¹ Any per­son car­ry­ing on an activ­ity in con­nec­tion with a tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions ser­vice shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­altyif he:¹⁶⁶

a.

fals­i­fies or sup­presses in­form­a­tion;

b.

gives any third party the op­por­tun­ity to do so.

² Any per­son who de­ceives a per­son car­ry­ing on an activ­ity in con­nec­tion with a tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions ser­vice in­to falsi­fy­ing or sup­press­ing in­form­a­tion shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.¹⁶⁷

Any per­son who by means of a tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions in­stall­a­tion re­ceives private in­form­a­tion that is not in­ten­ded for him and who uses it or com­mu­nic­ates it to third parties without per­mis­sion shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.¹⁶⁸

¹ Any per­son who:

a.¹⁷⁰

...

b.¹⁷¹

uses the fre­quency spec­trum:

1.

without the re­quired li­cence,

2.

without the re­quired ad­vance no­tice,

3.

without hold­ing the re­quired pro­fi­ciency cer­ti­fic­ate, or

4.

in breach of the reg­u­la­tions on use or the li­cence;

c.¹⁷²

puts ad­dress­ing re­sources that are man­aged at na­tion­al level in­to ser­vice without be­ing en­titled to do so;

d.¹⁷³

im­ports, of­fers, makes avail­able on the mar­ket or puts in­to ser­vice tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions in­stall­a­tions that do not com­ply with the reg­u­la­tions in force;

e.

in­stalls or op­er­ates tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions in­stall­a­tions that do not com­ply with the reg­u­la­tions in force;

f.

hands over tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions in­stall­a­tions to un­au­thor­ised per­sons;

g.¹⁷⁴

man­u­fac­tures, im­ports, of­fers, makes avail­able on the mar­ket, pos­sesses, puts in­to ser­vice, in­stalls or op­er­ates tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions in­stall­a­tions or oth­er devices that are in­ten­ded to in­ter­fere with or pre­vent tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions or broad­cast­ing

shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing CHF 100,000.¹⁷⁵

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

Any per­son who, in­ten­tion­ally or through neg­li­gence, in­fringes any oth­er pro­vi­sion of the tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions le­gis­la­tion, a treaty or in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ment on the sub­ject, or vi­ol­ates a de­cision taken on the basis of such pro­vi­sions and no­ti­fied to him with an in­dic­a­tion of the pen­al­ties avail­able un­der this Art­icle, shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing CHF 5000.

Art­icles 14 to 18 of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974¹⁷⁶ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law ap­ply.

¹ Of­fences with­in the mean­ing of Art­icles 52 to 54 shall be pro­sec­uted and ad­ju­dic­ated by DE­TEC in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974¹⁷⁷ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law.

² DE­TEC may del­eg­ate to OF­COM the tasks of pro­sec­u­tion and ad­ju­dic­a­tion of of­fences, as well as the en­force­ment of de­cisions.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall elect a Fed­er­al Com­mu­nic­a­tions Com­mis­sion con­sist­ing of five to sev­en mem­bers and shall ap­point the Chair­man and Vice-Chair­man. The mem­bers must be in­de­pend­ent spe­cial­ists.

² Com­Com shall not be re­quired to fol­low in­struc­tions from the Fed­er­al Coun­cil or DE­TEC when tak­ing its de­cisions. It shall be in­de­pend­ent of the ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­it­ies. It shall have its own sec­ret­ari­at.

³ Com­Com shall ad­opt rules re­lat­ing to its or­gan­isa­tion and man­age­ment, which must be ap­proved by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

⁴ Com­Com shall be fun­ded by ad­min­is­trat­ive charges. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails.

¹ Com­Com shall per­form the du­ties and take the de­cisions for which it is re­spons­ible in terms of this Act and its im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions. It shall in­form the pub­lic of its activ­it­ies and pro­duce a re­port each year for the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

² For the pur­pose of im­ple­ment­ing tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions le­gis­la­tion, Com­Com may seek the as­sist­ance of OF­COM and give it in­struc­tions.

¹ OF­COM shall en­sure that in­ter­na­tion­al tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions law, this Act, its im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions, and li­cences are com­plied with. It may as­sign cer­tain sur­veil­lance tasks to or­gan­isa­tions in­cor­por­ated un­der private law and co-op­er­ate with such or­gan­isa­tions.

² If OF­COM de­tects an in­fringe­ment of the law, it may:¹⁷⁹

a.

call on the leg­al or nat­ur­al per­son re­spons­ible for the in­fringe­ment to rem­edy the in­fringe­ment or take meas­ures to pre­vent any re­pe­ti­tion of it; the per­son re­spons­ible for the in­fringe­ment must in­form OF­COM of the meas­ures it has taken;

b.

re­quire the leg­al or nat­ur­al per­son re­spons­ible for the in­fringe­ment to sur­render to the Con­fed­er­a­tion any rev­en­ue gen­er­ated dur­ing the in­fringe­ment;

c.

make the li­cence sub­ject to con­di­tions;

d.

re­strict, sus­pend, re­voke or with­draw the li­cence or re­strict, sus­pend or totally for­bid the activ­ity of the leg­al or nat­ur­al per­son re­spons­ible for the in­fringe­ment;

e.¹⁸⁰

with­draw the pro­fi­ciency cer­ti­fic­ate from the hold­er or make it sub­ject to con­di­tions.

³ OF­COM shall with­draw the li­cence if es­sen­tial con­di­tions for grant­ing it cease to be ful­filled.

⁴ If the li­cence has been gran­ted by Com­Com, Com­Com shall take the cor­res­pond­ing meas­ures based on the pro­pos­al made by OF­COM.

⁵ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may take pre­cau­tion­ary meas­ures.

¹ The per­sons sub­ject to this Act shall be ob­liged to provide the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity with the in­form­a­tion re­quired to im­ple­ment and eval­u­ate this Act.¹⁸¹

² They must provide OF­COM reg­u­larly with the ne­ces­sary in­form­a­tion to pro­duce of­fi­cial tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions stat­ist­ics.¹⁸²

^2bis Data col­lec­ted or sub­mit­ted for stat­ist­ic­al pur­poses may be used for oth­er pur­poses only if:

a.

a fed­er­al act ex­pli­citly al­lows this;

b.

the per­son con­cerned con­sents in writ­ing;

c.

this serves the eval­u­ation of tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions le­gis­la­tion; or

d.

this serves as a basis for ne­ces­sary reg­u­lat­ory de­cisions.¹⁸³

^2ter OF­COM may pub­lish mar­ket shares.¹⁸⁴

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails.

¹ If an en­ter­prise in­fringes the ap­plic­able law, the li­cence or a de­cision hav­ing force of law, it may be re­quired to pay an amount up to 10 per­cent of the amount of its av­er­age turnover in Switzer­land in the last three fin­an­cial years.

² Cases of fail­ure to com­ply shall be in­vest­ig­ated by OF­COM. It shall judge the cases which do not lie with­in the com­pet­ency of Com­Com in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 58 para­graph 4.

³ When as­sess­ing the pen­alty, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall take ac­count in par­tic­u­lar of the grav­ity of the in­fringe­ment and the en­ter­prise’s fin­an­cial situ­ation.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall im­ple­ment this Act. The re­spons­ib­il­ity of Com­Com is re­served.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may del­eg­ate to OF­COM the duty of ad­opt­ing the ne­ces­sary ad­min­is­trat­ive and tech­nic­al reg­u­la­tions.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall have au­thor­ity to con­clude in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments on mat­ters fall­ing with­in the am­bit of this Act.

² It may del­eg­ate that au­thor­ity to OF­COM in the case of in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments re­lat­ing to tech­nic­al or ad­min­is­trat­ive mat­ters.

³ Com­Com shall carry out the tasks with­in the scope of its re­spons­ib­il­it­ies at an in­ter­na­tion­al level and shall rep­res­ent Switzer­land in the re­lated in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions.¹⁸⁹

⁴ OF­COM shall rep­res­ent Switzer­land’s in­terests in in­ter­na­tion­al for­ums and or­gan­isa­tions, in par­tic­u­lar in re­la­tion to in­ter­net gov­ernance.¹⁹⁰

⁵ In or­der to strengthen the rep­res­ent­a­tion of Swiss in­terests, OF­COM may on re­quest grant or­gan­isa­tions in its areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity fin­an­cial as­sist­ance that is not gran­ted un­der in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 1 and 2.¹⁹¹

⁶ The amount of fin­an­cial as­sist­ance is de­term­ined by the im­port­ance of the or­gan­isa­tion, pro­ject or meas­ure to the rep­res­ent­a­tion of Swiss in­terests and by the oth­er fund­ing op­tions avail­able to the re­cip­i­ent. The fin­an­cial as­sist­ance may not ex­ceed 66 per cent of the total cost of the ser­vice fun­ded.¹⁹²

The Fed­er­al Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Act of 21 June 1991¹⁹³ is re­pealed.

¹ The ser­vices provided on the com­mence­ment of the Amend­ment of 24 March 2006 as part of a tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions ser­vices li­cence are deemed to have been no­ti­fied as defined in Art­icle 4 para­graph 1. The ra­diocom­mu­nic­a­tions li­cences which are in­cluded in the res­cin­ded tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions ser­vices li­cences re­main val­id and ac­quire the terms and con­di­tions as­so­ci­ated there­with.

² The ex­ist­ing con­di­tions for the uni­ver­sal ser­vice li­cence un­der the old law shall ap­ply un­til the ex­piry of its term.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the com­mence­ment date.

³ …¹⁹⁷

Com­mence­ment date:¹⁹⁸
Art. 56, 57, 64, 67, 68 on 20 Oc­to­ber 1997
all oth­er pro­vi­sions on 1 Janu­ary 1998