E-Signature Regulations

Does your jurisdiction maintain a list of trusted entities to qualify e-signatures?

• A qualified certificate can only be issued by the following licensed service providers (as of 09.08.2021):
• Swisscom (Schweiz) AG
• QuoVadis Trustlink Schweiz AG
  SwissSign AG
• Federal Office of Information Technology, Systems and Telecommunication

Please provide a quick overview of the law, i.e., types of contracts that qualify for use with e-signature.

Simple E-Signature: used to verify the integrity of a document like scanned signatures or the one made on the terminal of a postman.
Advanced E-Signature: advanced e-signature which establishes the integrity of a doc-ument as well as the identity of the signature’s owner (authenticity).
Qualified E-Signature: qualified e-signature is the legal equivalent to a handwritten signature, based on a qualified certificate which can only be issued by licensed service providers.

What is the legality of e-signatures in your jurisdiction? Are there key exceptions?

Swiss Law does in general not require any formal prerequisite for a contract to become valid so that contracts can also be concluded or made electronically (e.g. by e-mail). Some exceptions exist where mandatory Swiss law requires a certain form for a contract to make it legally valid. The most common form requirement in practice is the written form, which requires a handwritten signature. The only equivalent to a handwritten signature is the qualified e-signature.

What is the e-signature law enforceable in your jurisdiction?

Regulations on the use of electronic signatures (e-signatures) in Switzerland can be found in the Federal Act on Certification Services in the Area of E-Signatures and Other Digital Certificate Applications (Bundesgesetz über die elektronische Signatur, ZertES) and the associated ordinance on e-signatures (Verordnung über die elektronische Sig-natur, VZertES).