Key Facts
Overview
Switzerland has no cookie-specific legislation equivalent to the EU ePrivacy Directive. Instead, the FDPIC published cookie guidelines in January 2025 (updated October 2025) under the revised FADP, establishing a distinctive tiered consent model that differs from the EU's blanket opt-in approach.
What This Means for Your Website
- Essential cookies require no consent but must be disclosed in your privacy policy
- Functional cookies may use a simple opt-out mechanism
- Advertising and profiling cookies require explicit opt-in consent
- Continuing to browse is NOT valid consent
- Unlike the EU, legitimate interest balancing may justify some non-essential cookies under Swiss law
- Penalties target individuals (up to CHF 250,000), not companies, an unusual criminal enforcement model
Key Requirements
The FDPIC issues orders but cannot impose fines directly. Cantonal criminal enforcement handles penalties. Fines target responsible individuals (up to CHF 250,000) rather than companies (capped at CHF 50,000). The January 2025 cookie guidelines provide the most specific guidance on how Swiss law applies to cookies, with the tiered model reflecting Switzerland's pragmatic regulatory approach.
How ConsentStack Handles This
ConsentStack applies Switzerland's tiered consent model for Swiss visitors: essential cookies load with disclosure, functional cookies offer opt-out, and advertising/profiling cookies require explicit opt-in consent.
Penalties
Criminal fines: up to CHF 250,000 (individuals). Company fines: up to CHF 50,000.
Key Requirements
- Essential cookies: no consent required but must be disclosed in privacy policy
- Functional cookies: simple opt-out acceptable
- Advertising and profiling cookies: explicit consent required
- Continuing to browse is NOT valid consent
- Legitimate interest balancing may justify some non-essential cookies
Notable Provisions
- Penalties target individuals, not companies (criminal enforcement model)
- FDPIC cookie guidelines published January 2025, updated October 2025
- Legitimate interest can justify some non-essential cookies (unlike EU)
- No cookie-specific legislation
Data Subject Rights
Be told of a decision based solely on automated processing that has a legal consequence or a considerable adverse effect on you, state your point of view and ask for it to be reviewed by a natural person, unless it is tied to a contract with you and your request is granted or you explicitly consented.
Ask a controller whether it processes personal data about you and receive the processed data itself, generally free of charge; it may refuse, restrict or delay only on the grounds in Articles 26 and 27 and must tell you why, and if it cannot answer in time it must say how long it will take.
Receive, with an access request, the controller's identity and contact details, the purpose, the retention period or its criteria, the available information on the source of data not collected from you, any automated individual decision and its logic, and the recipients or their categories, including countries abroad.
Receive the personal data you disclosed to a controller in a conventional electronic format, or have it transferred to another controller where that takes no disproportionate effort, when it is processed automatically with your consent or in direct connection with a contract with you.
Have incorrect personal data corrected unless a statutory provision prohibits it or the data is processed for archiving in the public interest, and have data marked as disputed when neither its accuracy nor its inaccuracy can be established.
Object to processing, since processing against your express wishes breaches your personality rights unless an overriding private or public interest or the law justifies it, and ask for a specific processing activity or disclosure to third parties to be prohibited, if necessary through a civil action.
Ask for personal data about you to be deleted or destroyed where its processing unlawfully breaches your personality rights, if necessary through a civil action to protect personality under the Civil Code.
Report a suspected violation of data protection rules to the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), who investigates where there are sufficient indications and tells you the steps taken and the result, though you are not a party to the proceedings.
Other Europe Regulations
Frequently Asked Questions
Stay compliant with FADP
ConsentStack helps you implement Opt-in consent for Switzerland automatically.