Labelling AI images as a Swiss shop: when the EU rule applies

Research as of 30 September 2026. This guide is for online shops established in Switzerland. The basics of the labelling obligation, meaning your role, the image types and the form of the label, are in the guide Do I have to label AI images in my online store?. This page deals with the question that comes first: when the EU rule reaches a Swiss shop at all, and what applies under Swiss law. For stores in other countries outside the EU, the same scope rule is explained in Does the EU AI Act apply to my store outside the EU? For a comparison with a neighbouring country, see Labelling AI images in Austria; for the full picture, see Article 50 of the EU AI Act.

Does the EU AI Act apply to a Swiss shop?

Not because of where it is established. The AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) does not apply in Switzerland directly. For deployers, meaning businesses that use an AI system under their own authority (Article 3(4)), Article 2(1) of the AI Act distinguishes two cases:

• Point (b) covers deployers “that have their place of establishment or are located within the Union”. That does not apply to a Swiss shop.
• Point (c) covers providers and deployers “that have their place of establishment or are located in a third country, where the output produced by the AI system is used in the Union”.

What matters, then, is whether your AI images are used in the Union. Recital 22 explains the purpose: the Regulation should also apply to providers and deployers established in a third country “to the extent the output produced by those systems is intended to be used in the Union”.

The Commission guidelines C(2026) 5054 final of 20 July 2026 set this out in para. 13: the transparency obligations apply to deployers outside the Union “where the deployer itself foresees dissemination and use of the AI outputs in the Union (i.e. by directing or authorising distribution within the Union, including by posting deep fakes on the globally accessible internet)”. Third-country deployers are not bound “where the content of the AI system reaches audiences in the Union through channels that are unforeseeable and outside their control”.

The Swiss side reads the provision the same way. The legal baseline analysis by the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM), presented to the Federal Council on 12 February 2025, states that for deployers in a third country the criterion is the use of the output in the EU; as an example it gives a Swiss company that sends AI-generated texts to its customers in the EU (pp. 123 f., in German).

The Digital Omnibus (Regulation (EU) 2026/1744) has not changed Article 2(1) or Article 50(1) to (6).

When is your shop covered?

The third row is where the real uncertainty lies. On the wording of the guidelines, publishing on the open internet can already amount to foreseen distribution in the Union. Whether that also applies to a shop that recognisably supplies only Swiss customers has not been expressly decided by a court or by the Commission. The guidelines are also non-binding; only the Court of Justice of the EU can give an authoritative interpretation of the Regulation (para. 5).

What do you have to do if your shop is covered?

For the images used in the Union, the same applies as for a shop in the EU:

1. Clarify your role. If you use Midjourney, Firefly, Canva or the Shopify image editor for shop images, you are a deployer. You only owe the visible disclosure under Article 50(4); the machine-readable marking under paragraph 2 is owed by the provider of the generator.
2. Classify your images. You have to label deep fakes within the meaning of Article 3(60), meaning AI images that look real and show something that exists or could plausibly exist. The case groups in detail: Which images in your store need an AI label?
3. Label visibly. Clear and distinguishable, at the latest at the time of first exposure, and accessible (Article 50(5)): a label on the image with a text alternative for screen readers (alt text or aria-label). Notices in the terms of use or deep in menus are not enough (guidelines, para. 142).
4. Keep records. Deployers who have not signed the Commission’s code of practice are expected to demonstrate how they comply with Article 50 (guidelines, para. 148): per image or group of images, the tool, the date, the classification, the decision and dated evidence that the label is visible.

According to the guidelines, the label has to be clearly perceivable for the targeted and foreseeable audience (para. 12). Most shops show the same page to every visitor; a label on the image then reaches customers in the EU and in Switzerland alike. In Switzerland it is voluntary.

You do not need an authorised representative in the EU for this. The AI Act only requires one from providers in third countries, for high-risk AI systems (Article 22) and for general-purpose AI models (Article 54).

Who enforces this against a Swiss shop?

Article 50 is enforced by the market surveillance authorities designated by the Member States (guidelines, para. 151). How proceedings against a deployer in Switzerland would work in practice has not been clarified.

Alongside this there is unfair competition law, where the market counts, not the place of establishment. Before courts in the EU, unfair competition is governed by the law of the country where competitive relations or the collective interests of consumers are affected (Article 6(1) Rome II Regulation). Swiss private international law follows the same idea: claims arising from unfair competition are governed by the law of the country on whose market the unfair act has its effect (Article 136(1) PILA). If you sell into the EU, you therefore have to reckon with the unfair competition law of the respective destination country. What that looks like in Germany is described in the guide Who enforces the EU AI image labelling rule in your store?; those German rules do not apply within Switzerland.

What applies under Swiss law?

No general labelling obligation. The legal baseline analysis says so expressly: with regard to the labelling of AI-generated content, Swiss law in principle contains no labelling obligation, and introducing such a measure could be appropriate so that AI-generated content can be recognised (p. 44, translated). For a shop that has no effect in the EU, an AI label in Switzerland is therefore voluntary.

Misleading content remains prohibited. Under Article 2 of the Swiss UWG, any deceptive conduct that affects the relationship between competitors or between suppliers and customers is unfair. Article 3(1)(b) UWG expressly names incorrect or misleading statements about one’s own goods. The act does not ask whether an image was photographed or generated: an AI image that shows the goods differently from what is delivered falls under it, labelled or not.

Real people. If an AI image depicts a real, identifiable person, that person’s personality rights are engaged; for deep fakes, the baseline analysis refers to protection of personality under civil law, Article 28 of the Swiss Civil Code (p. 149).

What is Switzerland planning?

Whether this will lead to an obligation to label AI images in retail is open. The content of the draft has not been published, and any act could only apply after the consultation and parliamentary deliberation.

What remains open?

• Swiss-only shop with a website accessible worldwide: whether the guidelines’ reference to the globally accessible internet covers such a shop has not been clarified.
• Enforcement across the border: how Member State market surveillance authorities would proceed against deployers in Switzerland has not been clarified.
• Disputed image types: for AI product images that show the product accurately and for generative cut-outs, there is no binding clarification, not even at EU level.
• Swiss regulation: the content and timing of a Swiss transparency rule are open (as of 30 September 2026).

In short

A Swiss shop does not fall under the AI Act because of where it is established, but it does with the AI images it uses in the EU, for instance because it sells to EU customers or advertises there. For those images, Article 50(4) of the AI Act applies: a visible label on the image with a text alternative, and records. If you only sell in Switzerland, Swiss law imposes no labelling obligation, but with a website accessible worldwide you are in an open question. In every case, the Swiss UWG applies: an image that shows the goods differently from what is delivered is a problem no label solves.