SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Lukas Morscher, Lukas Staub and Jil Eichenberger, Lenz & Staehelin
Lenz & Staehelin Brandschenkestrasse 24 CH-8027 Zurich Switzerland
Tel: +41 58 450 80 00 Fax: +41 58 450 80 01 Email: zurich@lenzstaehelin.com Web: www.lenzstaehelin.com
1. Digital Economy 1.1 Key Challenges
• The Federal Data Protection Act (the “DPA”) and its implementing Ordinance (the “DPO”) govern the processing of personal data per - taining to individuals (see 2.1 Highly Regu- lated Industries and Data Protection ). • A major issue that is expected to be resolved soon is the introduction of electronic identities (see 8 Trust Services and Digital Entities ). 1.2 Digital Economy Taxation In Switzerland, companies and individuals oper - ating in the digital economy and providing digital goods and services are subject to the general tax regime, which includes profit and capital tax - es for companies as well as income and wealth taxes for individuals. Digital services and goods provided to recipients in Switzerland may be subject to Swiss value added tax (VAT) if the relevant requirements out - lined in the Swiss VAT Act are met. This implies that non-Swiss providers of these services and goods may have to register for Swiss VAT pur - poses. Additionally, specific VAT rules for elec - tronic platform providers came into force on 1 January 2025. With effect from 1 January 2024, Switzerland has also implemented Pillar Two of the OECD/
Under Swiss law, there are no specific regula - tions for the digital economy, digital services or markets as Swiss legislation is generally tech - nology-neutral. Among the general Swiss laws that apply to the digital economy, we would like to highlight the following. • The Swiss Code of Obligations (the “CO”) provides for the principles on the conclu - sion of contracts including specific customer rights in case of door-to-door sales which since 2016 also apply to sales over means of simultaneous communication such as phone calls. • The Unfair Competition Act (the “UCA”) bans certain types of unfair or misleading competi - tive behaviour and has specific provisions, inter alia, on transparency when offering goods or services online, unsolicited market - ing over the phone as well as mass advertis - ing such as through newsletters. • The Federal Act on Telecommunications (the “TCA”) regulates the provision of telecommu - nication services and also the use of cook - ies and the principle of net neutrality (see 6 Telecommunications ).
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