Facts
Parties involved: Society for Threatened Peoples (SPM) (applicant), A. SA and others (respondents), Federal Customs Administration (FCA), Federal Administrative Court (FAC).
Key dates: February 5, 2018 (initial request), August 9, 2018 (rejection by the FCA), October 31, 2018 (recommendation by the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner), January 10, 2019 (decision by the FCA), March 16, 2022 (ruling by the FAC), November 15, 2023 (decision by the Federal Supreme Court).
Context: SPM requested complete statistics on gold imports into Switzerland for the years 2014 to 2017 from the FCA, including quantities, names of exporters and importers. The respondents, gold importers, opposed this request, invoking tax secrecy, business secrecy, and protection of private life.
Procedure: The FCA initially rejected the request, then the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner recommended partial disclosure of the information. The respondents contested this recommendation, and the FCA ultimately granted limited access to the data. The FAC then admitted the respondents' appeals, confirming that the requested information was covered by tax secrecy. SPM then appealed to the Federal Supreme Court.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court examined the request for access to BAZG documents on gold imports into Switzerland, based on Article 4 lit. a of the Transparency Act (BGÖ) and Article 74 of the VATA. The court recalled that the right of access to official documents is guaranteed by Article 6 of the FoIA, but that this right is subject to exceptions and restrictions, particularly regarding tax secrecy.
The court emphasized that the information requested by SPM had been provided by the importers under their obligation to declare, and that the BAZG had acted as a tax authority in this context. Consequently, this information was covered by tax secrecy, without the need for a balancing of interests.…