Stricter export for surveillance goods
The Federal Council recently adopted an additional criterion for assessing the export and placement of goods for Internet and mobile phone monitoring from Switzerland.
Goods for internet and mobile phone surveillance are goods with the possibility of civilian and military use (so-called dual-use goods). The export of such goods from Switzerland has been controlled on the basis of international agreements since 2012. Exports from Switzerland are subject to the following requirements based on the goods control legislation of State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) a permit must be obtained.
The goods control legislation provides only limited possibilities for rejecting applications for the export or brokering of goods for internet and mobile phone surveillance. The Federal Council has now decided to create a new criterion for the rejection of such applications by means of an unconstitutional ordinance based on Article 184 paragraph 3 of the Federal Constitution. An individual license for the export of goods for Internet and mobile phone surveillance will be denied in the future if there is reason to believe that the goods to be exported or brokered will be used by the final recipient as a means of repression, according to the Seco release. In this context, the transfer of intangible property (including know-how and the granting of rights), which concerns goods for internet and mobile phone surveillance, will now also be subject to the authorization requirement. The constitutional decree entered into force on May 13, 2015. It is limited to four years.
