Switzerland
Does a Swiss company need an EU representative?
Switzerland sits outside the EU and the EEA. Compliance with the revised FADP does not answer whether an Article 27 representative must be designated in the Union.
The pitfall
Alignment is not application
Switzerland is neither in the Union nor in the EEA. The revised Federal Act on Data Protection was drafted with the GDPR closely in view, and the alignment is genuine — which is exactly what makes this easy to get wrong. Compliance with the revised FADP is compliance with Swiss law. It does not answer whether a Swiss organisation offering goods or services to people in the Union, or monitoring their behaviour, must designate a representative established in the Union.
Switzerland also benefits from an adequacy decision, which again concerns transfers rather than representation. And the requirement runs both ways: Swiss law contains its own representative obligation for foreign organisations targeting Switzerland.
How we define a mandate
We state the scope of a mandate before it starts, in writing, including what it does not cover. Where a question falls outside it, we say so rather than absorbing it quietly and billing for it later.
Scope
Services most likely to apply
- GDPR Article 27 representation
- AI Act authorised representative
- Cross-border commercial contracts
- EU trade mark filing
- Distribution agreements
Working together
The role of your existing Swiss counsel
Your current advisers keep the relationship and the strategy. We take the European-side mandate and report back in English. Where you would rather we deal with the company directly, we do that instead — it is settled before we start, not afterwards.
For foreign law firmsPreparation
What to prepare before we speak
Your privacy notice. Your record of processing, if one exists. A description of the activity that reaches the Union. The Member States you target. Whether any EU entity, importer or reseller already exists. And whatever prompted the question — a customer questionnaire, a marketplace notice, a letter from an authority.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Start with a scope review
EU market entry assessmentThis page describes how these obligations generally work. Whether one applies to you depends on facts a web page cannot capture — your supply chain, your contracts and the role you actually play in them.