High-risk merchant accounts for businesses in Switzerland

Federal regulators, an intercantonal gambling authority and the cantons themselves share the rules a Swiss online merchant meets.

Swiss banks have largely replaced Maestro and V PAY debit cards with Debit Mastercard and Visa Debit, which, unlike Maestro, pay in online shops; Zürcher Kantonalbank, for one, planned to replace all its Maestro cards by the end of 2022. The PostFinance Card is co-badged with Debit Mastercard, the function that pays online, and works for every online purchase only once 3-D Secure is activated. PostFinance charges its cardholders 1.5% on purchases made abroad, foreign online shops included, which matters when you sell into Switzerland from another country.

TWINT recorded 901 million transactions in 2025, and about 86% of Swiss online shops offer it. In the Swiss National Bank’s 2025 survey, mobile payment apps led remote payments with 32.2% of their number, ahead of credit cards at 19.2%, and TWINT was the most prevalent app. TWINT Acquiring’s merchant terms of July 2026 exclude weapons and munitions, pornography, betting and gambling, auctions, top-ups of other payment methods and crypto unless TWINT signs a supplementary agreement. They require a settlement account at a bank licensed in Switzerland and cap chargebacks plus refunds at 2% of volume and 1% of transactions each month.

Switzerland has no interchange statute like the EU’s. The Competition Commission settled the rates with the schemes and the banks instead. For Swiss debit cards used online, interchange fell on November 1, 2025 to 0.28% for Debit Mastercard and 0.25% for Visa Debit; in shops, a physical Debit Mastercard carries 0.12%, capped at 30 centimes, while mobile-wallet payments carry 0.28%, and Visa Debit averages at most 0.15%. Domestic Visa and Mastercard credit cards average 0.44% under a 2014 settlement with the Swiss issuers and acquirers, concluded for an indefinite period. The Commission also agreed cuts for EEA-issued Visa cards used at Swiss merchants, from 1% to 0.2% for debit and from 1.15% to 0.44% for credit; no start date has been published.

Switzerland did not adopt PSD2, and the authentication of card payments rests on the schemes and the banks. Swiss issuers apply 3-D Secure, and in a 2023 case before the Swiss Banking Ombudsman, card issuers argued that a fraud chargeback is not possible once the cardholder approved the payment with two-factor authentication. Skipping it makes the fraud loss far more likely to land with you; the 3-D Secure guide covers the mechanics.

No Swiss statute bans a surcharge for a payment method. The Price Indication Ordinance, however, requires goods offered online to consumers in Switzerland to show the price actually payable in Swiss francs, VAT and every compulsory surcharge included. SECO, answering for flights and package travel under the same total-price rule as for goods, treats a credit card fee as an optional extra, shown apart, only when another free payment method customary in Switzerland is offered; when the card is the only way to pay, the fee belongs in the price. Shipping costs may stay outside the price if they are shown clearly.

A strike-through price is allowed only if the higher price was charged just before, and the comparison may run for half as long as that price applied, two months at most. Acquirers may also forbid surcharges by contract: the 2014 credit card settlement let them reinstate that clause from August 1, 2015.

Swiss law gives online buyers no general right of withdrawal. A 14-day revocation right exists for contracts for goods or services above CHF 100, for personal or family use, when the customer was approached at work, at home, in the street or on public transport, at a promotional event linked to an excursion, or, since January 1, 2016, by telephone. The period runs from the customer’s offer or acceptance and the written notice of the right, so a sale closed in an outbound call carries it and a website sale does not. A seller may still grant a return right in its terms, and once published it binds.

The Unfair Competition Act sets four duties for anyone selling goods, works or services online:

• identity: clear and complete details of the seller, with a contact address including email;
• order steps: the individual technical steps that lead to the contract;
• error correction: suitable means to find and correct input errors before ordering;
• confirmation: an immediate confirmation of the customer’s order.

Standard terms that create a considerable and unjustified imbalance against consumers are unfair under article 8 of the same Act, and the two-year warranty period for defects cannot be shortened in a consumer sale, except to one year for used goods, though other warranty rules can be changed in standard terms.

No federal rule governs the tacit renewal of subscriptions. A parliamentary initiative of 2013 on renewal notices was closed in September 2020 without becoming law, and a Council of States postulate referred to the Federal Council in March 2025 asks for a report on restrictions on how consumers can cancel. Renewal clauses are judged under article 8 and general contract law, so a renewal shown clearly before the first payment is the safe route; the subscription billing guide shows how.

A business that supplies goods or services in Switzerland registers for VAT once its worldwide turnover reaches CHF 100,000 a year, unless it makes only tax-exempt supplies or services taxed under reverse charge. A foreign business supplying in Switzerland for the first time registers at once if it expects to reach that figure within twelve months, and appoints a Swiss tax representative. The standard rate has been 8.1% since January 1, 2024, with 2.6% for food, medicines and books and 3.8% for accommodation. A popular vote on November 29, 2026 decides on raising the standard rate to 8.5%, at the earliest from 2028.

Customs does not collect import VAT on parcels whose import tax would be CHF 5 or less. Since January 1, 2019, a mail-order seller making at least CHF 100,000 a year from such small consignments must register, and its deliveries then count as domestic supplies taxed in Switzerland. Since January 1, 2025, an electronic platform that brings sellers and buyers together is deemed the supplier of the goods sold through it. The Swiss VAT number is the company’s UID followed by MWST, TVA or IVA.

Switzerland has no general e-invoicing obligation: only suppliers of the Federal Administration must invoice electronically, above CHF 5,000. The QR-bill replaced the old red and orange payment slips on October 1, 2022, and TWINT and eBill are registered as alternative procedures in its QR code.

Swiss law has no statutory refund right or liability cap for unauthorized card payments like the EU’s: the issuer’s card terms allocate the loss. As a rule, a payment made with the card and the right PIN counts as authorized, and the bank compensates the cardholder only if every duty of care in the contract was met. A clause excusing a party in advance for intent or gross negligence is void under article 100 of the Code of Obligations.

Chargebacks run under the card networks’ rules, and a cardholder with a complaint about the goods deals with the merchant first. The Swiss Banking Ombudsman notes that Swiss card terms give the cardholder no contractual right to a chargeback, though the issuer should run one when the network’s conditions are met. In one case, the network allowed a non-delivery claim up to 120 days after the transaction, while the issuer’s terms asked for 30 days from the billing date. TWINT Acquiring must charge back transactions that its user or the issuer objects to. Each card chargeback counts toward your chargeback ratio.

Zefix, the federal index of the cantonal commercial registers, shows a company’s entry and links to its publications in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce and to its UID. Since October 1, 2026, the Federal Act on the Transparency of Legal Entities requires AGs, GmbHs, cooperatives and certain other entities to report their beneficial owners, anyone holding at least 25% of capital or votes or otherwise in control, to the federal transparency register run by the Federal Office of Justice, and to report every later change. Existing companies report within one month of their next commercial register change, and at the latest by March 1, 2027 for AGs and April 1, 2027 for other companies, sooner under an ordinary audit, or within two years where every beneficial owner already appears in the commercial register as a partner or officer. The register is not public, but financial intermediaries under Swiss anti-money laundering law, Swiss-supervised acquirers among them, can consult it for their legal duties.

Swiss franc payments settle through SIC, the interbank system operated for the Swiss National Bank since 1987. Instant payments started on August 20, 2024; they settle within about ten seconds around the clock, and every bank active in retail payments must be able to receive them by the end of 2026. Switzerland takes part in SEPA for euro transfers and direct debits, but SEPA carries no price rules of its own: the EU’s apply only within the EU and EEA. A trader who accepts more than CHF 100,000 in cash in one transaction must identify the buyer and the beneficial owner and keep records under the Anti-Money Laundering Act; since October 1, 2026, the threshold is CHF 15,000 for precious metals and stones, and split cash payments are added together.

1. Copying an EU withdrawal policy, then refusing the refunds it promises. Swiss law imposes no withdrawal right online, but a right you grant binds you, and refusing it becomes a “credit not processed” dispute.
2. Closing sales by phone without the revocation notice. A contract concluded in a call you started carries a 14-day right that runs only once the customer has the written notice.
3. A checkout that fails the Unfair Competition Act. No full identity and email, no clear order steps, no error correction or no immediate confirmation: the confirmation is also the first document a dispute asks for.
4. Renewals and free trials hidden in the terms. No Swiss statute bans tacit renewal, but article 8 catches unbalanced terms, and a hidden rollover is the textbook “I never agreed” chargeback.
5. A price that is not the price. Online prices must be in Swiss francs with VAT and every compulsory surcharge, and a strike-through price follows the two-month rule.
6. Skipping 3-D Secure. Issuers argue that a fraud chargeback is not possible on a payment approved with two-factor authentication; without it, the fraud loss tends to come back to you.
7. Missing the transparency register. Since October 1, 2026, Swiss AGs, GmbHs, cooperatives and certain other entities report their beneficial owners to the federal register, and Swiss-supervised acquirers can consult it.
8. Selling into Switzerland past CHF 100,000 without a Swiss VAT number. The mail-order rule makes the seller liable, and the platform rule its marketplace.

Most of these are fixed before go-live. A business model that needs one of them to work is declined, whatever its volume.