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Pursuant to Law No. 83 of 13 June 2023 (which ratified the protocol signed in Rome on 23 December 2020 between Italy and Switzerland related to the income taxation of cross-border workers) the ministry of finance issued the decree of 23 July 2023, which removed Switzerland from the blacklist contained in the decree of 4 May 1999. The blacklist is aimed at tackling fictitious transfers of residence abroad by Italian citizens. The removal reflects a political agreement formalized on 20 April 2023 between the finance ministers of Italy and Switzerland and it will be effective from fiscal year 2024.

The revised Data Protection Act (nDPA) and the revised Data Protection Ordinance (nDPO) will enter into force on 1 September 2023. The revised Swiss data protection law is “a GDPR-like” legislation and provides for certain (new) obligations not contained in the current data protection law.
In an employment relationship, an employer inevitably processes employees’ personal data for various purposes. This client alert aims to inform employers about their data privacy obligations under the new data protection law and provides an opportunity to test data protection compliance.

Following pressure from parliament, the Swiss Federal Council last year launched a consultation process on new legislation for the review of foreign investments. In May 2023, the Swiss Federal Council has taken note of the results of the consultation on the proposed investment control law. A majority of the participants in the consultation argued that the proposed investment control law would weaken Switzerland’s attractiveness as a business location, while a significant minority sees a clear need for action and is in favor of introducing foreign investment screening also in Switzerland.

On 29 March 2023, the Swiss Federal Council, the executive body of Switzerland, announced its decision to implement an extension of the transitional periods for the certification of medical devices under the Swiss Medical Device Ordinance (“MedDO”) and the Ordinance on In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices (“IvDO”), in line with the amendment of transitional provisions in the European Union under Regulation (EU) 2023/607.
The implementation of these amended transitional provisions requires the formal amendment of the MedDO and the IvDO. These amendments are expected to be adopted in autumn 2023.

The legal framework for the labelling of vegan and vegetarian alternatives to meat is continuously evolving and also differs from country to country. In Switzerland, the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office had put forward a very strict interpretation, deeming as deceptive and thus prohibited any use of animal designations in the labelling of vegan and vegetarian meat alternatives. In a recent decision, the Administrative Court of the Canton of Zurich rejected this strict approach and deemed the use of the terms “planted.chicken”, “like chicken”, “like pork”, “pulled pork”, “vegan pork” or “chicken from plants” on the packaging of vegan meat alternatives as not deceptive.

On 2 November 2022, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court upheld the Swiss Federal Administrative Court’s ruling that information can be exchanged to investigate criminal tax matters pursuant to an information exchange request by a foreign tax authority. However, use of the information exchanged for non-tax enforcement purposes is impermissible.