Switzerland — Code of Obligations right of revocation (and the online gap)

The clocks it starts

• Switzerland: withdrawal window (14 days)Articles 40a to 40f of the Code of Obligations give a fourteen-day right of revocation for doorstep and comparable contracts. The period runs from when the consumer requested or accepted the offer and knew or should have known of the right; where the trader failed to inform the consumer of the right, the period does not begin. It reaches: doorstep contracts and contracts of comparable kind — at the workplace, in the street, in public transport, at a promotional excursion — and contracts concluded by telephone where the trader called. It expressly does NOT reach a contract the consumer concluded on a website. Switzerland has NO statutory cooling-off right for online purchases. Many Swiss retailers grant one voluntarily in their terms, which then binds them contractually — so read the terms, because the contractual right may be the only one you have.Swiss Code of Obligations, art. 40eFiling window
• General civil limitation period (varies — check locally)Limitation periods for consumer contract claims in the countries in this file range from about one year to ten and are not something we state per country. Two years is shown as a prompt to check, not as the law. A continuing course of charges usually restarts the clock, so a subscription still billing is rarely out of time.Limitation period

What it entitles you to, beyond money

• Cancellation, effective from the date of your noticeSend a dated written cancellation naming the account, the subscription and the date you want it to end, and keep the proof. Say in terms that any further charge is unauthorised — that sentence is what turns the next debit into a payment dispute you can win without arguing about the subscription at all.arts. 40a–40f — the right of revocation for doorstep and comparable contracts, and the fourteen-day period in art. 40e
• Revocation of the payment authority with your bankDo not rely on the merchant to stop billing. Tell the card issuer or bank to cancel the recurring authority and to block further authorisations from that merchant descriptor. This works even where the merchant is unresponsive and even where it is abroad.

What the other side will say

Each of these is a refusal this regime lets a counterparty attempt, paired with the answer to it. Reading them before you write is worth more than any amount of polish on the letter itself.

Where to take it next

1. 01Written cancellation and refund demand to the traderOne document: cancel, demand refund of anything taken after your first cancellation attempt, cite the instrument named in this result, and give a short deadline. Ask for written confirmation of the cancellation date — that document is what every later step needs.Claim direct·typically 14 days
2. 02Card dispute for the post-cancellation chargesRun this in parallel rather than afterwards. Scheme dispute windows are commonly 120 days from the charge, which is shorter than any consumer-protection route, and a reversal obtained here does not prejudice the rest of the claim.Claim direct·typically 45 days
3. 03The Federal Consumer Affairs Bureau and the cantonal consumer advice centresSwitzerland has no consumer regulator that adjudicates individual claims. The consumer organisations (Konsumentenschutz, FRC, ACSI) advise and intervene, and the Schlichtungsbehörde (conciliation authority) is a compulsory step before most civil claims and is inexpensive. It builds cases from patterns rather than resolving individual complaints, so file it — subscription traps are exactly the kind of pattern regulators act on — but pursue the money by the other routes.Regulator·official page