Facts
The case concerns a director of a debt collection company who used pre-printed letters to threaten debtors with filing a criminal complaint against them if they did not pay their debts. The letters mentioned Article 165 of the Swiss Criminal Code (SCC) and indicated that the complaint could not be withdrawn once filed.
The director was convicted of attempted coercion by the Correctional Court of the Lausanne district, but filed a nullity appeal with the Court of Cassation of the Federal Tribunal.
The Court of Cassation rejected the appeal and confirmed the conviction for attempted coercion, considering that the letters sent by the company constituted a threat of serious harm and that the procedure used was unlawful.
Considerations
The Court of Cassation considered that the threat of filing a criminal complaint without serious grounds constituted an attempt at coercion within the meaning of Article 181 of the Swiss Criminal Code (SCC). The Court also estimated that the procedure used was unlawful, as it consisted of threatening debtors with significant hardship without serious reason.
The Court also examined the issue of the authorship of the attempted coercion and…