Is Appointing A Data Protection Officer Mandatory Under The Federal Act On Data Protection (FADP)?

Part 7 of our series on data protection law in Switzerland

In this part of our series, we analyse if and under what circumstances the appointment of a Data Protection Officer (DPO) is mandatory under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP).

Mandatory nomination of a DPO for federal bodies

With respect to the nomination of a DPO, the rules also differ between private persons and federal bodies (meaning federal authorities or agencies or persons entrusted with public tasks of the federal government, such as a pension fund). Pursuant to Art. 25 of the Data Protection Ordinance, every federal body must appoint a DPO, whereby two or more federal bodies may appoint a joint DPO. The DPO must have the required specialist knowledge and must carry out their work in relation to the federal body in a professionally independent manner without being bound by instructions. The contact details of the DPO must be published online and notified to the Federal Data