Tribunal fédéral suisse TF

What Tribunal fédéral suisse TF does

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court (Schweizerisches Bundesgericht / Tribunal fédéral suisse), headquartered at Avenue du Tribunal-Fédéral 29, 1000 Lausanne, is Switzerland's highest judicial authority and a constitutional institution of the Swiss Confederation. It functions as the final appellate court for federal law matters, hearing appeals against decisions of the highest cantonal courts, the Federal Criminal Court, the Federal Administrative Court, the Federal Patent Court, and the Independent Broadcasting Commission. The court operates through eight specialized divisions — two civil law, four public law (including the former social insurance jurisdiction), and two criminal law — and resolves 7,000+ cases annually. Its staff consists of approximately 40 full-time federal judges (14 women, 26 men), 19 part-time (associate) federal judges, approximately 180 court clerks, and roughly 370 additional support staff, with a second site in Lucerne housing the Third and Fourth Public Law Divisions.

The court's core product surface is a public judicial information platform built around the official BGE (Bundesgerichtsentscheide) decision collection — leading decisions from 1954 with the full archive dating to 1875, hosted via a University of Bern link — supplemented by an all-judgments database covering most rulings from 2000 onwards in anonymized form with full-text search. Underlying technology includes the Jurivoc trilingual (German, French, Italian) legal thesaurus for indexing jurisprudence, doctrine, and law, and an electronic complaint filing system that accepts ZertES-compliant qualified electronic signatures via recognized delivery platforms (PrivaSphere, IncaMail). The court publishes its annual business reports (Geschäftsberichte) dating back to 1855 and provides supplementary services including public hearings, court visit tours, virtual tours, and a fee-based judgment ordering service at CHF 20 per decision.

The court's business model is publicly funded, not commercially driven. Operating budget is provided through the Swiss federal budget, with court fees charged for appeals and ancillary paid services (judgment ordering, expert search subscriptions) representing de minimis revenue relative to appropriations. The court is not a commercial entity, has no shareholders or external investors, and is governed autonomously subject to parliamentary oversight via the Federal Assembly. François Chaix serves as President, with Francesco Parrino as Vice President, and division presidents leading each of the eight divisions. International engagement includes participation in the International Hague Judges Network, and 2025 marks the court's 150th anniversary as a permanent institution, commemorated through partnerships with Swiss Post and Swissmint.

Name

Tribunal fédéral suisse TF

Legal name

Schweizerisches Bundesgericht

Website

https://bger.ch

Company type

Private

Founded year

1875

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court is Switzerland's highest judicial authority, headquartered in Lausanne with a second site in Lucerne. It serves Swiss citizens and legal entities by hearing 7,000+ appellate cases annually across eight specialized civil, public, and criminal law divisions.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Federal Judicial Services

NAICS

Courts (92211), Courts (922110)

akta.pro primary industry

Judicial Courts & Court Administration (BPAIAFAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Court Services & Operations (Clerks, Records, Jury, Interpreters) (BPAIAFAH)

Keywords

• Federal judicial services
• Appellate court jurisdiction
• Legal decision databases
• Judicial case management
• Constitutional court review

Headquarters

HQ city

Lausanne

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Public Institution Funding: The Swiss Federal Supreme Court is funded by the Swiss Federal Government as a constitutional institution. Court fees are charged for appeals but the institution operates primarily on public funding rather than generating revenue.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court is Switzerland's highest judicial authority, providing final appellate jurisdiction over civil, criminal, public, administrative, and social insurance law. It hears appeals from cantonal and federal first-instance courts, decides over 7,000 cases annually across eight specialized divisions, and publishes its rulings through official decision databases (BGE from 1954, all judgments from 2000). It also operates a multilingual legal thesaurus (Jurivoc), an electronic complaint filing system, public hearings, and a fee-based judgment ordering service.

Product overview

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court operates as a unified judicial service platform offering public access to court decisions through multiple interconnected databases and electronic services. The core offering consists of the official BGE (Bundesgerichtsentscheide) collection dating from 1875, the All Judgments database covering rulings from 2000 onwards, and the Jurivoc multilingual legal thesaurus. Supporting services include the electronic complaint filing system requiring ZertES-compliant digital signatures, fee-based expert search subscriptions, a judgment ordering service, and public hearing management. The court maintains physical locations in Lausanne (headquarters) and Lucern for in-person visits and hearings.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Judgment Databases (Urteilsdatenbanken)

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• Swiss Post (Die Schweizerische Post)minorOthers · 1 January 2025Swiss Post issued a special commemorative postage stamp for the 150th anniversary of the Federal Supreme Court in 2025
• Swissmint (Eidgenössische Münzstätte)minorOthers · 1 January 2025Swissmint issued a bimetallic commemorative coin '150 Jahre Bundesgericht' in May 2025 to celebrate the court's anniversary
• University of BernminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Federal Supreme Court's decision database provides a link to the University of Bern for access to BGE decisions from Volume 1 (1875)
• International Hague Judges NetworkminorOthersThe court participates in the International Hague Network connecting supreme courts worldwide

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU): The EU's highest judicial authority, comparable as a supranational court of last resort interpreting federal/Union law. Although Switzerland is not an EU member, the CJEU remains a comparative reference for cross-border jurisprudence and European legal harmonization efforts.
• European Court of Human Rights (ECHR): An international court that reviews human-rights complaints against signatory states including Switzerland. The Swiss Federal Supreme Court integrates ECHR jurisprudence into its BGE decisions, creating a substantive peer relationship in human-rights adjudication methodology.
• Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Swiss Federal Administrative Court): The Swiss Federal Administrative Court, located in St. Gallen, is the first-instance federal court for administrative matters whose decisions are appealed to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court. Part of the same Swiss judicial ecosystem, with overlapping public-law jurisdiction and shared digital services.

Direct peers

• Conseil d'État (France): France's supreme court for administrative justice, directly comparable in function to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court's public law divisions. Both courts serve as final arbiters of administrative law and government liability matters within their respective jurisdictions.
• UK Supreme Court: The United Kingdom's court of last resort for civil and criminal matters. Comparable as a final appellate court serving a unitary state with growing emphasis on publishing reasoned decisions and operating with a multi-divisional chamber structure.
• Supreme Court of the United States: The U.S. final appellate court, comparable as the highest court in its federal system with authority over constitutional interpretation. Operates at much larger scale and with very different institutional structure, but serves as a global benchmark for supreme-court jurisprudence publication and citation practices.
• Conseil constitutionnel (Constitutional Council of France): France's highest constitutional authority, focused primarily on constitutional review and election-related matters. Comparable in role as the final guardian of constitutional law within a unitary/cantonal federal system and in its trilingual/multilingual continental European context.
• Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court of Germany): Germany's highest court for constitutional matters and the closest structural analog to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court in terms of constitutional jurisdiction, multi-divisional structure, and final appellate authority over federal law questions. Both courts adjudicate constitutional rights protection and serve as the ultimate arbiters of federal law application.
• Corte costituzionale (Constitutional Court of Italy): Italy's constitutional court, comparable in its role as the final arbiter of constitutional and federal law questions in a civil-law jurisdiction with multilingual regional considerations (Italian, German in South Tyrol). Similar in handling abstract and concrete constitutional review across multiple specialized areas.
• Verfassungsgerichtshof (Constitutional Court of Austria): Austria's constitutional court, directly comparable in mandate (constitutional rights protection, review of federal law) and as a small-state, German-speaking peer with similar scope. It also serves as an appellate court in administrative matters, overlapping with several divisions of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/Bundesgericht_CH
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/tribunal-federal-bundesgericht

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Tribunal fédéral suisse TF