Terms and conditions

2. Conclusion of the contract

Ordering online takes place in several steps: choice of the offer and its configuration, entry of your details, summary, then payment or submission of the request. Before confirming, you can go back to each step and correct your choices and your details.

The summary shows the period invoiced, any one-off fees, the domain fees, the total excl. VAT, the VAT and the total incl. VAT payable. You accept the general terms and conditions by ticking the box provided for that purpose. A confirmation is sent to you by email.

The contract is concluded when SwissCenter accepts your order. Our team checks each order before accepting it. For an order paid online, this check follows confirmation of the payment; if we cannot accept the order, the amount paid is refunded to you in full. For an order paid by QR-bill, activation takes place upon receipt of payment; an order whose first invoice is not paid within 45 days is cancelled, and no amount is then due.

For offers handled on request, sending the request does not conclude the contract: our team checks the request, then sends you the contract and the invoice. The contract is concluded on signature of the contract or on payment of the first invoice, whichever occurs first.

Swiss law does not provide for a statutory right of withdrawal for a contract concluded online. The offers concerned are, however, covered by the 30-day money-back guarantee, on the following conditions.

Guarantee. The guarantee applies to offers that state it in their specific terms, once per Customer and per offer, on the first order. Request it in writing within 30 days of activation. Only the subscription is refunded; setup and domain fees are excluded. The Service is then terminated and its data deleted in accordance with art. 8. SwissCenter may refuse an abusive request, in particular after a breach of the rules of use.

3. Obligations of SwissCenter

SwissCenter provides the Service in accordance with the description of the offer, with the diligence expected of a professional.

SwissCenter maintains its infrastructure. Maintenance may temporarily interrupt the Service; it is announced in advance where possible.

SwissCenter may upgrade its equipment and software, without reducing the essential features of the Service subscribed.

The availability stated in the description of the offer, for example Target availability of 99.9% per month, is a target and not a contractual commitment.

If the Service has a significant defect, report it in writing. If SwissCenter does not remedy it within 30 days of your report, you may terminate the contract with immediate effect; the portion paid in advance for the unused period is refunded to you.

4. Obligations of the Customer

The Customer undertakes to:

• provide accurate contact details and keep them up to date;
• protect its access credentials and passwords;
• keep the software it installs or operates up to date;
• comply with applicable law and the rules of use;
• keep its own backups of its data.

The Customer is responsible for the content it publishes and for the services it provides to its own customers by means of the Service.

5. Prices, invoicing and payment

Prices are stated in Swiss francs, excl. VAT. VAT is added at the statutory rate. The order summary shows the period invoiced, any one-off fees, the domain fees, the applicable VAT and the total amount incl. VAT payable.

The Service is invoiced in advance for each period, the length of which depends on the offer. Variable consumption provided for by the offer, such as electricity beyond the included quantity, is invoiced on the basis of the readings.

Payment is made by the methods offered on the secure payment page or by QR-bill. From abroad, payment can also be made by bank transfer. For an order paid by QR-bill, activation takes place after receipt of payment. The applicable due dates are stated on the invoice and in the terms of the offer.

Unless another due date is stated on the invoice, invoices are payable within 30 days. After that period, statutory default interest of 5% per annum is due (art. 104 CO).

Any dispute over an invoice must reach us in writing within 30 days of the issue date shown on the invoice. After that period, the invoice is deemed accepted, unless there is an obvious error. You may set off an invoice from SwissCenter only against a claim that SwissCenter has acknowledged in writing or that has been established by an enforceable judgment.

SwissCenter does not charge reminder fees. The first reminder gives you 10 days to pay. An invoice that remains unpaid when that period expires may be passed on to a debt collection provider; the necessary and reasonable collection costs actually invoiced by that provider are then payable by you, to the extent permitted by law.

If an invoice remains unpaid 60 days after the issue date shown on the invoice, SwissCenter may suspend the Service after notifying you by email at least 7 days in advance. If it remains unpaid after the suspension, SwissCenter may set you a final period of 10 days in writing and then, failing payment within that period, terminate the contract with immediate effect; art. 8 then applies.

Orders for Cloud VPS servers are placed in vPanel and follow the payment terms presented there, in particular for payment on invoice by businesses.

6. Changes to prices and terms

Prices. SwissCenter may change its prices. New prices published on its website apply immediately to new orders. For an ongoing contract, SwissCenter notifies you of any increase by email at least 30 days before the start of the period to which it applies; the price for the current period does not change.

Price increase. If you do not accept the increase, you may terminate the contract for the end of the current period, without observing the ordinary notice period. Your termination must reach us in writing no later than the last day of that period. No amount at the new price is then due; any amount already paid for the following period is refunded to you.

Terms. A new version of the terms applies immediately to new orders. For an ongoing contract, the terms in force remain applicable until the end of the current period; the new version applies from the first renewal that occurs at least 30 days after SwissCenter has notified you of it by email. The notice states the changes, their effective date, your right to terminate and the consequence of your silence. If you refuse the change, you may terminate the contract for the end of the current period, without observing the ordinary notice period; your termination must reach us in writing no later than the last day of that period. If you do not terminate, the change is deemed accepted.

A change made to comply with the law, for example a change in the VAT rate, or a change solely in the Customer's favour takes effect immediately.

7. Duration, renewal and termination

The contract is concluded for the Contract Period of the offer. It is tacitly renewed for the same duration unless terminated. The billing period does not, on its own, determine the commitment period.

Either party may terminate the contract for the end of a Contract Period, in writing, at least 60 days in advance. The Customer terminates by email to info@swisscenter.com sent from the account's contact address, or by letter addressed to:

The specific terms of the offer or your service contract may provide for other arrangements, in particular online termination from the Console.

A request received too late does not cancel the following period: the corresponding invoice remains due.

Either party may terminate the contract with immediate effect for good cause.

In the event of a serious or repeated breach of the contract, in particular sending spam or unlawful content, SwissCenter may suspend the Service or terminate the contract after a warning, except in an emergency.

8. End of the contract and data

It is your responsibility to retrieve your data before the effective date of the end of the contract. For web hosting, the Apanel console can gather the files and databases of your site into an archive for download; mailboxes are not included.

If the contract ends with immediate effect or the Service is suspended, SwissCenter allows you, on request, to retrieve your data before it is deleted, unless the law, a decision of an authority or the unlawful nature of the data prevents this.

Domain names are not terminated with the hosting: they follow their own terms.

Data is deleted from live systems 7 days after the effective date of the end of the contract. SwissCenter's internal backup copies are erased as they rotate. For Cloud VPS servers, the time limits of the vPanel terms apply.

9. Content and lawful use

The Customer is responsible for the content it hosts, publishes or transmits by means of the Service, including that of its own customers.

SwissCenter does not monitor its customers' content. Upon a well-founded report or by order of an authority, SwissCenter may remove or block content.

The Customer indemnifies SwissCenter against third-party claims relating to its content or to a breach of the rules of use.

10. Data protection

SwissCenter processes your personal data in accordance with its Privacy policy and with the Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP).

When you host personal data of third parties, SwissCenter processes it as a processor (art. 9 FADP), solely on your instructions and in order to provide the Service.

SwissCenter does not use any other processor to process the data you host. Any new processor would be announced to you by email at least 30 days in advance; you could object and, failing agreement, terminate the Service concerned on that date, with a refund of the unused portion paid in advance. SwissCenter protects this data with appropriate technical and organisational measures and notifies you as soon as possible of any breach of its security.

Hosted data is stored at our two Swiss locations (Lausanne and Geneva/Satigny). The services of a third-party publisher, such as Microsoft 365, are governed by that publisher's terms, including as regards where the data is stored.

11. Confidentiality

Each party keeps confidential the non-public information of the other party of which it becomes aware in connection with the contract. It uses such information only to perform the contract.

This obligation lasts for the duration of the contract and for 2 years after it ends, unless the law provides for a longer period.

12. Domain names and IP addresses

The Customer warrants that the domain names registered or managed on its behalf do not infringe the rights of third parties. It complies with the rules of the registries and of the competent authorities.

A domain name reserved through SwissCenter is renewed automatically until it is terminated or abandoned, or until the renewal invoice is not paid.

IP addresses assigned by SwissCenter may be used only for the Service concerned. They are returned to SwissCenter at the end of the contract.

13. Assignment and resale

Neither party may assign the contract without the written consent of the other party, which may not refuse it without reason.

The Customer may not resell a Service or make it available to third parties, even free of charge, unless the offer provides for this, as the Reseller plans do, or with the written consent of SwissCenter.

14. Liability

SwissCenter is liable without limitation for damage caused intentionally or through gross negligence, and for injury to life, body or health.

In the event of slight negligence, its liability is limited to direct damage and, per event, to the amount you paid for the Service concerned during the previous 12 months. To that extent, SwissCenter is not liable for loss of profit, indirect damage, or loss of data that appropriate backups would have prevented. SwissCenter is not liable for interruptions due to force majeure or to acts of third parties that it could not reasonably prevent, such as an attack. Mandatory provisions of law remain reserved.

15. Force majeure

Neither party is liable for a delay or failure due to force majeure, in particular earthquake, fire, strike, riot, war, epidemic, change in the law, decision of an authority or any other cause beyond its reasonable control.

16. Communications

An email sent to the account's contact address constitutes a written communication. Your requests must be sent from that same address: this is what allows us to verify that they come from the account holder. An email you send from that address to info@swisscenter.com also constitutes a written communication.

17. Partial invalidity

If a provision of the contract is held to be void, the other provisions remain valid. The parties replace it in good faith with a provision as close as possible to its meaning.

18. Applicable law and place of jurisdiction

The contract is governed by Swiss law, excluding the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. A consumer retains the protection afforded by the mandatory provisions of the country of their habitual residence, where these apply.

The place of jurisdiction is Lausanne. Mandatory places of jurisdiction are reserved: a consumer may bring proceedings before the court of their domicile or of SwissCenter's registered office, and may be sued only before the court of their domicile (art. 32 and 35 CPC, art. 114 PILA, art. 15 to 17 of the Lugano Convention).

Prohibited uses

You may not use SwissCenter's services, or allow your own customers to use them, to:

• send unsolicited emails (spam);
• operate a mailing list that does not allow recipients to unsubscribe easily;
• forge the headers of an email;
• infringe the rights of third parties, in particular intellectual property or personality rights;
• host or distribute unlawful content; child sexual abuse material is reported to the authorities;
• access a system without authorisation, or prepare an intrusion;
• distribute malicious software or carry out denial-of-service attacks;
• use the service in a way that degrades the service of other customers;
• assist in any of these activities.

Measures in the event of a breach

In the event of a breach, SwissCenter first sends you a warning. If the breach is not corrected, SwissCenter may block the element concerned or suspend the Service.

Blocking is immediate when the activity is ongoing or serious, for example a hacked site or a mailbox that sends spam.

The Service is restored once the problem has been corrected.

Reporting abuse

To report abuse committed by means of SwissCenter's services, write to abuse@swisscenter.com.