SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Lukas Bühlmann, Michael Reinle and Michael Schüepp, MLL Legal
MLL Legal Schiffbaustrasse 2 PO Box
8031 Zurich Switzerland Tel: +41 58 552 04 80 Email: lukas.buehlmann@mll-legal.com Web: www.mll-legal.com
1. Legal Framework and Regulatory Bodies
• legislation, such as the Data Protection Act (DPA), dealing with personality rights and data protection (when displaying pictures of individuals or process - ing personal data for marketing purposes). The most relevant industry-specific regulations are set out in 10.1 Regulated Products . Soft Law Finally, soft laws are created by industry organisations and non-profit organisations. The most important soft laws regarding advertising are the so-called principles of the Swiss Fair Com - petition Commission (SFCC) regarding commercial communication. The principles are non-binding, but the SFCC may render decisions, which are published and may affect the reputation of the offender. 1.2 Enforcement and Regulatory Authorities While sector-specific regulations are often enforced by the respective supervisory authorities, more gen - eral advertising regulations are enforced as set out below. Civil Courts The UCA and the other regulations mentioned in 1.1 Primary Laws and Regulation provide for civil law remedies, which are enforced by civil courts. The rem - edies include: • prohibition of imminent infringements; • removal of infringements; • declaration of the illegality of a behaviour; and • damages.
1.1 Primary Laws and Regulation The Unfair Competition Act (UCA)
The primary regulation is the UCA. It contains: • the basic rules, such as the general transparency principle in commercial communication; • the prohibition of inaccurate or misleading claims about other companies and their products (Article 3 (1)(a), UCA) or one’s own products and services (Article 3 (1)(b), UCA); • requirements for comparative advertising (Article 3 (1)(e), UCA); • requirements for below-cost offers and the adver - tising related thereto (Article 3 (1)(f), UCA); • requirements for offers with premiums and the advertising related thereto (Article 3 (1)(g), UCA); • requirements for email marketing (Article 3 (1)(o), UCA); • certain requirements for sweepstakes and contests (Article 3 (1)(t), UCA); and • requirements for telemarketing (Article 3 (1)(u, v
and w), UCA). Other Statutes Other relevant laws are:
• the Ordinance on Price Declaration (OPD; when using price-related information in advertising); • the Trade Mark Act (when displaying trade marks of third parties in advertising); • the Copyright Act (when displaying pictures or videos of third parties in advertising); and
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