Swiss Supreme Court Rules IP Addresses Are Personal Data Protected by Privacy Law

GENEVA—Switzerland’s top court Sept. 8 affirmed that internet protocol (IP) addresses constitute personal data protected under the country’s data privacy laws (In re Logistep AG).

In a 3-2 ruling the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgericht) then ruled that IP address privacy outweighed any intellectual property protection interests of the Swiss company Logistep AG. Logistep monitors and collects internet peer-to-peer traffic activity data that it sells to copyright holders, who can then seek to identify and sue alleged illegal file-swappers through the local courts.

“The Federal Supreme Court found that the contested activity of the company could not be ...