- Principle of free of charge: Access to official documents should always be free of charge.
- Exception for particularly time-consuming processing: fees only if the administrative burden is disproportionate.
- Fee cap and rules: Maximum CHF 2,000; details and tariff are determined by ordinance.
NR Edith Graf-Litscher had on April 27, 2016 with a Parliamentary initiative (Business No. 16.432) “Fee regulation. Publicity principle in the federal administration” demanded, the
legal basis shall be amended in such a way that, as a rule, no fee is charged for access to official documents and that a fee is charged for access to official documents only in justified exceptional cases where the expense to the administration is out of reasonable proportion to the public interest.
To this end, the SPK‑N had on October 15, 2020 – after the conclusion of the from February 14 to May 27, 2020 lasting Consultation (cf. our Note) – one Report submitted, on which the BR on December 11, 2020. Had taken a stand. Among other things, the Federal Council objected to the proposed maximum level of fees.
The NR has now been the first Council to approve a regulation that is sharp from the administration’s point of view but more favorable from the media’s point of view (cf. Flags and official bulletin):
- Principle of Free of charge
- Exception: if an access request “requires particularly complex processing by the authority”.
- Amount of fees: maximum CHF 2,000; details and the expense tariff are to be regulated in an ordinance;
- Preliminary information: Applicants must be informed about the fee in advance
Generally, no fees are charged in conciliation proceedings and proceedings for the issuance of an injunction.
This facilitation may be welcomed in terms of democratic policy. However, it exacerbates the effect of inadequate protection of trade secrets. In practice, these are only taken into account when negative effects of an access are already determined with a concreteness that can be illusory at this point in time, even with serious concerns.