Swiss voters back insurance company spying, reject bid to save cow horns
- Voters give insurers broad leeway to spy on potential fraudsters
- Voters reject a proposed constitutional amendment to preserve cow horns
Swiss voters have approved a law that gives insurance companies broad leeway to spy on suspected welfare cheats despite concerns raised about right to privacy.
The measure was passed in a referendum Sunday that saw two other proposals – a bid to give Swiss judges supremacy over international courts, and a call for incentives to stop cows’ horns being removed – rejected, according to results from the GFS Bern polling firm and public broadcaster RTS.
The poll was part of Switzerland’s direct democracy system, in which voters cast ballots on national issues four times a year.
Insurers in the wealthy Alpine nation had long spied on customers suspected of making false claims. But that came to a stop following the European Court of Human Rights ruling in 2016.
The government insisted however that such surveillance was necessary to curb insurance fraud and to turn keep costs low for all. Following the European court’s repudiation, Bern updated its legislation in a bid to restore surveillance powers to insurers.
Opponents of the revised law then mobilised the support needed to force a referendum.