The art of going right

A friend told me that you can now overtake on the right on the motorway. I've always learned that it's strictly forbidden to do so, and I've always respected this rule, sometimes with a certain amount of rage... Can we really drive like in the United States now?
José
The basic principle has not changed: according to Article 35 of the Federal Road Traffic Act, drivers must pass on the right and overtake on the left. It follows from this general rule that overtaking on the right is not permitted in Switzerland.
That said, you should not confuse the term "overtaking", which in this case means pulling out into the right-hand lane and then pulling back into the left-hand lane, which remains absolutely forbidden, with the term "overtaking", which means passing in front of a vehicle using the right-hand lane but without a subsequent manoeuvre to pull back into the left-hand lane, which has been permitted in certain situations since 1ᵉʳ January 2021.
For example, on motorways and semi-motorways, it has been permitted for more than 4 years now, when a column has formed in the left-hand lane (or in the left-hand lane and/or the middle lane on three-lane motorways), to overtake from the right with due caution. This will allow traffic to flow for longer in both lanes. On the other hand, overtaking on the right (i.e. using the right-hand lane and then turning into the left-hand lane immediately afterwards) remains prohibited.
As long ago as 2016, the Federal Court ruled that in the case of parallel traffic (a situation that arises when traffic in the overtaking lane is so dense that the speeds in the overtaking and normal traffic lanes are roughly equal), vehicles travelling in the normal lane at a (slightly) higher constant speed are considered to be 'overtaking' from the right in an authorised manner. In a ruling handed down in 2022, our federal judges made it clear that the new traffic rules that came into force in 2021 now allow right-hand traffic to be driven more widely. It is therefore permitted to overtake other vehicles on the right by changing lanes, if this can be done without obstructing the rest of the traffic (even when there is no lane formed on the right). On the other hand, it is still forbidden to swerve to the left - at least immediately - but such a manoeuvre is now only punishable by a fine, whereas previously it was considered an offence that could lead to the withdrawal of a driving licence.
As a result, the rules have moved on to make traffic flow more smoothly on our congested roads, where caution is still the order of the day, because the countless lanes you see in American TV series seem like science fiction from where I sit!