The public prosecutor’s office in Vaud had attempted to obtain the identity, access data and IP address of the owner of a Facebook profile opened in Switzerland by means of a surrender order addressed to the managing directors of Facebook Switzerland Sàrl. The background was the suspicion that anti-Semitic statements had been posted on the Facebook profile opened in Switzerland under a pseudonym.
In its decision of November 16, 2016 (1B_185/2016, 1B_186/2016, 1B_188/2016), the Federal Supreme Court upheld the appeal filed by the managing directors of Facebook Switzerland Sàrl against the order to surrender the data and concluded that Facebook Switzerland Sàrl could not be required to surrender the data. The Federal Court explained that Facebook Switzerland Sàrl was not the data owner of the user data and therefore did not control it. Rather, its business purpose is limited to support marketing, the sale of advertising space, public relations and communication. Consequently, the user data would have to be requested by means of a request for legal assistance in criminal matters addressed to Facebook Ireland Ltd (the contractual partner of Facebook USA and thus the controller of the user data).
The corresponding media release from December 12, 2016 can be found at here.