This article is part of the PLC multi-jurisdictional guide to data protection law. For a full list of contents visit www.practicallaw.com/dataprotectionhandbook.

The production and disclosure of documents showing a company's relations with other parties is usually not intended, though this may be important in legal proceedings. Data protection laws have introduced new potential tools to obtain documents and gather information outside legal proceedings. This article examines the grounds for these requests under Swiss law and the rights under the Swiss Data Protection Act.