-
- Art. 5a FC
- Art. 6 FC
- Art. 10 FC
- Art. 16 FC
- Art. 17 FC
- Art. 20 FC
- Art. 22 FC
- Art. 29a FC
- Art. 30 FC
- Art. 32 FC
- Art. 42 FC
- Art. 43 FC
- Art. 43a FC
- Art. 55 FC
- Art. 56 FC
- Art. 60 FC
- Art. 68 FC
- Art. 75b FC
- Art. 77 FC
- Art. 96 para. 2 lit. a FC
- Art. 110 FC
- Art. 117a FC
- Art. 118 FC
- Art. 123b FC
- Art. 136 FC
- Art. 166 FC
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- Art. 11 CO
- Art. 12 CO
- Art. 50 CO
- Art. 51 CO
- Art. 84 CO
- Art. 143 CO
- Art. 144 CO
- Art. 145 CO
- Art. 146 CO
- Art. 147 CO
- Art. 148 CO
- Art. 149 CO
- Art. 150 CO
- Art. 701 CO
- Art. 715 CO
- Art. 715a CO
- Art. 734f CO
- Art. 785 CO
- Art. 786 CO
- Art. 787 CO
- Art. 788 CO
- Transitional provisions to the revision of the Stock Corporation Act of June 19, 2020
- Art. 808c CO
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- Art. 2 PRA
- Art. 3 PRA
- Art. 4 PRA
- Art. 6 PRA
- Art. 10 PRA
- Art. 10a PRA
- Art. 11 PRA
- Art. 12 PRA
- Art. 13 PRA
- Art. 14 PRA
- Art. 15 PRA
- Art. 16 PRA
- Art. 17 PRA
- Art. 19 PRA
- Art. 20 PRA
- Art. 21 PRA
- Art. 22 PRA
- Art. 23 PRA
- Art. 24 PRA
- Art. 25 PRA
- Art. 26 PRA
- Art. 27 PRA
- Art. 29 PRA
- Art. 30 PRA
- Art. 31 PRA
- Art. 32 PRA
- Art. 32a PRA
- Art. 33 PRA
- Art. 34 PRA
- Art. 35 PRA
- Art. 36 PRA
- Art. 37 PRA
- Art. 38 PRA
- Art. 39 PRA
- Art. 40 PRA
- Art. 41 PRA
- Art. 42 PRA
- Art. 43 PRA
- Art. 44 PRA
- Art. 45 PRA
- Art. 46 PRA
- Art. 47 PRA
- Art. 48 PRA
- Art. 49 PRA
- Art. 50 PRA
- Art. 51 PRA
- Art. 52 PRA
- Art. 53 PRA
- Art. 54 PRA
- Art. 55 PRA
- Art. 56 PRA
- Art. 57 PRA
- Art. 58 PRA
- Art. 59a PRA
- Art. 59b PRA
- Art. 59c PRA
- Art. 62 PRA
- Art. 63 PRA
- Art. 67 PRA
- Art. 67a PRA
- Art. 67b PRA
- Art. 75 PRA
- Art. 75a PRA
- Art. 76 PRA
- Art. 76a PRA
- Art. 90 PRA
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- Vorb. zu Art. 1 FADP
- Art. 1 FADP
- Art. 2 FADP
- Art. 3 FADP
- Art. 5 lit. f und g FADP
- Art. 6 Abs. 6 and 7 FADP
- Art. 7 FADP
- Art. 10 FADP
- Art. 11 FADP
- Art. 12 FADP
- Art. 14 FADP
- Art. 15 FADP
- Art. 19 FADP
- Art. 20 FADP
- Art. 22 FADP
- Art. 23 FADP
- Art. 25 FADP
- Art. 26 FADP
- Art. 27 FADP
- Art. 31 para. 2 lit. e FADP
- Art. 33 FADP
- Art. 34 FADP
- Art. 35 FADP
- Art. 38 FADP
- Art. 39 FADP
- Art. 40 FADP
- Art. 41 FADP
- Art. 42 FADP
- Art. 43 FADP
- Art. 44 FADP
- Art. 44a FADP
- Art. 45 FADP
- Art. 46 FADP
- Art. 47 FADP
- Art. 47a FADP
- Art. 48 FADP
- Art. 49 FADP
- Art. 50 FADP
- Art. 51 FADP
- Art. 54 FADP
- Art. 57 FADP
- Art. 58 FADP
- Art. 60 FADP
- Art. 61 FADP
- Art. 62 FADP
- Art. 63 FADP
- Art. 64 FADP
- Art. 65 FADP
- Art. 66 FADP
- Art. 67 FADP
- Art. 69 FADP
- Art. 72 FADP
- Art. 72a FADP
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- Art. 2 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 3 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 4 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 5 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 6 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 7 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 8 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 9 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 11 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 12 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 25 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 29 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 32 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 33 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 34 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
FEDERAL CONSTITUTION
CODE OF OBLIGATIONS
FEDERAL LAW ON PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW
LUGANO CONVENTION
CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
CIVIL PROCEDURE CODE
FEDERAL ACT ON POLITICAL RIGHTS
CIVIL CODE
FEDERAL ACT ON CARTELS AND OTHER RESTRAINTS OF COMPETITION
FEDERAL ACT ON INTERNATIONAL MUTUAL ASSISTANCE IN CRIMINAL MATTERS
DEBT ENFORCEMENT AND BANKRUPTCY ACT
FEDERAL ACT ON DATA PROTECTION
SWISS CRIMINAL CODE
CYBERCRIME CONVENTION
- In a nutshell
- I. General
- II. Statute of Limitations for Prosecution
- III. Limitation of enforcement
- Bibliography
- Materials
In a nutshell
Criminal violations of the Data Protection Act are misdemeanors. In deviation from the general provision of Art. 109 SCC, the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution does not expire after three years, but only after five years. This is because investigations into possible violations of data protection law are regularly technically complex, require corresponding specialized knowledge, and the criminal proceedings should not fail because the statute of limitations is too short. A distinction must be made between the statute of limitations for prosecution and the statute of limitations for enforcement, which is three years.
I. General
1 Art. 66 establishes a special limitation period for prosecution for violations of the Data Protection Act. The provision applies to violations of the Data Protection Act punishable under Chapter 8 (Arts. 60-63). Compared to "ordinary" violations, this is two years longer. This is intended to take into account the technical nature of these violations and the regularly limited experience of the competent cantonal law enforcement authorities in data protection law.
2 Art. 66 is new. Under the previous law, criminal prosecution by virtue of Art. 333 para. 1 SCC became time-barred after three years in accordance with the relevant provision of general criminal law (Art. 109 SCC). In the consultation process, individual participants opposed an extension of the statute of limitations. The wording according to the preliminary draft remained unchanged after the parliamentary deliberations.
II. Statute of Limitations for Prosecution
A. Duration
3 The violations of the Data Protection Act, which are punishable under Chapter 8, provide for fines as a penalty and therefore qualify as misdemeanors under Art. 333 para. 3 SCC.
4 Pursuant to Art. 109 SCC, the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution in the case of transgressions is three years. Investigations into possible violations of the Data Protection Act regularly require knowledge of the underlying technical processes, and such investigations will not infrequently be complex. The cantonal law enforcement authorities responsible for enforcing the criminal provisions under Art. 65 para. 1 (unlike, for example, the data protection supervisory authorities responsible for imposing fines under the DSGVO) regularly have little or no experience with data protection law issues (see also above, n. 1). To ensure that corresponding criminal proceedings do not fail due to excessively short statutes of limitations, the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution was increased by two years to five years compared to the general provision of Art. 109 SCC.
B. Commencement
5 Pursuant to Art. 104 SCC, the commencement of the limitation period for prosecution is governed by Art. 98 SCC: If the offense is an active offense, the statute of limitations begins to run on the day on which the offense was committed or on the last day on which the offense was committed. If the offense is a continuing offense, the statute of limitations begins to run on the day on which the criminal conduct ends. In the case of criminal offences designed as omissions, the statute of limitations does not begin as long as the omission continues; the decisive date is the date on which the obligation to act ends. If more than one person is involved in an offense, the statute of limitations begins to run uniformly for all participants with the last partial act.
C. Repeated Offences
6 Repeated offenses that are directed against the same legal entity must be distinguished from continuing offenses. These become time-barred individually after the expiry of the five-year limitation period. For example, if a perpetrator repeatedly entrusts data processing to a processor within the meaning of Art. 61 lit. b FADP without fulfilling the requirements of Art. 9 para. 1 and 2 FADP, the individual violations become time-barred independently of each other, one after the other.
III. Limitation of enforcement
7 Art. 66 governs only the limitation period for prosecution, not also the limitation period for enforcement. The latter is governed by the general provision of Art. 109 SCC. It is three years from the day on which the fine decision becomes enforceable (Art. 333 para. 1 in conjunction with Art. 109 in conjunction with Art. 100 SCC), i.e. from the day on which the decision becomes final. An appeal against the fine decision to the Federal Supreme Court does not have a suspensive effect (cf. Art. 103 BGG), so that the fine decision becomes legally binding as soon as it is handed down by the last cantonal instance.
Bibliography
Heimgartner Stefan, Kommentierung zu Art. 109 StGB, in: Niggli Marcel Alexander/Wiprächtiger Hans (Hrsg.), Basler Kommentar, Strafrecht (StGB/JStGB), 4. Aufl., Basel 2018.
Niggli Marcel Alexander/Maeder Stefan, Kommentierung zu Art. 34 und 35 aDSG, in: Maurer-Lambrou Urs/Blechta Gabor-Paul (Hrsg.), Basler Kommentar, Datenschutzgesetz / Öffentlichkeitsgesetz, 3. Aufl., Basel 2014.
Rosenthal David/Gubler Seraina, Die Strafbestimmungen des neuen DSG, SZW 1/2021, S. 52 ff.; Rosenthal David/Jöhri Yvonne, Handkommentar zum Datenschutzgesetz sowie weiteren, ausgewählten Bestimmungen, Zürich 2008; Wohlers Wolfgang, Kommentierung zu Art. 66 DSG, in: Baeriswyl Bruno/Pärli Kurt/Blonski, Dominika (Hrsg.), Stämpflis Handkommentar, Datenschutzgesetz, 2. Aufl., Bern 2023.
Materials
Botschaft zum Bundesgesetz über die Totalrevision des Bundesgesetzes über den Datenschutz und die Änderung weiterer Erlasse zum Datenschutz vom 15.9.2017, BBl 2017 S. 6941 ff. (zit. Botschaft 2017), abrufbar unter https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/federal-gazette/2017/6941.pdf, besucht am 8.8.2023.
Zusammenfassung des Bundesamts für Justiz BJ der Ergebnisse des Vernehmlassungsverfahrens vom 10.8.2017 betreffend Vorentwurf für das Bundesgesetz über die Totalrevision des Datenschutzgesetzes und die Änderung weiterer Erlasse zum Datenschutz vom 21.12.2016 (zit. Zusammenfassung Vernehmlassung VE-DSG), abrufbar unter https://www.bj.admin.ch/dam/bj/de/data/staat/gesetzgebung/datenschutzstaerkung/ve-ber-d.pdf.download.pdf/ve-ber-d.pdf, besucht am 8.8.2023.