Can I get out of a contract I have just signed?

Signed means bound

Swiss contract law takes signatures seriously. The consumer-style right to change your mind within a few days exists only in narrow, specifically regulated situations. It is not a general feature of the law, and between businesses it plays almost no role at all. If your company signed a supply agreement yesterday and the deal looks worse this morning, that regret is not a legal ground for anything.

Worth internalising before signing rather than after. Pricing, exit rights and termination mechanics belong in the negotiation, because Swiss law will hold you to what you signed on the assumption that you meant it.

Defects of consent: the narrow legal exits

The law does unwind contracts where the consent behind the signature was defective (Art. 23 ff. CO). Three grounds matter in practice.

Fundamental error, where you were mistaken about facts that both sides objectively treated as a necessary basis of the deal, not merely about whether it was a good deal (Art. 24 CO). Fraud, where the other side deceived you on purpose, by false statements or by concealing what it had a duty to disclose (Art. 28 CO). And duress, where you signed under an unlawful threat.

Each is real but demanding. A bad forecast, an overlooked clause or a market that moved is not a fundamental error: an error about how the future would turn out only qualifies in narrow circumstances (BGE 118 II 297), and even a genuine error cannot be invoked contrary to good faith (BGE 123 III 200). Hard selling is not fraud, and commercial pressure is not duress. The party invoking a defect also has to act within the statutory window after discovering it, failing which Art. 31 CO treats the contract as ratified, and it has to prove the facts. That combination is why these grounds succeed far less often than disappointed signatories hope.

The negotiated exit is usually the real one

In most cases the realistic route out of a freshly signed contract is commercial rather than doctrinal. Start with the document you actually signed: termination rights, conditions precedent that have not yet been satisfied, milestones the other side must still hit.

Then think about what the counterparty needs. An orderly exit against a fee, a reduced scope, a substitute customer. Negotiate before performance and sunk costs harden both positions.

Timing matters more than argument here. A counterparty that has not yet mobilised resources will often release you cheaply; one that has staffed the project will not. And whatever you do, avoid simply not performing. Walking away from a valid contract exposes you to damages and hands the other side the narrative.

What to do

• Re-read the signed text for conditions, termination rights and notice mechanics before assuming you are stuck.
• If you suspect error, fraud or duress, document the facts immediately and take advice quickly. These remedies are time-sensitive.
• Otherwise, approach the counterparty early with a concrete exit proposal rather than silence or non-performance.

Whether any of these routes is open in your case depends entirely on the contract and the circumstances of signing, so it is a conversation worth having with a lawyer before you make the next move.