A preliminary investigation by the Secretariat of the Swiss Competition Commission into information exchanges in the Swiss labor market has found indications of collusion on employee compensation and benefits among more than 200 large companies in various sectors. While the preliminary investigation was initially limited to the banking sector, it became apparent that information exchanges on wage-related topics also occurred in other sectors. Due to the large number of parties involved, the Swiss authority decided that developing best-practice guidelines would be more effective in remedying the situation than launching an in-depth investigation into the behavior of each company. Therefore, the Swiss authority closed the preliminary investigation without opening a formal investigation and without imposing any sanctions.

The revised Data Protection Act (nDPA) and the revised Data Protection Ordinance (nDPO) will enter into force on 1 September 2023. The revised Swiss data protection law is “a GDPR-like” legislation and provides for certain (new) obligations not contained in the current data protection law.
In an employment relationship, an employer inevitably processes employees’ personal data for various purposes. This client alert aims to inform employers about their data privacy obligations under the new data protection law and provides an opportunity to test data protection compliance.

On 29 March 2023, the Swiss Federal Council, the executive body of Switzerland, announced its decision to implement an extension of the transitional periods for the certification of medical devices under the Swiss Medical Device Ordinance (“MedDO”) and the Ordinance on In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices (“IvDO”), in line with the amendment of transitional provisions in the European Union under Regulation (EU) 2023/607.
The implementation of these amended transitional provisions requires the formal amendment of the MedDO and the IvDO. These amendments are expected to be adopted in autumn 2023.

On 1 December 2022, Switzerland’s new Human Genetic Testing Act will enter into force.
The new HGTA provides a comprehensive legal framework for all types of genetic testing (including direct-to-consumer genetic testing and lifestyle genetic testing) and implements stronger measures to protect privacy rights, prevent abuse of genetic data and ensure the quality of genetic tests and the interpretation of the results.
As part of the comprehensive revision of the HGTA, the Human Genetic Testing Ordinance and the Ordinance on the creation of DNA profiles for civil and administrative purposes have been amended accordingly.

On 30 May 2022, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court rendered two landmark decisions relating to the legal qualification of platform work. Platform work is a relatively new term for organizing paid work through digital platforms. Users access workers through online digital platforms for a wide range of paid services. The legal definition of platform work raises numerous legal questions, some of which were addressed by the court in two decisions rendered on 30 May 2022.