ZertES · Bundesgesetz über die elektronische Signatur
The Swiss federal e-signature law — aligned with eIDAS.
What it is
Switzerland's federal law on certification services for the electronic signature. Mirrors the eIDAS three-tier model with locally-defined names: simple (einfach), advanced (fortgeschritten), and qualified (qualifiziert). A qualified Swiss e-signature is equivalent to a handwritten signature under Art. 14 of the Swiss Code of Obligations (OR).
Scope
All Swiss courts under Art. 14 OR. The Swiss government's own SAS-certified providers (SwissSign, QuoVadis, etc.) issue qualified certificates that cross-recognise with eIDAS QES via the Switzerland-EU mutual recognition agreement.
What letssign.now does
Our PAdES-B envelope plus the RFC 3161 timestamp from an independent TSA satisfies ZertES requirements for advanced electronic signatures. Admissible in Swiss courts. Swiss-region hosting (Zürich) is available on Branded + Teams tiers for data-residency-sensitive deployments.
Deeper detail
Three signature tiers — same model as eIDASExpandClose
Einfach (simple), fortgeschritten (advanced), qualifiziert (qualified). The qualified tier is the one that triggers Art. 14 equivalence with a handwritten signature.
Form requirements (Schriftform)ExpandClose
Some Swiss contracts require Schriftform (written form): real estate, surety bonds, employment-termination agreements. Only qualified signatures meet Schriftform. Most commercial contracts don't require it — an advanced signature suffices for legal effect.
Swiss Trusted ListExpandClose
The Eidgenössisches Justiz- und Polizeidepartement publishes the Swiss TL. Our verifier ingests it alongside the EU LOTL, so QES from SwissSign + QuoVadis are recognised as such on /verify regardless of which side of the border the file originated from.
Related standards
The frameworks above interlock. Each linked page covers one in full.
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