Prohibition on Deciding to Disclose Employee Data to US Authorities

Facts

The Swiss bank [A. SA] participated in the "US Program" of the US tax authorities in order to obtain a Non-Prosecution Agreement (NPA). To this end, it had to transmit data of employees and third parties to the US authorities in accordance with the conditions of the program. Lawyers [B.] , [C. AG] and [D.] objected to the disclosure of their data, as this would violate the Data Protection Act, banking secrecy, business secrecy and attorney-client privilege.

The Commercial Court of Zurich prohibited the bank [A. SA] , under threat of penalty, from disclosing the lawyers' data to the US authorities. The bank appealed against this judgment.

Considerations

The SCC essentially confirmed the judgment of the Commercial Court. It concluded that the disclosure of the lawyers' data to the US authorities could in principle be in the public interest in resolving the tax dispute between Switzerland and the USA. At the time of the decision, however, the disclosure was no longer indispensable, as the bank [A. SA] had already concluded a…