openswissdata
Sources and compliance
This page documents the official sources used by openswissdata.com, the legal basis for republication, the permission requests submitted to federal authorities and the takedown procedure on request from a source authority.
1. Official sources
| Dataset | Official source | URL | Refresh | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TARES (customs) | BAZG — Swiss Federal Office for Customs and Border Security | bazg.admin.ch | Weekly | Written commercial permission obtained (2026-04-21, Mr Michael Beer, ref. BAZG-PERMISSION-2026-04-21-MICHAEL-BEER) |
| NOGA / NACE / ISIC classifications | OFS — Federal Statistical Office (NOGA) · Eurostat (NACE) · United Nations (ISIC) | bfs.admin.ch | Annual | Request sent 2026-04-17 · Awaiting OFS reply |
| FINMA Registry | FINMA — Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority | finma.ch | Weekly | Written permission received 2026-05-06 (FINMA Communication, Nadine Bucher) |
2. Pending permission requests
| Recipient | Subject | Sent on | Status | Reminder |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAZG — Tarifgrundlagen (Mr Michael Beer) | Commercial republication of the TARES dataset with normalisation value-added | 2026-04-17 | Written permission obtained 2026-04-21 | — |
| OFS — Federal Statistical Office | Republication of NOGA classifications and NACE / ISIC cross-walks | 2026-04-17 | Pending | — |
| FINMA — Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority | Republication of the registry of supervised entities | 2026-04-17 | Written permission obtained 2026-05-06 | — |
3. Legal basis for republication
The republication, by openswissdata.com, of data from official Swiss public registries rests on three complementary foundations of Swiss law.
3.1 Freedom to reuse official works (Swiss Copyright Act art. 5)
Article 5 of the Swiss Federal Copyright Act (LDA) explicitly excludes official works from copyright protection. Federal, cantonal and communal laws, ordinances, decisions and official publications are not protected and may therefore be freely reproduced, transformed and distributed, including for commercial purposes. Economic classifications (NOGA, NACE, ISIC), customs nomenclatures (TARES) and public registries (FINMA) fall within this category.
3.2 Unfair competition and amortisation (Swiss UCA art. 5 lit. c)
The Swiss Federal Act against Unfair Competition (UCA), article 5 lit. c, sanctions the systematic reuse of another party's marketable performance without sufficient own contribution. Doctrine and Federal Supreme Court case law interpret this article in light of the amortisation principle: reuse is unfair only if the source performance has not had a reasonable period to amortise its investment.
Three Federal Supreme Court rulings frame this interpretation:
- BGE 135 III 446 (Maltesers) — The reuse of a commercial presentation after a reasonable amortisation period is not unfair.
- BGE 131 III 384 (Such Spider) — Scraping a public database for commercial use is not unfair in the absence of specific investment not amortised by the producer.
- BGE 139 IV 17 — UCA protection does not constitute a sui generis right over databases; it is limited to sanctioning objectively unfair practices.
Swiss federal authorities (BAZG, OFS, FINMA) publish their registries for public use and finance their production with public funds. The amortisation period is effectively moot — public investment is meant to be reused.
3.3 No sui generis right on databases in Switzerland
Unlike the European Union (Directive 96/9/EC), Switzerland has not adopted a sui generis right on databases. A Swiss database is protected only if its structure constitutes an intellectual creation within the meaning of the LDA (art. 4) — protection that covers the structure, never the factual content. The normalisation, formatting, cross-walks and cryptographic signature added by openswissdata.com themselves constitute a protectable creation, but rest on no appropriation of the underlying factual data.
4. 24-hour takedown commitment
openswissdata.com publicly commits to handle any takedown request within the following deadlines:
- Acknowledgement of receipt within 2 hours (Swiss business days).
- Effective takedown within 24 hours (suspension of downloads, removal of public links, deactivation of SDK access).
- Pro-rata refund to affected purchasers, calculated pro rata to the time remaining on the 360-day update period.
Dedicated address: takedown@openswissdata.com
5. FINMA disclaimer
"Source: FINMA. No warranty as to accuracy, reliability or timeliness. openswissdata.com is not affiliated with FINMA, does not represent FINMA, and its data does not substitute for direct consultation of finma.ch."
This disclaimer appears in the README and LICENSE.txt of every delivery of the FINMA Registry dataset, as well as at the top of the corresponding API and MCP documentation.
6. Watermarking and traceability
Each delivered ZIP contains a unique canary record HMAC, derived from the customer identifier. This record allows file traceability in the event of unauthorised redistribution and constitutes technical evidence in case of breach of the no-sublicensing clause (T&Cs §2bis).
The canary record alters neither business values nor official codes — it is an identifiable ancillary record, in line with the commitment of non-alteration of content (T&Cs §2). The method and key are auditable on motivated request from a purchaser.
7. Takedown policy
openswissdata.com publicly commits to remove any dataset, without contestation and without notice, on simple written request from a source authority — BAZG, OFS, FINMA, Eurostat, United Nations — sent to takedown@openswissdata.com.
This commitment provides two-way protection: it guarantees issuing authorities a fast response mechanism in case of disagreement, and it signals to professional purchasers that the chain of rights is kept up to date proactively.
8. Compliance contact
For any legal question, audit request, request for a copy of the BAZG permission, or question about the sources:
contact@openswissdata.com
For any takedown request from a source authority:
takedown@openswissdata.com