Federal Council must examine polluter-pays principle for online returns
Published: Monday, Dec 11th 2023, 17:50
Retour au fil d'actualité
The Council of States has instructed the Federal Council to examine the application of the polluter-pays principle to returns in online retail. It adopted a postulate from the Committee for the Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy (Urek-S) by 34 votes to 8.
The Federal Council is therefore tasked with examining which legislative changes are necessary to ensure that the polluter pays principle is applied to returns in the online mail order business. In addition to mandatory provisions, it must also examine financial incentives such as an incentive tax - for example in the form of an early returns fee. The National Council rejected such a returns fee in June of this year.
Commission spokesperson Damian Müller (FDP/LU) explained that according to a recent study, the returns rate in online retail in Switzerland is 7 percent - meaning that one in fourteen items is returned.
In some sectors, the average rate is significantly higher, for example around 20 percent in the fashion industry. Returns would result in considerable additional costs for suppliers. Individual surveys have shown that Switzerland also occupies a top position in Europe when it comes to returns - with a rate of 28% compared to 14% in the rest of Europe.
Free returns would create both an economic and an ecological disincentive: Retailers would incur additional costs as a result of the returns. From an ecological point of view, usable items that have been transported over long distances would end up as waste.
The Federal Council had requested that the postulate be rejected. It still sees no justification for such an encroachment on economic freedom, as the overall ecological effects of such measures are unclear, said Economics Minister Guy Parmelin.
In addition, there are already ecologically sensible incentives to avoid unnecessary journeys. According to a recent report by the Federal Council, there is also little evidence that new non-food goods are being destroyed on a large scale in Switzerland.
©Keystone/SDA
French 
English 
German 
Spanish 
Arabic