditors and liquidations the day they are published — often weeks before the news reaches you commercially.
- What is not there: shareholdings and beneficial owners are never published. The share register stays internal, and the coming federal transparency register is confidential by design.
This monitoring is a standing task of the company secretarial function; for foreign-owned companies it is usually bundled with corporate secretarial services so that publications, filings and their deadlines are watched from Switzerland.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
What is the SOGC in Switzerland?
The Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce — SHAB in German, FOSC in French — is the Confederation’s official business gazette, published online every working day by SECO. It carries all commercial register entries, calls to creditors, bankruptcy notices and other statutory business publications.
What does the SOGC date mean?
It is the publication date of a notice, and legal effects are counted from it: a commercial register entry becomes effective against third parties from the working day after publication (art. 936a CO), and creditor claim or objection periods run from the date of the relevant notice.
Is the SOGC free to search?
Yes. The portal sogc.ch is free, searchable by company name or UID number, and offers free alerts for new publications. Since 2018 the gazette is electronic only, and the online edition is the legally binding version.
Are shareholders or beneficial owners published in the SOGC?
No. The gazette publishes registered facts — governing bodies, seat, purpose, liquidations — but never ownership. Shareholders are recorded in the company’s internal share register, and the new federal register of beneficial owners is confidential, accessible only to authorities and financial intermediaries.
