Admissibility of Interventions by the Federal Social Insurance Office (BSV) and the Swiss Accident Insurance Institution (Suva) in the Referendum Campaign on the Amendment of the Federal Act on the General Part of Social Insurance Law (GSSLA)

Facts

- The association "Referendum against Insurance Espionage" filed a complaint against publications by the BSV and Suva in the run-up to the popular vote on November 25, 2018 on the amendment of the GSSLA. - The BSV published a document with questions and answers on the new legal basis for the surveillance of insured persons on its website. Suva published a "fact check on the Surveillance Act". - The complainant considered these publications to be biased and misleading and demanded their removal from the websites. - The Federal Supreme Court dismissed the complaint, insofar as it had not become obsolete.

Considerations

- Authorities and public-law companies like Suva are not obliged to be strictly neutral in the run-up to votes, but must observe the principles of objectivity, transparency and proportionality. - The document published by the BSV with questions and answers met these requirements, even though not all details of the legislative proposal were covered. The explanations were factual and corresponded to the interpretation of the Federal Council and the majority of Parliament. - As a company particularly affected by the vote,…