Facts
This decision concerns an appeal in civil matters filed by Ethical Coffee Company SA and Ethical Coffee Company (Switzerland) SA against Société des produits Nestlé SA and Nestlé Nespresso SA. The Federal Tribunal has been seized of an appeal against a decision on interim measures taken by a cantonal authority.
The respondents contest the admissibility of the appeal, arguing that the requirement of prior exhaustion of cantonal legal remedies is not met and that the challenged decision would not cause irreparable harm.
Considerations
The Federal Tribunal considers that the challenged decision, although qualified as interim measures, has the character of provisional measures. Indeed, it was rendered after the parties were heard, while the judge was not yet able to rule definitively on the provisional measures due to the need for a technical expert opinion.
According to the Federal Tribunal, such an intermediate decision, which provisionally maintains the interim measures pending the decision on provisional measures, is subject to appeal. The Federal Tribunal also acknowledges the existence of a risk of irreparable harm, justifying the admissibility of the appeal.
On the merits, the Federal…