Facts
A., who works as a journalist in the Basel region, conducted research for a report on the business practices of the real estate company X. AG. He requested the district registry office C. to disclose the properties that X. AG, its board member Y., or its authorized signatory Z. had acquired in the last twelve months. The district registry office rejected the request, as it could not answer general search queries for data protection reasons.
A. unsuccessfully filed a complaint with the cantonal government and the cantonal administrative court. He then filed an administrative court appeal with the Federal Supreme Court.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court upheld the appeal. It stated that the possibilities for inspecting the land register were expanded with the partial revision of the Swiss Civil Code in 1994. Although public access to the land register remains restricted in various respects, the legislator has made it clear that it is in the public interest and in the well-understood private interest for a large part of the information on property ownership to be transparent.
Therefore, Article 970(2) of the Swiss Civil Code, which requires a legitimate interest to be demonstrated, applies to information requests like the present one. The Federal Supreme Court considered the journalist's interest to be justified, as he intended to…