Law and emailing in Switzerland

Restrictive Swiss laws on sending messages

Federal law protects the privacy and personal data of all Swiss citizens, especially in terms of electronic communications. Restrictive, it closely monitors the collection, processing and use of contact files as well as professional emailing campaigns, emailing  It is based in particular on a model of prior collection of the consignee's consent before sending commercial messages. Severe, Swiss law criminally punishes spam, based on the argument of unfair advertising.

An email must be submitted with prior consent

The various national regulations rely on an opt-in model of contact address collection, which requires extensive information from prospects. In particular, they must be clearly and fairly stated the legality, proportionality, purpose and security of the processing of their personal data. In this context, only the sending of messages to recipients having freely accepted the registration conditions for the issuer's emailing is authorized. The only exception is in business reminder performed as part of customer relationship.

A Swiss legislation against spam

The  Swiss law  considers intentional spam as an unfair publicity for the citizen and a disrespectful behavior of the issuer in the face of competition. Provided that the content of the message has a link with Switzerland, the recipient may file a criminal complaint, through his canton, against the sender.

It is therefore necessary to ensure strict compliance with federal law before any emailing, especially as the users of mailing delivery services have a unified national mechanism for reporting spam to ISPs.

See also:
- Definition of spam, emailing abuse

- Comply to French law with your emailing campaigns

- Professional emailing tightly controlled by Swiss law

- Ensure compliance with Belgian law during professional email campaigns

- Conduct professional email campaigns in accordance with Canadian law