Federal Council adopts dispatch on amendment to Copyright Act; AI training remains un-regulated amid ongoing debates.
Luca Hitz
Legal Partner
Philipp Stadler
Senior Legal Associate
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 ancillary copyright has generally been welcomed during consultations, it remains a contentious topic.
A proposal to include compensation for the use of journalistic content in artificial intelligence (AI) training did not gain majority support during consultations and is therefore not part of the current draft law.
Instead, AI-related copyright issues are addressed under the Motion Gössi, "Besserer Schutz des geistigen Eigentums vor KI-Missbrauch", which the Federal Council has recommended for approval. The motion was accepted in the Council of States on March 20, 2025, and aims to create a foundation for addressing AI-related issues during future parliamentary discussions on copyright.
