Take-Aways (AI)
- The Federal Council proposes that the RVOG be amended so that the term “personal data” also permanently includes data of legal entities, with limited protection for business secrets.
- Legal entities receive fundamental rights-based data subject rights (e.g. information) and aligned requirements for legal bases in the RVOG; consultation until September 12, 2025.
The Federal Council has proposed amending the RVOG and various other provisions with a view to protecting the personal data of legal entities:
The background to this is Art. 71 FADP and the motivation behind this provision: According to Art. 71 FADP, the provisions of the federal decrees that permit the processing of personal data will continue to apply to the data of legal entities until the end of August 2028. The expiry of this transitional provision is to be offset by an amendment to the RVOG, which is largely based on the FADP:
- The RVOG should provide that the Concept of personal data in the special legal provisions on the processing of personal data by federal bodies (only by these bodies, of course) continue to also data of legal persons in the same way as Art. 71 FADP, but without a time limit. Data of legal entities that is particularly worthy of protection should also continue to exist, but trade secrets are excluded from this definition (Art. 57qbis VE-RVOG). Accordingly, federal bodies will be allowed to process trade secrets even without a formal legal basis – the question is whether this will uphold the constitutional protection mandate.
- In addition, legal entities also have constitutionally protected rights (e.g. a right to information) vis-à-vis federal bodies in accordance with Art. 13 para. 2 BV (protection against “misuse” of data). These data subject rights of legal entities are to be regulated in the RVOG (right to information, Art. 57t VE-RVOG; no provision is made for a right to data portability).
- In addition, the Requirements for legal foundations on the processing and disclosure of data of legal entities is aligned with the provisions of the FADP (Art. 57r VE-RVOG). Insofar as a special law contains provisions on the processing of personal data but not of data of legal entities, the former should generally also apply to the latter;
- Finally, a new provision on the Order processing data of legal entities, as well as a provision on the processing of data for non-personal purposes.
The consultation will last until September 12, 2025.