Federal Act
on the Licensing and Oversight
of Auditors
(Auditor Oversight Act, AOA)

¹ This Act shall reg­u­late the li­cens­ing and over­sight of per­sons who provide audit ser­vices.

² Its pur­pose shall be to en­sure the prop­er per­form­ance and the qual­ity of audit ser­vices.

³ Stat­utory pro­vi­sions of spe­cif­ic le­gis­lat­ive acts take pre­ced­ence over the pro­vi­sions of this Act.

In this Act:

a.³

audit ser­vicesmeans:

1.

audits and con­firm­a­tions which in ac­cord­ance with fed­er­al reg­u­la­tions must be con­duc­ted by a li­censed aud­it­or, a li­censed audit ex­pert or an audit firm un­der state over­sight,

2.⁴

audits which in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle. 24, para­graph 1 let­ter a of the Fin­an­cial Mar­ket Su­per­vi­sion Act of 22 June 2007⁵ (FIN­MASA) or Art­icle 118i of the Col­lect­ive In­vest­ment Schemes Act of 23 June 2006⁶ (CISA) must be con­duc­ted by a li­censed audit com­pany for reg­u­lat­ory audits;

b.

audit firmmeans a sole pro­pri­et­or­ship, part­ner­ship or leg­al en­tity that is entered in the Com­mer­cial Re­gister and provides audit ser­vices;

c.⁷

pub­lic in­terest en­tit­ies means:

1.

pub­licly traded com­pan­ies in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 727 para­graph 1 num­ber 1 of the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions (CO)⁸,

2.

su­per­vised per­sons and en­tit­ies as defined in Art­icle 3 FIN­MASA which must be audited in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 24 FIN­MASA by an audit com­pany li­censed in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 9a of this Act,

3.⁹

col­lect­ive in­vest­ment schemes in terms of Art­icle 118a CISA which must be audited in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 118i CISA by an audit com­pany li­censed in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 9a of this Act.

¹ In­di­vidu­als and audit firms provid­ing audit ser­vices as defined in Art­icle 2 let­ter a shall re­quire a li­cence.

² In­di­vidu­als shall be li­censed for an un­lim­ited peri­od and audit firms for a peri­od of five years.

¹ An in­di­vidu­al shall be li­censed as an audit ex­pert if he or she sat­is­fies the re­quire­ments re­lat­ing to edu­ca­tion and pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence and has a spot­less re­cord.

² The fol­low­ing per­sons sat­is­fy the re­quire­ments re­lat­ing to edu­ca­tion and pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence:

a.

Swiss cer­ti­fied ac­count­ants;

b.

Swiss cer­ti­fied fi­du­ciary ex­perts, Swiss cer­ti­fied tax con­sult­ants and ac­count­ing and con­trolling ex­perts who hold the fed­er­al dip­loma, provided they each have at least five years’ pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence;

c.

gradu­ates in busi­ness, eco­nom­ics or law fol­lowed from a Swiss uni­versity or uni­versity of ap­plied sci­ences, spe­cial­ists in fin­ance and ac­count­ing who hold a fed­er­al cer­ti­fic­ate and fi­du­ciar­ies who hold a fed­er­al cer­ti­fic­ate, provided they each have at least twelve years’ pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence;

d.

per­sons who hold for­eign qual­i­fic­a­tions com­par­able to those stated un­der let­ter a, b or c, have cor­res­pond­ing pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence and can demon­strate the ne­ces­sary know­ledge of Swiss law, in so far as this is provided for in a treaty with the coun­try of ori­gin or the coun­try of ori­gin grants re­cipro­city.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­cog­nise oth­er equi­val­ent qual­i­fic­a­tions and de­term­ine the peri­od of the re­quired pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence.

⁴ The pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence must have been ac­quired primar­ily in the fields of ac­count­ing and audit­ing, with at least two thirds un­der the over­sight of a li­censed audit ex­pert or a for­eign spe­cial­ist with com­par­able qual­i­fic­a­tions. Pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence ac­quired while train­ing shall be taken in­to ac­count, provided that these re­quire­ments have been met.

¹ An in­di­vidu­al shall be li­censed as an aud­it­or if he or she:

a.

has a spot­less re­cord;

b.

is qual­i­fied in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 para­graph 2;

c.

can demon­strate one year’s pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence.

² The pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence must have been ac­quired primar­ily in the fields of ac­count­ing and audit­ing un­der the over­sight of a li­censed aud­it­or or a for­eign spe­cial­ist with com­par­able qual­i­fic­a­tions. Pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence ac­quired while edu­ca­tion shall be taken in­to ac­count, provided that these re­quire­ments have been met.

¹ An audit firm shall be li­censed as an audit ex­pert or aud­it­or if:

a.

the ma­jor­ity of the mem­bers of its highest su­per­vis­ory or gov­ern­ing body and of its ex­ec­ut­ive body hold the rel­ev­ant li­cence;

b.

at least one fifth of the per­sons in­volved in provid­ing audit ser­vices hold the rel­ev­ant li­cence;

c.

it is en­sured that all lead aud­it­ors hold the rel­ev­ant li­cence;

d.

the man­age­ment struc­ture guar­an­tees that in­di­vidu­al en­gage­ments will be su­per­vised suf­fi­ciently.

² Pub­lic-sec­tor audit of­fices shall be li­censed as audit firms if they sat­is­fy the re­quire­ments in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1. It shall not be pos­sible for them to be li­censed as audit firms un­der state over­sight.

¹ Audit firms that provide audit ser­vices for pub­lic in­terest en­tit­ies re­quire a spe­cial li­cence and are sub­ject to state over­sight (audit firms un­der state over­sight).

² Oth­er audit firms shall also be li­censed as audit firms un­der state over­sight, on ap­plic­a­tion, if they sat­is­fy the stat­utory re­quire­ments.

³ The li­cence is val­id for an un­lim­ited peri­od.¹¹

¹ A li­cence as an audit firm un­der state over­sight is also re­quired for audit firms provid­ing audit­ing ser­vices as defined in Art­icle 2 let­ter a num­ber 1 or com­par­able ser­vices un­der for­eign law for:¹²

a.

com­pan­ies in­cor­por­ated un­der for­eign law whose shares are lis­ted on a Swiss stock ex­change;

b.¹³

com­pan­ies in­cor­por­ated un­der for­eign law whose bonds are lis­ted on a Swiss stock ex­change;

c. and d.¹⁴...

² The li­cens­ing ob­lig­a­tion does not ap­ply if the audit firm is sub­ject to the over­sight of a for­eign audit over­sight au­thor­ity that is re­cog­nised by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

³ Moreover, the li­cens­ing ob­lig­a­tion does not ap­ply to audit firms provid­ing audit ser­vices to a com­pany un­der para­graph 1 let­ter b if:

a.

the rel­ev­ant bonds are guar­an­teed by com­pany that has an audit firm meet­ing the cri­ter­ia in either para­graph 1 or 2; or

b.

in­vestors have been ex­pli­citly in­formed that the audit firm is not un­der state over­sight.¹⁵

⁴Audit firms to which the li­cens­ing ob­lig­a­tion does not ap­ply in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 2 are re­quired to re­gister with the Over­sight Au­thor­ity. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall stip­u­late the rel­ev­ant re­quire­ments.¹⁶

⁵The Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall lay down rules gov­ern­ing the dis­clos­ure of audit firms that are not sub­ject to state over­sight.¹⁷

¹ Audit firms shall be li­censed to provide audit ser­vices for com­pan­ies of pub­lic in­terest if they:

a.

sat­is­fy the re­quire­ments for li­cens­ing as an audit ex­pert;

b.

guar­an­tee com­pli­ance with stat­utory pro­vi­sions¹⁸;

c.

are suf­fi­ciently in­sured against li­ab­il­ity risks.

² The Over­sight Au­thor­ity may grant a li­cence to an audit firm on the basis of a for­eign li­cence if the re­quire­ments of this Act have been met.

¹ An audit firm shall be li­censed as an audit com­pany for reg­u­lat­ory audits in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 2 let­ter a num­ber 2 if it:

a.

is li­censed in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 9 para­graph 1;

b.

is suf­fi­ciently or­gan­ised for these audits; and

c.

does not ex­er­cise any oth­er activ­ity sub­ject to li­cens­ing in ac­cord­ance with the fin­an­cial mar­ket acts (Art­icle 1 para­graph 1 FIN­MASA²⁰).

² A per­son is li­censed to lead audits in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 2 let­ter a num­ber 2 (lead aud­it­or) if the per­son:

a.

is li­censed as an audit ex­pert in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4; and

b.

has the ne­ces­sary ex­pert­ise and prac­tic­al ex­per­i­ence for the audit un­der the fin­an­cial mar­ket acts (Art. 1 para­graph 1 FIN­MASA).

³ For li­cens­ing in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 2 let­ter a, tech­nic­al ex­per­i­ence de­vi­at­ing from Art­icle 4 para­graph 4 but de­riv­ing from audits in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 24 para­graph 1 let­ters a and b FIN­MASA may also be cred­ited.

⁴ ...²¹

^4bis The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for sim­pli­fied re­quire­ments for li­cens­ing audit com­pan­ies and lead aud­it­ors for the audit­ing of per­sons un­der Art­icle 1b of the Bank­ing Act of 8 Novem­ber 1934²².²³

⁵ ...²⁴

¹ In ad­di­tion to the gen­er­al stat­utory pro­vi­sions on the in­de­pend­ence of aud­it­ors (Art­icle 728 CO²⁶), audit firms un­der state over­sight must ob­serve the fol­low­ing prin­ciples when provid­ing audit ser­vices to pub­lic in­terest en­tit­ies:

a.

The an­nu­al fees arising from audit­ing and oth­er ser­vices provided for a single com­pany and the com­pan­ies af­fil­i­ated to it as a res­ult of uni­fied man­age­ment (group) must not ex­ceed 10 per­cent of the audit firm’s total fees.

b.

If per­sons who held a de­cision-mak­ing or seni­or ac­count­ing po­s­i­tion at a com­pany trans­fer to an audit firm and take up a seni­or po­s­i­tion there, this audit firm may not provide any audit ser­vices to the com­pany con­cerned for two years from the time of the trans­fer.

c.

If per­sons who have been in­volved in the ac­count­ing at a com­pany trans­fer to an audit firm, they may not take charge of any audit ser­vices for this com­pany for two years from the time of the trans­fer.

² A pub­lic in­terest en­tity may not em­ploy any per­sons who have been in charge of audit ser­vices for this com­pany or have held a de­cision-mak­ing po­s­i­tion at the audit firm con­cerned over the two pre­ced­ing years.

¹ Audit firms un­der state over­sight shall take all meas­ures ne­ces­sary to en­sure the qual­ity of their audit ser­vices.

² They shall en­sure that a suit­able or­gan­isa­tion­al struc­ture is in place and shall is­sue writ­ten in­struc­tions on the fol­low­ing in par­tic­u­lar:

a.²⁷

the ap­point­ment, ba­sic and con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing, as­sess­ment, sig­nat­ory powers and re­quired con­duct of em­ploy­ees;

b.

the ac­cept­ance of new and the con­tinu­ation of ex­ist­ing as­sign­ments for audit ser­vices;

c.

the on­go­ing con­trol of meas­ures to en­sure in­de­pend­ence and qual­ity.

³ With re­gard to in­di­vidu­al audit ser­vices, they shall guar­an­tee, in par­tic­u­lar, that:

a.

tasks are al­loc­ated ap­pro­pri­ately;

b.

work is su­per­vised;

c.

the ap­plic­able reg­u­la­tions and stand­ards on audit­ing and in­de­pend­ence are ob­served;

d.

the res­ults of audits are sub­ject to a qual­i­fied and in­de­pend­ent mon­it­or­ing.

¹ …²⁹

² Audit firms un­der state over­sight must grant the Over­sight Au­thor­ity ac­cess to their busi­ness premises at all times.

¹ Audit firms un­der state over­sight must up­date their li­cens­ing doc­u­ments as of 30 June each year and sub­mit them to the Over­sight Au­thor­ity by 30 Septem­ber. Val­id doc­u­ments that re­main un­changed do not have to be re­sub­mit­ted.

² …³⁰

¹ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall de­cide, on ap­plic­a­tion, on the li­cens­ing of:

a.

aud­it­ors;

b.

audit ex­perts;

c.

audit firms un­der state over­sight;

d.³¹

audit com­pan­ies and lead aud­it­ors for the audit un­der the fin­an­cial mar­ket acts (Art­icle 1 para­graph 1 FIN­MASA³²) in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 9a.

^1bis It may re­strict li­cens­ing to the pro­vi­sion of cer­tain kinds of audit­ing ser­vices to cer­tain pub­lic in­terest en­tit­ies.³³

² It shall main­tain a re­gister of li­censed in­di­vidu­als and audit firms. This re­gister shall be pub­lic and shall be pub­lished on the In­ter­net. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the con­tent of the re­gister.

³ Re­gistered in­di­vidu­als and audit firms must in­form the Over­sight Au­thor­ity of any change to the de­tails entered in the re­gister.

¹ The fol­low­ing per­sons and com­pan­ies must provide the Over­sight Au­thor­ity with all the in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ments that it re­quires to ful­fil its tasks:

a.

li­censed in­di­vidu­als and audit firms;

b.

in­di­vidu­als who are mem­bers of the highest su­per­vis­ory and gov­ern­ing bod­ies or the ex­ec­ut­ive body of an audit firm and are not li­censed by the Over­sight Au­thor­ity;

c.

em­ploy­ees of the audit firm and all per­sons it calls upon for audit­ing ser­vices;

d.

audited com­pan­ies;

e.

all com­pan­ies form­ing a group with the audited com­pany and whose an­nu­al fin­an­cial state­ments must be con­sol­id­ated, to­geth­er with their aud­it­ors.

² Fur­ther­more, per­sons and com­pan­ies in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 let­ters a and b must no­ti­fy the Over­sight Au­thor­ity im­me­di­ately in writ­ing of in­cid­ents rel­ev­ant to the li­cence or the over­sight.

In or­der to ful­fil its stat­utory duty, the Over­sight Au­thor­ity may pro­cess per­son­al data and data re­lat­ing to leg­al en­tit­ies, in­clud­ing sens­it­ive per­son­al data as defined in the Data Pro­tec­tion Act of 25 Septem­ber 2020³⁶ and sens­it­ive data re­lat­ing to leg­al en­tit­ies as defined in the Gov­ern­ment and Ad­min­is­tra­tion Or­gan­isa­tion Act of 21 March 1997³⁷.

¹ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall sub­ject audit firms un­der state over­sight to a de­tailed in­spec­tion at least once every three years.³⁸

^1bis ...³⁹

^1ter In the event of sus­pec­ted vi­ol­a­tions of leg­al du­ties, the Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall con­duct a cor­res­pond­ing in­spec­tion in­de­pend­ent of the in­spec­tion cycle in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1.⁴⁰

² It shall veri­fy:

a.

the ac­cur­acy of the de­tails con­tained in the li­cens­ing doc­u­ments;

b.⁴¹

com­pli­ance with leg­al du­ties, audit and qual­ity con­trol stand­ards re­cog­nised by it, pro­fes­sion­al stand­ards, codes of eth­ics and, if ap­plic­able, list­ing rules;

c.

the qual­ity of the audit ser­vices provided by means of in­di­vidu­al con­trol samples;

d.

com­pli­ance with and im­ple­ment­a­tion of the in­struc­tions it has is­sued.

³ It shall is­sue a writ­ten re­port on the res­ults of the in­spec­tion for the at­ten­tion of the audit firm’s highest su­per­vis­ory or gov­ern­ing body.

⁴ If it iden­ti­fies in­fringe­ments of stat­utory du­ties, it shall is­sue a writ­ten rep­rim­and to the audit firm un­der state over­sight, provide in­struc­tions on how to rec­ti­fy the situ­ation and set the firm a max­im­um peri­od of twelve months in which to do this. It may ex­tend this peri­od ap­pro­pri­ately if there are com­pel­ling reas­ons for do­ing so.

¹ Audit firms un­der state over­sight must com­ply with stand­ards for audits and qual­ity con­trol when provid­ing audit­ing ser­vices in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 2 let­ter a num­ber 1.

² The Over­sight Au­thor­ity de­term­ines the ap­plic­able na­tion­ally or in­ter­na­tion­ally re­cog­nised stand­ards. If there are no stand­ards or are they in­suf­fi­cient, the Over­sight Au­thor­ity may en­act its own stand­ards, or com­ple­ment or modi­fy ex­ist­ing ones.

¹ If a li­censed aud­it­or or audit firm no longer sat­is­fies the li­cens­ing re­quire­ments un­der Art­icles 4−6 or 9a, the Over­sight Au­thor­ity may with­draw the li­cence for a lim­ited or un­lim­ited peri­od. If it is pos­sible for com­pli­ance with the li­cens­ing re­quire­ments to be re­stored, a warn­ing must be giv­en pri­or to such with­draw­al. The Over­sight Au­thor­ity is­sues a writ­ten rep­rim­and if the with­draw­al of the li­cence is dis­pro­por­tion­ate.⁴³

² If an audit firm un­der state over­sight no longer sat­is­fies the li­cens­ing re­quire­ments or com­mits re­peated or ser­i­ous in­fringe­ments of the stat­utory pro­vi­sions, the Over­sight Au­thor­ity may with­draw its li­cence for a lim­ited or un­lim­ited peri­od. A warn­ing must be giv­en pri­or to such with­draw­al, un­less the mat­ter in­volves a ser­i­ous in­fringe­ment of the law.

³ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall in­form the com­pan­ies con­cerned and the stock ex­change of the with­draw­al of the li­cence.

⁴ Dur­ing the lim­ited with­draw­al peri­od, the con­cerned in­di­vidu­al or audit firm re­mains sub­ject to the in­form­a­tion and no­ti­fic­a­tion duty in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 15a.⁴⁴

If an in­di­vidu­al who is work­ing for an audit firm un­der state over­sight in­fringes the stat­utory pro­vi­sions, he or she shall be is­sued with a writ­ten rep­rim­and by the Over­sight Au­thor­ity. In the event of re­peated or ser­i­ous in­fringe­ments, the Over­sight Au­thor­ity may pro­hib­it this per­son from ex­er­cising his or her func­tion for a lim­ited or un­lim­ited peri­od and, if ap­plic­able, with­draw the li­cence in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 17 para­graph 1.

¹ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall pub­lish an an­nu­al re­port on its activ­it­ies and prac­tices.

² It shall only provide in­form­a­tion about on­go­ing and con­cluded pro­ceed­ings if this is ne­ces­sary for reas­ons of over­rid­ing pub­lic or private in­terests.

¹ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity may en­gage third parties in or­der to carry out its tasks.

² The third parties en­gaged must be in­de­pend­ent from the audit firm un­der state over­sight and from com­pan­ies for which they provide audit ser­vices.

³ They must main­tain con­fid­en­ti­al­ity with re­gard to mat­ters that come to their at­ten­tion with­in the con­text of their work.

¹ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall charge fees for its de­cisions, in­spec­tions and ser­vices.

² To cov­er the over­sight costs that are not covered by fees, the Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall charge an an­nu­al over­sight levy to audit firm un­der state over­sight. This shall be levied on the basis of the costs in­curred in the ac­count­ing year in ques­tion and shall take ac­count of the eco­nom­ic sig­ni­fic­ance of the audit firms un­der state over­sight.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the de­tails, in par­tic­u­lar the rates for fees, the as­sess­ment of the over­sight levy and the al­loc­a­tion of this levy to the audit firms un­der state over­sight.

¹ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity and oth­er Swiss reg­u­lat­ory bod­ies must ex­change any in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ments that may be re­quired for the pur­pose of en­for­cing the rel­ev­ant le­gis­la­tion.⁴⁶ They shall co­ordin­ate their over­sight activ­it­ies to avoid any du­plic­a­tion.

² They shall in­form each oth­er about pending pro­ceed­ings and de­cisions that may be im­port­ant with re­gard to their re­spect­ive over­sight activ­it­ies.

¹ The stock ex­change and the Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall co­ordin­ate their over­sight activ­it­ies to avoid any du­plic­a­tion.

² They shall in­form each oth­er about pending pro­ceed­ings and de­cisions that may be im­port­ant with re­gard to their re­spect­ive over­sight activ­it­ies.

³ If sanc­tions of the Over­sight Au­thor­ity res­ult­ing from in­fringe­ments of Art­icles 7 and 8 can­not be en­forced, the stock ex­change shall im­pose the ne­ces­sary sanc­tions.

¹ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity and crim­in­al pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies must provide each oth­er with all the in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ments they re­quire to en­force this Act.

² The crim­in­al pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­ity may only use in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ments re­ceived from the Over­sight Au­thor­ity with­in the con­text of the crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings for which leg­al as­sist­ance has been gran­ted. It may not pass in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ments on to third parties.

³ If crim­in­al of­fences come to the at­ten­tion of the Over­sight Au­thor­ity dur­ing the per­form­ance of its of­fi­cial du­ties, it shall in­form the com­pet­ent crim­in­al pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies.

⁴ The crim­in­al pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies shall no­ti­fy the Over­sight Au­thor­ity of all pro­ceed­ings that are con­nec­ted with an audit­ing ser­vice provided by an audit firm un­der state over­sight; they shall pass on judg­ments and or­ders to dis­miss cases to the Over­sight Au­thor­ity. No­ti­fic­a­tion shall be provided, in par­tic­u­lar, of pro­ceed­ings re­lat­ing to the fol­low­ing pro­vi­sions:

a.

Art­icles 146, 152, 153, 161, 166, 251, 253–255 and 321 of the Swiss Crim­in­al Code⁴⁷;

b.

Art­icle 47 of the Bank­ing Act of 8 Novem­ber 1934⁴⁸;

c.⁴⁹

Art­icle 69 of the Fin­an­cial In­sti­tu­tions Act of 15 June 2018⁵⁰;

d.⁵¹

Art­icle 147 of the Fin­an­cial Mar­ket In­fra­struc­ture Act of 19 June 2015⁵².

The can­ton­al civil courts and the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court shall no­ti­fy the Over­sight Au­thor­ity of all pro­ceed­ings re­lat­ing to aud­it­ors’ li­ab­il­ity (Art­icle 755 CO⁵³) that are con­nec­ted with an audit­ing ser­vice provided by an audit firm un­der state over­sight. They shall sup­ply it with the judg­ments and oth­er de­cisions that con­clude such pro­ceed­ings.

Self-reg­u­lat­ory or­gan­isa­tions (SRO) un­der the Anti-Money Laun­der­ing Act of 10 Oc­to­ber 1997⁵⁵ shall no­ti­fy the Over­sight Au­thor­ity of any in­cid­ents in con­nec­tion with an audit com­pany or a lead aud­it­or and provide it with all the in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ments that the Over­sight Au­thor­ity re­quires to ful­fil its tasks.

¹ In or­der to en­force this Act, the Over­sight Au­thor­ity may ask for­eign audit over­sight au­thor­it­ies for in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ments.

² It may trans­fer in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ments that are not pub­licly ac­cess­ible to for­eign audit over­sight au­thor­it­ies, provided that these au­thor­it­ies:

a.

only use the in­form­a­tion sup­plied for the dir­ect over­sight of in­di­vidu­als and firms provid­ing audit ser­vices;

b.⁵⁶

are bound by of­fi­cial or pro­fes­sion­al secrecy, not­with­stand­ing pro­vi­sions on the pub­lic nature of pro­ceed­ings and the no­ti­fic­a­tion of the gen­er­al pub­lic about such pro­ceed­ings;

c.

pass on the in­form­a­tion to au­thor­it­ies and bod­ies that per­form over­sight tasks in the pub­lic in­terest and are bound by of­fi­cial and pro­fes­sion­al secrecy only if this is done on the basis of au­thor­isa­tion con­ferred by a treaty or with the Over­sight Au­thor­ity’s pri­or con­sent.

³ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall re­fuse to give its con­sent if the in­form­a­tion is to be passed on to crim­in­al pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies or au­thor­it­ies and bod­ies with powers to im­pose sanc­tions un­der ad­min­is­trat­ive law and, due to the nature of the of­fence, mu­tu­al leg­al as­sist­ance in crim­in­al mat­ters would be ex­cluded. The Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall reach its de­cision in agree­ment with the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice.

⁴ With­in the con­text of para­graph 2, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall be au­thor­ised to reg­u­late the co­oper­a­tion with for­eign audit over­sight au­thor­it­ies in treat­ies.

¹ In or­der to en­force this Act, the Over­sight Au­thor­ity may ask for­eign audit over­sight au­thor­it­ies to per­form over­sight activ­it­ies abroad. It may per­form over­sight activ­it­ies abroad it­self on the basis of au­thor­isa­tion con­ferred by a treaty or with the for­eign audit over­sight au­thor­ity’s pri­or con­sent.

² At the re­quest of for­eign audit over­sight au­thor­it­ies, the Over­sight Au­thor­ity may per­form over­sight activ­it­ies in Switzer­land on be­half of these au­thor­it­ies, if the re­quest­ing state grants re­cipro­city. Art­icle 26 para­graphs 2 and 3 ap­ply by ana­logy.⁵⁷

³ On the basis of au­thor­isa­tion con­ferred by a treaty or with the Over­sight Au­thor­ity’s pri­or con­sent, for­eign audit over­sight au­thor­it­ies may per­form over­sight activ­it­ies in Switzer­land them­selves, if the re­quest­ing state grants re­cipro­city. Art­icle 26 para­graphs 2 and 3 ap­ply by ana­logy.

⁴ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity may ac­com­pany for­eign audit over­sight au­thor­it­ies dur­ing their over­sight activ­it­ies in Switzer­land. The per­son or com­pany con­cerned may re­quest that it does so.

^4bis For over­sight activ­it­ies on be­half of for­eign audit over­sight au­thor­it­ies (para­graph 2) and ac­com­pa­ny­ing for­eign audit over­sight au­thor­it­ies in their over­sight activ­it­ies in Switzer­land (para­graph 4), the Over­sight Au­thor­ity has the same powers over the audit firms and audited com­pan­ies con­cerned as they have over audit firms un­der state over­sight and the com­pan­ies audited by them.⁵⁸

⁵ With­in the con­text of para­graph 2 and 3, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall be au­thor­ised to reg­u­late the co­oper­a­tion with for­eign audit over­sight au­thor­it­ies in treat­ies.

¹ Over­sight in ac­cord­ance with this Act shall be the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the Fed­er­al Audit Over­sight Au­thor­ity (the Over­sight Au­thor­ity).

² The Over­sight Au­thor­ity is a pub­lic law in­sti­tu­tion with its own leg­al per­son­al­ity. It car­ries out its over­sight in­de­pend­ently (Art­icle 38).⁵⁹

³ It is in­de­pend­ent with re­gard to its or­gan­isa­tion and man­age­ment and keeps its own ac­counts.

⁴ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity is man­aged in ac­cord­ance with busi­ness man­age­ment prin­ciples.⁶⁰

⁵ With­in the scope of this Act, the Over­sight Au­thor­ity is en­titled to file ap­peals with the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court.⁶¹

The gov­ern­ing bod­ies of the Over­sight Au­thor­ity are:

a.

the Board of Dir­ect­ors;

b.⁶²

the Ex­ec­ut­ive Board;

c.

the Aud­it­or.

¹ The Board of Dir­ect­ors is the highest su­per­vis­ory body com­pris­ing a max­im­um of five ex­pert mem­bers in­de­pend­ent of the audit pro­fes­sion.

² The mem­bers are elec­ted for a term of of­fice of four years. Each mem­ber may be re-elec­ted twice.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil elects the mem­bers of the Board of Dir­ect­ors and des­ig­nates the chair­wo­man or the chair­man.

⁴ The mem­bers of the Board of Dir­ect­ors must ful­fil their tasks and du­ties with due di­li­gence and pro­tect the in­terests of the Over­sight Au­thor­ity in good faith.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­call a mem­ber or sev­er­al mem­bers of the Board of Dir­ect­ors for im­port­ant reas­ons.

⁶ It de­term­ines the re­mu­ner­a­tion of the mem­bers of the Board of Dir­ect­ors. Art­icle 6a para­graphs 1-4 of the Fed­er­al Per­son­nel Act of 24 March 2000⁶⁴ (FPA) ap­plies to the fee paid to the mem­bers of the Board of Dir­ect­ors and the oth­er con­trac­tu­al terms and con­di­tions agreed with these per­sons.

The Board of Dir­ect­ors has the fol­low­ing tasks:

a.

It is­sues the or­gan­isa­tion­al rules of the Over­sight Au­thor­ity.

b.

It is­sues the stra­tegic goals of the Over­sight Au­thor­ity, sub­mit­ting them to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil for ap­prov­al and re­port­ing on their ful­fil­ment to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

c.

It is­sues the or­din­ances del­eg­ated to the Over­sight Au­thor­ity.

d.

It makes or­gan­isa­tion­al ar­range­ments to pre­serve the in­terests of the Over­sight Au­thor­ity and pre­vent­ing con­flicts of in­terests.

e.

It con­cludes the af­fil­i­ation con­tract with the Swiss Fed­er­al Pen­sion Fund (PUB­LICA) and sub­mit­ting it to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil for ap­prov­al.

f.

It reg­u­lates the com­pos­i­tion, the elec­tion pro­ced­ure and the or­gan­isa­tion of the par­ity com­mis­sion for the pen­sion fund.

g.

It de­cides on the reas­ons, modi­fic­a­tion and ter­min­a­tion of the em­ploy­ment re­la­tion­ship with the Chief Ex­ec­ut­ive; the reas­ons and ter­min­a­tion of the em­ploy­ment re­la­tion­ship with the dir­ect­or re­quire the Fed­er­al Coun­cil’s ap­prov­al.

h.

It de­cided on the reas­ons, modi­fic­a­tion and ter­min­a­tion of the em­ploy­ment re­la­tion­ship of the oth­er ex­ec­ut­ive board mem­bers upon re­quest of the Chief Ex­ec­ut­ive.

i.

It su­per­vises the Ex­ec­ut­ive Board.

j.

It provides an in­tern­al con­trol sys­tem and risk man­age­ment ad­ap­ted for the Over­sight Au­thor­ity.

k.

It de­term­ines the ap­pro­pri­ation of re­serves.

1.

It ap­proves the budget.

m.

It drafts and ap­proves an an­nu­al re­port for each fisc­al year; it sub­mits the re­vised an­nu­al re­port to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil for ap­prov­al; sim­ul­tan­eously it re­quests dis­charge from the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and pub­lishes the an­nu­al re­port fol­low­ing ap­prov­al.

¹ The Ex­ec­ut­ive Board is the op­er­at­ive body headed by the Chief Ex­ec­ut­ive.

² In par­tic­u­lar, it has the fol­low­ing tasks:

a.

It man­ages the busi­ness.

b.

It is­sues de­cisions in ac­cord­ance with the or­gan­isa­tion­al reg­u­la­tions of the Board of Dir­ect­ors.

c.

It pre­pares the doc­u­ment­a­tion on which the Board of Dir­ect­ors bases its de­cisions.

d.

It re­ports to the Board of Dir­ect­ors reg­u­larly and without delay in the event of spe­cial in­cid­ents.

e.

It rep­res­ents the Over­sight Au­thor­ity ex­tern­ally.

f.

It de­cides on es­tab­lish­ing, modi­fy­ing and ter­min­at­ing em­ploy­ment re­la­tion­ships with the em­ploy­ees of the Over­sight Au­thor­ity, Art­icle 30a let­ters g and h re­main re­served.

g.

It par­ti­cip­ates in in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions and bod­ies, ad­dress­ing mat­ters of audit over­sight.

h.

It ful­fils all tasks not as­signed to an­oth­er body by this Act.

¹ The Swiss Fed­er­al Audit Of­fice is the ex­tern­al aud­it­or.

² The pro­vi­sions of the law on com­pan­ies lim­ited by shares ap­ply to the aud­it­or and the audit by ana­logy.

¹ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall em­ploy its staff in ac­cord­ance with private law.

² …⁶⁸

³ Art­icle 6a para­graphs 1-4 FPA⁶⁹ ap­plies to the salary of the Chief Ex­ec­ut­ive and of the mem­bers of the Ex­ec­ut­ive Board and oth­er per­son­nel re­mu­ner­ated in com­par­able ways and to the oth­er con­trac­tu­al pro­vi­sions agreed with these per­sons.⁷⁰

¹The Ex­ec­ut­ive Board and the oth­er per­son­nel are in­sured with PUB­LICA in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 32a-32m FPA⁷².

²The Over­sight Au­thor­ity is the em­ploy­er in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 32b para­graph 2 FPA.

¹ The bod­ies of the Over­sight Au­thor­ity and its staff are bound by of­fi­cial secrecy.

² The duty of secrecy re­mains after ter­min­a­tion of the em­ploy­ment re­la­tion­ship or mem­ber­ship in a body of the Over­sight Au­thor­ity.

³ In hear­ings and court pro­ced­ures, the em­ploy­ees and mem­bers of the Over­sight Au­thor­ity bod­ies may not without the au­thor­isa­tion of the Over­sight Au­thor­ity speak about im­pres­sions they have formed while ful­filling their tasks and which re­late to their of­fi­cial tasks as parties, wit­nesses or tech­nic­al ex­perts.

¹ Em­ploy­ees are re­quired to re­port all felon­ies and mis­de­mean­ours that are pro­sec­uted ex of­fi­cio that are re­lated to in­tern­al cases and which they ob­serve dur­ing their of­fi­cial activ­it­ies or which have been re­por­ted to them, to their su­per­i­ors, the Board of Dir­ect­ors, the Swiss Fed­er­al Audit Of­fice or to the law en­force­ment agency.

² The duty to re­port does not ap­ply to per­sons who are en­titled to re­fuse to testi­fy or to give evid­ence un­der Art­icles 113 para­graph 1, 168 and 169 of the Crim­in­al Pro­ced­ure Code⁷⁵.

³ Em­ploy­ees are en­titled to re­port to their su­per­i­ors, the Board of Dir­ect­ors or the Swiss Fed­er­al Audit Of­fice oth­er ir­reg­u­lar­it­ies which they ob­serve dur­ing their in­tern­al of­fi­cial activ­ity or which have been re­por­ted to them.

⁴ Per­sons hav­ing filed charges or made a re­port in good faith must not be dis­ad­vant­aged in their pro­fes­sion­al po­s­i­tion.

⁵ The duty to re­port in re­la­tion to ex­tern­al cir­cum­stances is based on Art­icle 24 para­graph 3.

¹ The an­nu­al re­port in­cludes the activ­ity re­port (Art­icle 19 para­graph 1), the an­nu­al fin­an­cial state­ments and the audit re­port.

² The an­nu­al fin­an­cial state­ments con­sist of the bal­ance sheet, the profit and loss state­ment and the notes.

¹ The budget and an­nu­al fin­an­cial state­ments of the Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall be man­aged in­de­pend­ently of the budget and ac­counts of the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

² For ac­count­ing, the pro­vi­sions on com­mer­cial book­keep­ing and ac­count­ing of the CO⁷⁷ ap­ply by ana­logy.⁷⁸

³ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall cre­ate the re­serves it re­quires to per­form its over­sight activ­it­ies. These shall not ex­ceed the amount of one year’s budget.

¹ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall have a cur­rent ac­count with the Con­fed­er­a­tion and shall in­vest sur­plus funds with the Con­fed­er­a­tion at mar­ket in­terest rates.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall grant the Over­sight Au­thor­ity loans at mar­ket in­terest rates for the pur­poses of its es­tab­lish­ment and to en­sure its solvency.

¹ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity, its bod­ies, its per­son­nel and third parties en­gaged by the Over­sight Au­thor­ity are re­spons­ible un­der the Gov­ern­ment Li­ab­il­ity Act of 14 March 1958⁸⁰ with the re­ser­va­tion of para­graph 2.

² The Over­sight Au­thor­ity is li­able only if:

a.

it has vi­ol­ated es­sen­tial of­fi­cial du­ties; and

b.

the loss or dam­age is not at­trib­ut­able to the breach of duty by an aud­it­or, an audit ex­pert or an audit firm.

^2bis The man­dated audit com­pany in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 24 para­graph 1 let­ter a of the FIN­MASA⁸¹ and Art­icle 118i CISA⁸² is re­spons­ible un­der the pro­vi­sions of the Stock Com­pany Law (Art­icles 752-760 CO⁸³).⁸⁴

The Over­sight Au­thor­ity is ex­empt from any tax­a­tion by the Con­fed­er­a­tion, can­tons or com­munes.

¹ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity ful­fils its tasks pro­fes­sion­ally in­de­pend­ently.

² It is sub­ject to the ad­min­is­trat­ive su­per­vi­sion of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil. The lat­ter ex­er­cises its su­per­vi­sion primar­ily by:

a.

elect­ing and re­call­ing the mem­bers of the Board of Dir­ect­ors and its chair­wo­man or chair­man;

b.

ap­prov­ing the reas­ons and ter­min­a­tion of the em­ploy­ment re­la­tion­ship with the Chief Ex­ec­ut­ive;

c.

ap­prov­ing the af­fil­i­ation con­tract with PUB­LICA;

d.

ap­prov­ing the an­nu­al re­port;

e.

ap­prov­ing the stra­tegic goals;

f.

an­nu­ally veri­fy­ing the ful­fil­ment of the stra­tegic ob­ject­ives;

g.

grant­ing dis­charge to the Board of Dir­ect­ors.

³ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity reg­u­larly dis­cusses its stra­tegic goals and the ful­fil­ment of its tasks with the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

¹ Any per­son who con­tra­venes:

a.

the prin­ciples of in­de­pend­ence in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 11 and 728 of the CO⁸⁶;

b.⁸⁷

the du­ties to no­ti­fy in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 15a para­graph 2;

c.

the duty to in­form in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 15 para­graph 3;

d.

an im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sion of this Act, the con­tra­ven­tion of which is de­clared by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil to be an of­fence;

e.

a de­cision or meas­ure of the Over­sight Au­thor­ity that has been is­sued with a ref­er­ence to the pen­al­ties set out in this Art­icle,

shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 100 000 francs.

² If the of­fence is com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, the fine shall not ex­ceed 50 000 francs.

³ The Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall pro­sec­ute and judge such con­tra­ven­tions in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974⁸⁸ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law.

⁴ The right to pro­sec­ute con­tra­ven­tions is lim­ited to sev­en years.

The iden­ti­fic­a­tion of the spe­cif­ic of­fend­ers in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 39 may be dis­pensed with and the busi­ness es­tab­lish­ment may be ordered to pay the fine if:

a.

the iden­ti­fic­a­tion of the of­fend­ers un­der Art­icle 6 of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974⁹⁰ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law re­quires in­vest­ig­a­tion meas­ures which would be dis­pro­por­tion­ate to the pen­alty that may be im­posed; and

b.

a fine of no more than 20 000 francs comes in­to con­sid­er­a­tion for the con­tra­ven­tions of the pro­vi­sions of this Act.

¹ Any per­son who com­mits any of the fol­low­ing of­fences shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty:⁹¹

a.

provid­ing an audit­ing ser­vice without the ne­ces­sary li­cence or des­pite be­ing pro­hib­ited from prac­tising his or her pro­fes­sion;

a^bis.⁹² provid­ing false in­form­a­tion in the audit re­port or in the audit re­port or audit con­firm­a­tion about es­sen­tial facts or with­holds es­sen­tial facts;

b.⁹³

fail­ing to grant the Over­sight Au­thor­ity ac­cess to his or her busi­ness premises (Art­icle 13 para­graph 2), fails to provide it with the re­ques­ted in­form­a­tion or fails to sub­mit the re­ques­ted doc­u­ments (Art. 15a para. 1) or provides it with false or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion;

c.

fail­ing to com­ply with the du­ties to doc­u­ment and re­tain re­cords as an audit firm un­der state over­sight (Art. 730c CO⁹⁴);

d.

as a third party en­gaged by the Over­sight Au­thor­ity (Art­icle 20), dis­clos­ing a secret, dur­ing or after com­ple­tion of the activ­ity, that was en­trus­ted to it in this ca­pa­city or that came to its at­ten­tion in this ca­pa­city (the fed­er­al and can­ton­al pro­vi­sions on the duty to testi­fy and the duty to in­form an au­thor­ity shall con­tin­ue to ap­ply).

² If the of­fence is com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, the fine shall not ex­ceed 100 000 francs.

³ Pro­sec­u­tion and judg­ment shall be the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the can­tons.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions. It may au­thor­ise the Over­sight Au­thor­ity to is­sue ad­di­tion­al im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

The amend­ment of cur­rent le­gis­la­tion is reg­u­lated in the An­nex.

¹ If an in­di­vidu­al or an audit firm car­ries out the tasks of aud­it­ors, the pro­vi­sions of this Act ap­ply as soon as the new pro­vi­sions on aud­it­ors of 16 Decem­ber 2005 be­come ap­plic­able to the leg­al en­tity to be audited.

² If in­di­vidu­als or audit firms provide oth­er audit ser­vices, the new law shall ap­ply from the mo­ment this Act comes in­to force.

³ In­di­vidu­als and audit firms that sub­mit an ap­plic­a­tion to be li­censed as an aud­it­or, audit ex­pert or audit firm un­der state over­sight to the Over­sight Au­thor­ity with­in four months fol­low­ing the com­mence­ment of this Act may provide audit ser­vices in the sense of Art­icle 2 let­ter a un­til the de­cision on the li­cence is taken. The Over­sight Au­thor­ity shall con­firm timely re­ceipt of the ap­plic­a­tion to the ap­plic­ant in writ­ing. It shall no­ti­fy the stock ex­change of ap­plic­a­tions that are sub­mit­ted for li­cens­ing as an audit firm un­der state over­sight.

⁴ Pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence that has been ac­quired up to two years fol­low­ing the com­mence­ment of this Act un­der the over­sight of per­sons who sat­is­fy the re­quire­ments in ac­cord­ance with the Or­din­ance of 15 June 1992⁹⁵ on the pro­fes­sion­al re­quire­ments for spe­cially qual­i­fied aud­it­ors shall be re­garded as pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence in the sense of Art­icle 4.

⁵ Pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence that has been ac­quired up to two years fol­low­ing the com­mence­ment of this Act un­der the over­sight of per­sons who sat­is­fy the re­quire­ments re­lat­ing to edu­ca­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 para­graph 2 shall be re­garded as pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence in the sense of Art­icle 5.

⁶ In cases of hard­ship, the Over­sight Au­thor­ity may also re­cog­nise pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence that does not meet the stat­utory re­quire­ments, provided that it can be demon­strated, on the basis of many years of prac­tic­al ex­per­i­ence, that audit ser­vices are provided fault­lessly.

¹ Audit­ing ser­vices the con­duct of which re­quires a li­cence from the Over­sight Au­thor­ity un­der the new law may be per­formed up to one year after the com­mence­ment of the amend­ment of 20 June 2014 with the FINMA li­cence un­der former law.

² The Over­sight Au­thor­ity takes over all pro­ceed­ings from FINMA which were ini­ti­ated against audit com­pan­ies per­form­ing audits un­der the fin­an­cial mar­ket acts (Art­icle 1 para­graph 1 FIN­MASA⁹⁷) as well as against lead aud­it­ors of such audits and which by the en­act­ment of the amend­ment of 20 June 2014 have not yet been leg­ally de­cided.

The fol­low­ing ap­plies to audit firms that provide audit ser­vices to the com­pan­ies de­scribed in Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 let­ter b and that have bonds lis­ted on a Swiss stock ex­change on the date on which the amend­ment of 30 Septem­ber 2016 comes in­to force:

a. Any audit firm not ex­emp­ted from the li­cens­ing ob­lig­a­tion must be li­censed as an audit firm un­der state over­sight at the latest with­in six months of the amend­ment of 30 Septem­ber 2016 com­ing in­to force.

b. Any audit firm ex­emp­ted from the li­cens­ing ob­lig­a­tion must re­gister with the Over­sight Au­thor­ity or en­sure that in­vestors are ex­pli­citly in­formed that the audit firm is not un­der state over­sight at the latest with­in six months of the amend­ment of 30 Septem­ber 2016 com­ing in­to force.

Un­til the Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court Act of 17 June 2005⁹⁹ comes in­to force, rights of ap­peal shall be reg­u­lated as fol­lows, sup­ple­ment­ing the gen­er­al pro­vi­sions on the ad­min­is­tra­tion of fed­er­al justice: the Ap­peals Com­mis­sion of the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs shall de­cide on ap­peals against de­cisions of the Over­sight Au­thor­ity.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment date:¹⁰⁰ 1 Septem­ber 2007
Art­icles 28, 29, 30 para­graphs 1, 2, 3 let­ter a–c and e and 4, 31, 32, 33 para­graphs 1 and 3, 34, 35 para­graphs 1 and 2, 36, 37 and 38 para­graph 1: 1 Novem­ber 2006
Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 let­ter a and 2: 1 Oc­to­ber 2015¹⁰¹
Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 let­ter b and 3: 1 Oc­to­ber 2017¹⁰²
Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 let­ters c and d: ir­rel­ev­ant and do not come in­to force¹⁰³