In May 2018 the new data protection law in the EU (General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR) became applicable. Switzerland is currently in the process of revising the Swiss Data Protection Act (DPA), whereby similarly strict rules are proposed.
The revision is currently pending in Parliament. The Federal Council originally intended to bring the revised law into force in August 2018. Already in January 2018, however, there were signs of delays in Parliament, so that the revised law was not expected to come into force until 2019 at the earliest. According to current media reports, the revision is now to be delayed further, so that the new data protection law is not to be expected in Switzerland before the beginning of 2020 or even later.
For Swiss companies, nothing changes: Every company should assess whether it falls under the GDPR or not. If it does, immediate action should be taken. If it does not, the ongoing revision should be further monitored.