Federal Act
on Freedom of Information in the Administration
(Freedom of Information Act, FoIA)

This Act seeks to pro­mote trans­par­ency with re­gard to the man­date, or­gan­isa­tion and activ­it­ies of the Ad­min­is­tra­tion. To this end, it con­trib­utes to in­form­ing the pub­lic by en­sur­ing ac­cess to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments.

¹ This Act ap­plies to:

a.

the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion;

b.

pub­lic and private bod­ies out­side the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion, in­so­far as they en­act le­gis­la­tion or is­sue first in­stance rul­ings with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 5 of the Fed­er­al Act of 20 Decem­ber 1968³ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ure (Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ure Act);

c.

the Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices.

²This Act does not ap­ply to the Swiss Na­tion­al Bank or the Swiss Fin­an­cial Mar­ket Su­per­vis­ory Au­thor­ity.⁴

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may ex­clude oth­er or­gan­isa­tion­al units of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion, as well as oth­er or­gan­isa­tions and per­sons out­side the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion, from the scope of this Act if:

a.

the tasks as­signed to the same so re­quire;

b.

their com­pet­it­ive­ness would be pre­ju­diced by be­ing sub­ject to this Act; or

c.

the tasks as­signed to them are of only minor im­port­ance.

¹ This Act does not ap­ply to:

a.

ac­cess to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments re­lat­ing to:

1.

civil pro­ceed­ings,

2.

crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings,

3.

in­ter­na­tion­al mu­tu­al and ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance pro­ceed­ings,

4.

in­ter­na­tion­al dis­pute set­tle­ment pro­ceed­ings,

5.

con­sti­tu­tion­al and ad­min­is­trat­ive ju­di­cial pro­ceed­ings; or

6.

ar­bit­ra­tion pro­ceed­ings;

b.

the con­sulta­tion, by a party, of the case file in first-in­stance ad­min­is­trat­ive pro­ceed­ings.

² Ac­cess to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments con­tain­ing per­son­al data about the per­son re­quest­ing ac­cess is gov­erned by the Data Pro­tec­tion Act of 25 Septem­ber 2020⁵ (FADP).⁶

Spe­cial pro­vi­sions con­tained in oth­er Fed­er­al Acts are re­served where they:

a.

de­clare cer­tain in­form­a­tion secret; or

b.

de­clare the ac­cess to cer­tain in­form­a­tion to be sub­ject to re­quire­ments derog­at­ing from those set out herein;

¹An of­fi­cial doc­u­ment is any in­form­a­tion:

a.

which has been re­cor­ded, re­gard­less of the me­di­um;

b.

re­tained by the au­thor­ity which is­sued the same or to which it has been com­mu­nic­ated; and

c.

which con­cerns the ful­fil­ment of a pub­lic task.

² Doc­u­ments which have been pro­duced by means of a simple com­pu­ter­ised pro­cess from re­cor­ded in­form­a­tion which meets the re­quire­ments of para­graph 1 let­ters a, b and c above are also deemed to be of­fi­cial doc­u­ments.

³ Not deemed to be of­fi­cial doc­u­ments are any doc­u­ments which:

a.

are used by an au­thor­ity in a com­mer­cial ca­pa­city;

b.

are not com­plete; or

c.

are in­ten­ded for per­son­al use.

¹ Any per­son has the right to in­spect of­fi­cial doc­u­ments and to ob­tain in­form­a­tion about the con­tent of of­fi­cial doc­u­ments.

² The doc­u­ments may be in­spec­ted in situor a copy there­of may be re­ques­ted. The le­gis­la­tion gov­ern­ing copy­right is re­served.

³ Where an of­fi­cial doc­u­ment has already been pub­lished by the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment in pa­per or elec­tron­ic format, the rights un­der para­graphs 1 and 2 above are deemed to have been ful­filled.

¹ The right of ac­cess shall be re­stric­ted, de­ferred or re­fused if such ac­cess to an of­fi­cial doc­u­ment:

a.

sig­ni­fic­antly harms the free opin­ion-form­ing and de­cision-mak­ing pro­cesses of an au­thor­ity which is sub­ject to this Act, or of an­oth­er le­gis­lat­ive, ad­min­is­trat­ive or ju­di­cial body;

b.

ob­structs an au­thor­ity from achiev­ing the in­ten­ded ob­ject­ives when tak­ing spe­cif­ic meas­ures;

c.

may com­prom­ise Switzer­land’s do­mest­ic and in­ter­na­tion­al se­cur­ity;

d.

may af­fect Switzer­land’s in­terests in mat­ters of for­eign policy and in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions;

e.

may af­fect re­la­tions between the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment and the can­tons, or inter-can­ton­al re­la­tions;

f.

may af­fect the eco­nom­ic or mon­et­ary in­terests of Switzer­land;

g.

may re­veal pro­fes­sion­al, busi­ness or man­u­fac­tur­ing secrets; or

h.

may res­ult in the re­lease of in­form­a­tion provided vol­un­tar­ily by a third party to an au­thor­ity which un­der­took to main­tain secrecy with re­gard thereto.

² The right of ac­cess shall be re­stric­ted, de­ferred or re­fused where ac­cess to an of­fi­cial doc­u­ment may ad­versely af­fect the pri­vacy of a third party, un­less ex­cep­tion­ally out­weighed by pub­lic in­terest.

¹ There is no right of ac­cess to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments re­lat­ing to joint re­port­ing pro­ceed­ings.

² Ac­cess to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments is gran­ted only after the polit­ic­al or ad­min­is­trat­ive de­cisions based there­on have been taken.

³ By way of ex­cep­tion, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may de­cide to with­hold ac­cess to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments res­ult­ing from of­fi­cial de­part­ment­al con­sulta­tion pro­cesses even after de­cisions have been made.

⁴ Un­der no cir­cum­stances may ac­cess to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments about the status of pending or fu­ture ne­go­ti­ations be gran­ted.

⁵ Ac­cess to re­ports on the eval­u­ation of the per­form­ance of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion and the ef­fect­ive­ness of its meas­ures is guar­an­teed.

¹ Of­fi­cial doc­u­ments con­tain­ing per­son­al data or data of leg­al en­tit­ies shall, wherever pos­sible, be made an­onym­ous pri­or to in­spec­tion.

² Re­quests re­lat­ing to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments which can­not be made an­onym­ous shall in the case of per­son­al data in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 36 FADP⁸ and data of leg­al en­tit­ies be as­sessed in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 57s of the Gov­ern­ment and Ad­min­is­tra­tion Or­gan­isa­tion Act of 21 March 1997⁹. The rel­ev­ant pro­ced­ure shall be gov­erned by this Act.

¹An ap­plic­a­tion for ac­cess to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments must be ad­dressed to the au­thor­ity which cre­ated the doc­u­ments or re­ceived the same as primary ad­dress­ee from third parties not sub­ject to this Act.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide a spe­cial pro­ced­ure for ac­cess to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments by Swiss rep­res­ent­a­tions abroad and by mis­sions to in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions.

³ The ap­plic­a­tion must be for­mu­lated in a suf­fi­ciently ac­cur­ate man­ner.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­act reg­u­la­tions gov­ern­ing the par­tic­u­lars of this pro­ced­ure:

a.

it shall take the spe­cial needs of the me­dia in­to ac­count;

b.

if a large num­ber of ap­plic­a­tions cov­er the same doc­u­ment, it may stip­u­late oth­er mod­al­it­ies gov­ern­ing such ac­cess;

c.

it may ex­tend the pro­cessing dead­lines for ap­plic­a­tions which re­quire par­tic­u­larly ex­tens­ive pro­cessing.

¹ Where the au­thor­ity is con­sid­er­ing grant­ing ac­cess to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments where ac­cess may ad­versely af­fect the pri­vacy of a third party, it shall con­sult the third party con­cerned and give that per­son the op­por­tun­ity to re­spond with­in ten days.

² The au­thor­ity shall in­form the third party of its de­cision con­cern­ing the ap­plic­a­tion for ac­cess.

¹ The au­thor­ity shall make a de­cision as soon as pos­sible and in any case no later than 20 days after re­ceipt of the ap­plic­a­tion.

² The dead­line may, un­der ex­cep­tion­al cir­cum­stances, be ex­ten­ded by 20 days if the ap­plic­a­tion for ac­cess con­cerns a large num­ber of doc­u­ments or doc­u­ments which are com­plex or dif­fi­cult to ob­tain. If an ap­plic­a­tion con­cerns of­fi­cial doc­u­ments where ac­cess may ad­versely af­fect the pri­vacy of third parties. the dead­line shall be ex­ten­ded by the re­quired peri­od.¹¹

³ If an ap­plic­a­tion con­cerns of­fi­cial doc­u­ments where ac­cess may ad­versely af­fect the pri­vacy of third parties, the au­thor­ity shall sus­pend ac­cess un­til the leg­al po­s­i­tion has been cla­ri­fied.¹²

⁴ The au­thor­ity shall in­form the ap­plic­ant, with a sum­mary of the grounds, of any ex­ten­sion of the dead­line, re­stric­tion or re­fus­al of ac­cess. In­form­a­tion con­cern­ing the re­stric­tion or re­fus­al of ac­cess, as well as the grounds there­for, shall be con­veyed in writ­ing.

¹ A re­quest for me­di­ation may be filed by any per­son:

a.

whose ac­cess to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments has been re­stric­ted, de­ferred or re­fused;

b.

whose ap­plic­a­tion was not de­cided by the au­thor­ity with­in the dead­line;

c.

who was con­sul­ted pur­su­ant to Art­icle 11, should the au­thor­ity in­tend grant­ing ac­cess con­trary to his or her wishes.

² The re­quest for me­di­ation must be filed in writ­ing with the Fed­er­al Data Pro­tec­tion and In­form­a­tion Com­mis­sion­er (FD­PIC) with­in 20 days of re­ceipt of the de­cision from the au­thor­ity or the date of the au­thor­ity’s fail­ure to com­ply with the dead­line.¹³

³ If a set­tle­ment is reached through me­di­ation, the pro­ceed­ings are deemed to be con­cluded.

If no set­tle­ment is reached through me­di­ation, the FD­PIC¹⁴ shall provide the par­ti­cipants to the me­di­ation pro­ceed­ings with a writ­ten re­com­mend­a­tion with­in 30 days of re­ceipt of the re­quest for me­di­ation.

¹ With­in ten days of re­ceipt of the re­com­mend­a­tion, the ap­plic­ant or the per­son con­sul­ted may re­quest a rul­ing pur­su­ant to Art­icle 5 of the Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ure Act of 20 Decem­ber 1968¹⁵.

² Fur­ther­more, the au­thor­ity shall is­sue a rul­ing, where, con­trary to the re­com­mend­a­tion, it in­tends to:

a.

re­strict, de­fer or re­fuse the right of ac­cess to an of­fi­cial doc­u­ment;

b.¹⁶

grant the right of ac­cess to an of­fi­cial doc­u­ment where ac­cess may ad­versely af­fect the pri­vacy of third parties.

³ A rul­ing shall be is­sued with­in 20 days of re­ceipt of the re­com­mend­a­tion or the re­quest pur­su­ant to para­graph 1 above.

¹ The ap­peals pro­ced­ure is sub­ject to the gen­er­al pro­vi­sions found in the rel­ev­ant le­gis­la­tion gov­ern­ing the fed­er­al ad­min­is­tra­tion of justice.

² The ap­peal in­stances shall also have ac­cess to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments which are secret.

¹ Ac­cess to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments is nor­mally sub­ject to pay­ment of a fee.¹⁸

² No fee is charged for:

a.

the pro­cessing of an ap­plic­a­tion which gives rise to min­im­al costs;

b.

me­di­ation pro­ceed­ings (Art. 13); and

c.

pro­ceed­ings re­lat­ing to the is­su­ing of a rul­ing (Art. 15).

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails and fee rates on the basis of the ef­fect­ive costs in­curred. Spe­cif­ic pro­vi­sions set out in oth­er le­gis­la­tion are re­served.

⁴ Fees may, in all cases, be charged for provid­ing re­ports, bro­chures and oth­er prin­ted ma­ter­i­al and in­form­a­tion car­ri­ers.

The FD­PIC shall, in par­tic­u­lar, have the fol­low­ing du­ties and powers un­der this Act:¹⁹

a.²⁰

He or she shall con­duct me­di­ation pro­ceed­ings (Art. 13) and make a re­com­mend­a­tion (Art. 14), if me­di­ation does not suc­ceed.

b.²¹

He or she shall provide in­form­a­tion, ex of­fi­cio or at the re­quest of in­di­vidu­als or au­thor­it­ies, on the mod­al­it­ies gov­ern­ing ac­cess to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments.

c.²²

He or she shall com­ment on draft fed­er­al le­gis­la­tion and fed­er­al meas­ures which have a fun­da­ment­al im­pact on the prin­ciple of free­dom of in­form­a­tion.

¹ The FD­PIC shall re­view the ex­e­cu­tion and ef­fect­ive­ness of this Act and, in par­tic­u­lar, the costs in­curred in its im­ple­ment­a­tion, and shall re­port on a reg­u­lar basis to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

² The FD­PIC shall sub­mit the first re­port on the costs of im­ple­ment­ing this Act to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil with­in three years of it com­ing in­to force.

³ The FD­PIC’s re­ports shall be pub­lished.

¹ With­in the con­text of me­di­ation pro­ceed­ings, the FD­PIC shall have ac­cess to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments, even if they are sub­ject to secrecy.

² The FD­PIC shall be sub­ject to of­fi­cial secrecy to the same ex­tent as the au­thor­it­ies whose of­fi­cial doc­u­ments he or she in­spects or from whom he or she ob­tains in­form­a­tion.²³

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may, in par­tic­u­lar, en­act pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing the:

a.

pro­cessing of of­fi­cial doc­u­ments;

b.

in­form­a­tion per­tain­ing to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments;

c.

pub­lic­a­tion of of­fi­cial doc­u­ments.

Amend­ments to ex­ist­ing le­gis­la­tion are reg­u­lated in the An­nex.

This Act ap­plies to of­fi­cial doc­u­ments pro­duced or re­ceived by au­thor­it­ies after its com­mence­ment.

¹ This Act shall be sub­ject to op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Ju­ly 2006²⁴