Swiss Media To Gain Copyright Fees

Federal Council adopts dispatch on amendment to Copyright Act; AI training remains un-regulated amid ongoing debates.

The Swiss Federal Council has submitted a proposal to Parliament on June 20, 2025, introducing a new ancillary copyright law for media companies. The proposed law aims to ensure compensation for the use of journalistic content ("snippets") by large online platforms. These snippets - short text or image previews - are widely used by search engines, social media, and multimedia platforms but have, until now, remained unprotected under copyright law. This has left media companies and journalists without remuneration for their work.

Under the draft law, only online services with an average user base of at least 10% of the Swiss population per year would be required to pay fees. Compensation would be managed collectively through a licensing organization, with a fair share allocated to journalists. While the idea of introducing such an