Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

© Panuwat Dangsungnoen | Dreamstime.com Since 1 January 2019, companies abroad making more than CHF 100,000 in revenue must charge Swiss VAT on sales made to anyone in Switzerland. Now the Swiss government has decided to take aim at online platforms such as Aliexpress and Wish, according to the broadcaster RTS. Rather than chasing foreign companies selling products in Switzerland, Beat Vonlanthen, an MP from Fribourg,...

The EU copyright reform has been surrounded by controversy, particularly over Article 13, which imposes obligations on internet service providers to obtain licences from rightholders to publish content. Tens of thousands of people across Europe, including in the Swiss city of Zurich, staged protests on Saturday against the European Union’s planned copyright reform billexternal link. More than 1,000 demonstrators marched...

(Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) The Swiss government has dropped the requirement that British nationals obtain a visa to enter Switzerland for a lengthy stay after Britain leaves the European Union. The British government has also extended the same privilege to Swiss nationals wishing to enter Britain after Brexit. The decision was made by the seven-member Federal Council on Friday and will...

Das VBS hat seit dem neuen Jahr eine Cheffin. Anlässlich der SOG-DV vom 16. März 2019 hat sie sich an die Offiziere gewandt und dabei einige interessante Äusserungen (Hervorhebungen durch den Autor) gemacht, so etwa zu den “Entwicklungen im internationalen Streitkräftebereich”: “Wir stellen steigende Verteidigungsausgaben, eine Ausrichtung auf die Bekämpfung hybrider Bedrohungsformen, ein erneutes Schwergewicht auf die...

A doctor’s visit – patients have to cover a level of costs before the health insurance pays in Switzerland (© Keystone / Christian Beutler) Patients will not have to pay out extra money for health services before the health insurance covers the costs, after parliament surprisingly threw out the controversial proposal on Friday. In a previous decision earlier this month, parliament had agreed to increase the deductible...

In 2018, the UK was Switzerland’s sixth-biggest export market (Keystone) As the Brexit saga continues, Swiss companies are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. But optimism is waning among companies that are trying to minimise disruptions from any deal/no-deal scenarios. With the UK’s departure from the EU scheduled for March 29, British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday asked the EU bloc to postpone...

Today a single hacker sitting in their apartment can bring a company or even a country to its knees. (Keystone / Sascha Steinbach) Switzerland’s federal technology institutes have launched a new Masters degree in cyber-security as part of an effort to play a leading role in studying the protection of computers and networks. The two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, Lausanne’s EPFL and Zurich’s ETH, already offer...

View of Paradeplatz in Zurich, Switzerland’s largest financial centre (© Keystone / Gaetan Bally) Switzerland must make its financial centre more sustainable and transparent to ensure it doesn’t lose access to the European market, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers seen by Swiss public radio, RTS. This conclusion was part of an assessment carried out by the consulting firm and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF),...

Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter and Foreign Affairs Minister Ignazio Cassis listen to the debate in the House of Representatives on Monday (Keystone) Switzerland should only make another billion-franc “cohesion” payment to the European Union if the EU doesn’t discriminate against Switzerland, parliament has agreed. The House of Representatives on Monday approved the CHF1.3 billion ($1.3 billion) that will help...

Sunrise is working in Switzerland with Chinese tech giant Huawei on the new generation of “5G” mobile Internet connectivity. (Keystone) The US has expressed concern over the use of Chinese technology in Switzerland, suggesting it may be used for espionage, reports the Sonntagszeitung newspaper. Sonntagszeitung cited the Swiss foreign ministryexternal link as saying that the US embassy in Bern had conducted “an exchange...