The Federal Administrative Court agrees with an RTS journalist, who asked for access to this list, in the name of the transparency law. The Chancellery did not want to give detailed information on this subject, believing that the documents were from the government’s sphere.
The journalist filed his request in October 2023 with the Federal Chancellery. The latter was asked to communicate to him the list of wines proposed in the cellar of the Federal Council, the budget devoted to purchases during the last 5 years, the guidelines concerning the use of the cellar and the criteria for selecting crus.
The Federal Chancellery rejected the request. She believed that the documents were from the government’s sphere and did not fall within the scope of the transparency law. After the failure of mediation before the Federal Data Protection and Transparency (PFPDT), the journalist addressed the federal administrative court.
After a 29-page judgment published Friday (judgment A-313/2025 of August 7, 2025), the Administrative Court orders the Chancellery to provide four documents: the information to be delivered during orders, the list of wines at the end of December 2023, a directive concerning persons authorized to choose, command and use wines and finally the budget for the years 2019 to 2023.
Public interest
In its motivation, the Federal Administrative Tribunal believes that, for the establishment of each of the documents, the Chancellery acted as administrative aity. It follows that these documents are subject to the law on transparency. This would not be the case if the Chancellery had acted as the staff of the Federal Council.
The judges of Saint-Gall also looked at the publication of the names of wines producers. They came to the conclusion that the anonymization of the names would largely empty their interests the documents requested by the journalist.
Finally, the public interest in guaranteeing transparency largely prevails over the private and professional interests of producers. Moreover, some of them mention on their website that they are suppliers of the government.
Lia with ATS