Legal basis and data protection

The legal bases for the UID register are based on the Federal Act on the Unique Business Identification Number (BINA) and the Ordinance on the Unique Business Identification Number (OINA).

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Rights of enterprises

In principle, enterprises have the right to require information about their UID data from the FSO. They can consult in full their own (public and non-public) UID data. To do so they receive from the FSO a personal, password-protected access to the UID register. If errors in the data have been published, they can request that the data be corrected by the FSO or the responsible UID service.
For UID entities, the key data, at most, are accessible to the public. All other characteristics can only be accessed by the administration.
If an enterprise ends its economic activity, and is reported as deleted, it continues to be published as “deleted” for ten years. Should the activity be resumed, under certain conditions the UID can be reactivated.

Rights and obligations of the UID services

In addition to enterprises’ key data (name and address, etc.), UID services also have access to additional data, which provide a more precise description of the UID entity (e.g. the economic activity). UID services are informed by the FSO about new entries as well as changes to entries in the UID register.

A distinction is made between UID services with full obligations and UID services with limited obligations:

• UID services with full obligations have both usage and reporting obligations to the FSO. The usage obligations include the recognition of the UID as an identifier, management of the UID in the data collections as well as the use of the UID in communication. Furthermore, UID services with full obligations must report new UID entities, mutations of UID data as well as the deletion of UID entities to the FSO.
• UID services with limited obligations must recognise the UID as an identifier. This means that UID entities in contact with these services can identify themselves with the UID. UID services with limited obligations are exempt from the management and use of the UID as well as the reporting of new UID entities.
  However, these tasks can by carried out by those UID services on a voluntary basis.
  

Data protection and data security

Only some of the data kept in the UID register are accessible to the public. Access rights to these data are governed by law using three categories of characteristics.

• The key data of a published UID entity (such as enterprise name and address) can be consulted.
• The additional data can be seen solely by the UID entity itself and the authorised administrative offices.
• The system data are only accessible to the FSO.
  

The UID services are responsible for the proper management and use of UID data. Federal and cantonal data protection provisions apply. Furthermore, in accordance with the BINA, they are obliged to take all necessary precautions for the protection and security of the data in their domain.
The FSO guarantees the data security of the UID register and is responsible for the protection of data kept in it. It provides the UID services with a standardised interface to report and retrieve data.
UID data can only be used for the purpose provided for in law. To prevent the retrieval of large amounts of data from the UID register, online requests are limited to a single UID entity per request. This is in order to prevent large-scale retrieval of addresses for private and commercial purposes. There is however provision in UID legislation for the retrieval of several UID entities in the case of a batch request. A written application must be made to the FSO for a batch request.

Further information

Laws

Please note that some UID documentation is only available in German, French and Italian.