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In a decision published on 19 February 2004, the Eidgenössische Kommunikationskommission (Federal Communications Commission - ComCom) ruled that under current legislation, a service provider with a dominant market position may be obliged to unbundle the last mile. ComCom therefore agreed with the Bundesrat (Council of Ministers), which considered the legal basis for the introduction of compulsory unbundling to be sufficient and, last February, triggered the unbundling process by opening up the last mile to competition with immediate effect. To this end, the Bundesrat amended the Fernmeldediensteverordnung...

Electronic signatures are to be placed on an equal footing with handwritten signatures. Accordingly, in future, it will be possible to conclude contracts for which the law requires a handwritten signature via the electronic media. On 2 December 2003 the Swiss Federal Assembly passed the Bundesgesetz über die elektronische Signatur (the Electronic Signatures Act), which is due to come into force in early 2005. The new law is intended to replace the Verordnung über Dienste der elektronischen Zertifizierung (Decree on Electronic Certification Services), which has applied since 1 May 2000. This decree...

At its meeting on 12 November 2003, the Swiss Bundesrat (Council of Ministers) established a solid legal basis for the "last-mile" unbundling that was imposed on the telecommunications sector in February 2003, submitting to Parliament a communication concerning the amendment of the Fernmeldegesetz (Telecommunications Act - FMG). Under the proposed Bill, it will be possible to force telecom service providers with a dominant market position to offer transparent, non-discriminatory access to their services and equipment at cost price. By way of examples, the Bill mentions unbundling of the local...

Introduced when the new Federal Law on cinematographic culture and production (Cinema Act - LCin) entered into force, Article 12 (1 bis) of the Federal Law on copyright and neighbouring rights (Copyright Act LDA) of 9 October 1992 looks like being very short-lived. Indeed, it will have taken the Federal Assembly (Swiss Parliament) less than a year to reverse its position and considerably relax the restrictions imposed by this provision (see IRIS 2002-­8: 14). The current Article 12 (1 bis) of the LDA, which entered into force on 1 August 2002, stipulates that copies of an audiovisual work may...

On 25 June, the SRG (Swiss public service broadcaster) was granted permission by the Bundesrat (Council of Ministers) to launch terrestrial digital television (DVB-T) in Switzerland. Work to set up the digital network will begin in areas with no or inadequate cable provision. The first broadcasters to use the DVB-T network will launch a service in Tessin this summer; in 2004, large areas of French-speaking Switzerland will be able to receive DVB-T signals and a countrywide network should be up and running by 2009. The new licence will enable the SRG to create an initial network transmitting four...