Switzerland welcomes its new data protection law. The Federal Act on Data Protection has become effective on 1 September 2023.

The new law will be more aligned with EU General Data Protection Regulation. In a nutshell, key amendments to the previous law include:

  • No protection for legal entities any longer;
  • Extended information obligations;
  • Additional data controller obligations such as register of processing activities and data protection impact assessment;
  • Data breach notification duty;
  • New principles of privacy by design and privacy by default;
  • Extended data subject rights;
  • Expanded powers for supervisory authority;
  • Higher criminal sanctions of up to CHF 250'000.

Non-compliance may expose each business to civil, administrative and criminal consequences and harm its reputation.

We are not only advising our clients in complying with the requirements of the new law, but have also updated our own Privacy Policy which you can find here. Your privacy means a lot to us.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.