Unfair practices via Switzerland

The Swiss authorities are aware that some companies/individuals use Switzerland as a base for dubious business practices. Switzerland has no wish to be regarded as a “loophole” or “hideout”, for criminals or companies/individuals misleading the public. The good reputation of Switzerland as a business location is sometimes being misused.

One of their tasks is to enforce the Swiss Fair Trading Act. In this context, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, (seco) has made use of its power to take legal action and criminal proceedings against several companies/individuals. These cases are currently pending in court.

Clairvoyants:
There are two different ways in which these organisations operate:

1. There are Swiss-based companies, officially registered in the Company Registry. They claim to have contracts with different clairvoyants permitting them to commercialise their services.
2. Bogus clairvoyants from abroad who use a mail box via a trustee in Switzerland. This trustee will carry out certain services such as sending, receiving and forwarding mail or orders for the organisation/individual domiciled abroad.

Unfair Trade practices:
Unfair practices arise most frequently in connection with trade in all types of directories e.g. business directories, fax listings, trademark-and patent registers, mail order trading of pseudo products, sweep stakes, get-rich-quick schemes, financial transactions and time-share.

Switzerland enjoys a good reputation as an international business location. Many headquarters of international companies and organisations are based in Switzerland.

First of all, the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act grants every individual the right to have their details removed from private databases.
If the companies in question are believed to be pursuing unfair trade practices the Swiss authorities will institute legal and criminal proceedings.
In cases of suspected unfair trade practices UK residents are asked to send all correspondence and evidence in this matter to the Embassy which will then be forwarded to the Swiss Office of Fair Trading. This information is essential to the Swiss Authorities for conducting investigations in the matter raised and to take appropriate actions.

For further details please see the following publications:

  

The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (seco) submits request for prosecution in cases of dubious business practices regarding business directories.
If someone has been deceived into concluding a contract by NovaChannel AG, he/she can challenge the contract by writing a letter to the counterpart within a year of discovering the error, stating that he/she has been deceived and that he/she considers therefore the contract to be invalid. The contract is then considered to be annulled (Art. 23 of the Swiss Code of Obligations); the consequence being that there are no outstanding obligations of any kind.

If a debt collection company or another representative of the counterpart should insist on paying the money, the debt collection company respectively the representative of the counterpart should also be informed that the contract has been annulled.

Attention is drawn to the fact that only the civil judge is in a position to definitely state whether the challenged contract is really invalid if the party insisting on the validity of the contract chooses to initiate civil proceedings.