The client launched the case through the European Court Of Human Rights after his file was handed to the US in 2012. The client, whose identity wasn't disclosed in the ECHR's court statement on the matter, claimed his family privacy right had been broken, violating an article of the human rights convention. However, the court determined that the economic interests of Switzerland were more important than the US person’s individual privacy.

The Swiss banking sector is an important one for that country and the court said that moves by the Swiss government to resolve conflicts with the US over tax were needed to protect Switzerland’s economy as well as the very survival of UBS, the court said.

In 2009, UBS agreed to pay $780 million to settle civil charges for aiding US tax evaders. As part of this process, Switzerland agreed to hand over details of 4,450 US clients to the US. Subsequently, after a US-Swiss agreement in 2013, a raft of Swiss firms have entered non-prosecution agreements and paid fines to the US for hiding Americans’ money in secret accounts. 

Switzerland is due to be included from 2018 under the Common Reporting Standard, a system of automatic exchange of information agreements among a number of nations.