Switzerland adopts a new data protection law – with implications for the EU. Analogies to the GDPR are just as intentional as deliberate deviations.
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According to the Federal Office of Justice, the new, revised Swiss Data Protection Act (DSG) and the new version of the Data Protection Ordinance (VDSG; Ordinance on the Federal Data Protection Act) will come into force in autumn 2023. Formally, the Bundesrat still has to agree to this, but this is considered certain.
It is a comprehensive revision of the law that has been in force since 1993 and was last amended in 2019. In contrast to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the changes in the DSG and VDSG will come into effect directly on September 1, 2023. There is no transition period between entry into force and taking effect, as was the case with the GDPR.
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With the DSG, Switzerland is not breaking new ground in terms of data protection from an EU perspective. It is deliberately modeled on the GDPR. After the GDPR came into force, Switzerland was under pressure to act because the data protection law that had previously applied was no longer sufficiently GDPR-compatible. There would have been a risk of the EU Commission losing recognition of the Swiss level of data protection.
