1. Rights of consumers
The first is laws and regulations concerning the rights of consumers. These encompass rules such as labelling requirements which dictate the information you must provide about your products and pricing, and rights concerning returns and order cancellations, for example.
2. Packaging and environmental regulations
The second is packaging and environmental regulations - some EU states have strict regulations regarding packaging and the environment. For example, the German VerpackG regulations require any company sending packaging which will be disposed of by the consumer to register via an online system.
3. Data regulations
And thirdly, there are data regulations - the best-known of which is the EU-wide General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which imposes data protection and notification requirements on website operators whose users are in the EU.
Although there has been some effort to harmonize some regulations across the EU, in practice the applicable laws vary significantly from one EU member state to another.
This multiplicity of regulations is not such a big problem for companies domiciled in the EU and exporting to other EU member states, as in many cases - for consumer protection laws, for example, they can obey the regulations of the state in which they are based, and that is deemed sufficient. But such an exemption is not available to businesses domiciled in a non-EU country such as Switzerland.
This means that there are two options available to a Swiss business wishing to sell into the EU: to either register a separate company in an EU member state, and use that to sell across the EU under one set of rules, or to be careful to obey to the regulations of every EU member into which they sell goods.
Register an EU company – a good option?
Registering an EU company - not merely appointing a fiscal representative, or registering for tax purposes, but a separate business entity - is a significant undertaking and thus an option only for larger businesses. As such for most smaller companies, it becomes vital to choose the most important EU markets, and ensure that the necessary legal compliance is in place for those countries - whether that be Germany, Italy, France or anywhere else in the EU.
If choosing to sell into, and uphold the requirements of, some specific EU nations then a business must take steps to ensure that it cannot be considered to be offering its goods into any others. Merely choosing not to advertise in other EU nations is not sufficient, and instead it is advisable to explicitly prevent deliveries to other territories - for example, we might offer shipping to Germany and Italy but provide no services and no way to select a delivery address in Spain or Poland.
And it is important to note that the EU regulations discussed here can be enforced on a non-EU company. Should a competitor in the EU complain about a non-compliant online store exporting from Switzerland, a cease-and-desist letter can be produced and, ultimately, a court order enforceable within Switzerland issued.
KEY POINTS
- Regulations to consider in the EU include consumer protection, environmental and data protection laws.
- Non-EU companies must obey the laws of each EU country they export into.
- The EU laws are enforceable in Switzerland should a competitor object to non-compliance.
About the author
Lukas Bühlmann is a Partner and Head of Digital, Data Privacy and E-Commerce at Meyerlustenberger Lachenal, and a specialist in the legal considerations related to e-commerce businesses in Switzerland. He is based in the firm’s Zurich office.
