Can I still return a purchase?

Can I still return a purchase?

"Is it true that a product sold in a shop as a promotion cannot necessarily be taken back? A friend of mine was tempted by two small tubes of eyelid-smoothing beauty products sold in action for CHF 380 (with a beauty treatment offered). Realising that she'd made an ill-considered purchase, she wanted to return the products and give up the beauty treatments, without success. What do you think?

According to Article 1 of the Swiss Code of Obligations (CO), a contract is perfect when the parties have mutually and in a concordant manner expressed their will. Thus, once a sales contract has been concluded, Swiss law does not, in principle, provide for the possibility of going back on commitments made, as a right of withdrawal does not exist for traditional sales contracts.

However, art. 40a et seq. of the Swiss Code of Obligations provide that for certain sales contracts concluded in special circumstances, the purchaser may revoke his agreement. This possibility exists for contracts concluded at the workplace, in residential premises or their immediate surroundings, on public transport or on the public highway, during an advertising event linked to an excursion or a similar occasion, or for contracts concluded by telephone or by a similar means of instant voice telecommunication.

If the purchaser finds himself in one of the above situations, he has a 14-day revocation period which starts to run as soon as the purchaser has offered or accepted the contract and has been made aware of his right of revocation. The law stipulates that the supplier must inform the purchaser of this right, in writing or by any other means that can be proven by text, as well as of the form and deadline for exercising it, and provide the purchaser's address.

However, it should be borne in mind that this option only applies to contracts for movable items or services intended for the customer's personal or family use if the supplier has acted in the course of a professional or commercial activity and the service exceeds CHF 100. A purchase in a shop is therefore not one of the situations covered by art. 40a et seq of the Swiss Code of Obligations, which means that your friend does not have a right of cancellation simply because she has changed her mind about making the purchase.

That said, many shops offer the possibility of returning items that are no longer suitable for the purchaser, as long as they have kept the receipt, but they often do not promise a refund and only offer a voucher for the value of the product.