Swiss Criminal Code

1. Any per­son who without au­thor­ity al­ters, de­letes or renders un­us­able data that is stored or trans­mit­ted elec­tron­ic­ally or in some oth­er sim­il­ar way shall be li­able on com­plaint to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

If the of­fend­er has caused ma­jor dam­age, a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed. The of­fence is pro­sec­uted ex of­fi­cio.¹⁹⁶

2. Any per­son who man­u­fac­tures, im­ports, mar­kets, ad­vert­ises, of­fers or oth­er­wise makes ac­cess­ible pro­grams that he knows or must as­sume will be used for the pur­poses de­scribed in para­graph 1 above, or provides in­struc­tions on the man­u­fac­ture of such pro­grams shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

If the of­fend­er acts for com­mer­cial gain, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of from six months to ten years shall be im­posed.¹⁹⁷