Tamedia successful in legal dispute with Baselland Chamber of Commerce
The Basel-Landschaft Cantonal Court must reconsider the legal dispute between Tamedia and the Baselland Chamber of Commerce regarding a controversial series of articles about the umbrella organization published in the *Basler Zeitung*. The Federal Supreme Court has partially upheld an appeal filed by the publishing house, according to the operative part of the ruling published on Friday.
This opens a new chapter in the extended legal dispute between the Chamber of Commerce and the Basel Newspaper. In 2018, the Chamber of Commerce had filed a lawsuit against the newspaper and in particular against a former local editor for unfair competition.
The complaint was directed in particular against a series of articles about the role of the Chamber of Commerce in labor market controls, which was described as opaque, and the questioned validity of collective labor agreements in the painting and plastering trade.
In October 2021, the cantonal court largely upheld the Chamber of Commerce. It condemned the Basel Newspaper to delete nine reports on the described machinations of the Chamber of Commerce in full and three others in part (Werbewoche.ch reported).
In addition, the newspaper was ordered to pay the SME association damages of around 115,000 Swiss francs.
Tamedia and the editor concerned appealed against this ruling to the Federal Supreme Court. In accordance with the ruling, the Federal Supreme Court set aside 17 paragraphs of the decision of the Cantonal Court of Baselland and referred "the matter back to the Cantonal Court for a new decision" in the sense of the considerations not elaborated upon for the time being.
Long-running legal dispute
This means that a new chapter is about to begin in the long-running legal dispute. In addition to the civil lawsuit, the chamber of commerce in the canton of Baselland also took criminal action against the journalist. However, the criminal proceedings, which included charges of violating official secrecy and defamation, were recently dismissed by the cantonal court.
Still pending is the ruling of the civil court in Basel-Stadt, where the Chamber of Commerce has also filed a lawsuit.
The Chamber of Commerce has already taken a similar case to the Federal Supreme Court. In April 2022, Switzerland's highest court had drawn a line in the legal dispute with Radio SRF's Regionaljournal that was detrimental to the Chamber of Commerce. In terms of content, it had been about the same issues that now the Basel-Land Cantonal Court is considering in the case of the Basel Newspaper has to reassess. (SDA)
