Receipt Errors in Switzerland: What Are Your Rights at the Till?

If the till charges more than the shelf label said, the starting point in Switzerland is that the displayed price applies. Asked whether a wrong price on goods displayed in a shop window or in the shop is binding on the seller, SECO answers in its price-indication FAQ (retrieved August 2026) that in principle it is, because displaying goods with a price generally counts as a binding offer — with an exception where it is clearly recognisable that the price is a mistake. The more common everyday case, though, is not the wrong label at all: it is the promotion that was not deducted at the till, and you only catch that if you read the receipt before you leave the shop.

Last reviewed: August 2026. Sources checked regularly. SECO, FAQ on price indication (German and French versions), retrieved August 2026. Federal Consumer Affairs Bureau (BFK/BFC), FAQ on konsum.admin.ch, retrieved August 2026. Fédération romande des consommateurs (FRC), «Le prix affiché en vitrine fait-il foi?» (5 December 2017). Swiss Consumer Protection Foundation, online guide on price indication (updated 4 February 2026). K-Tipp 05/2016 (9 March 2016), «Falsche Preise an den Regalen». SRF «Kassensturz»/«Espresso», legal answer by Gabriela Baumgartner (1 April 2021) and report by Peter Fritsche (23 December 2024). 20 Minuten, Fabian Pöschl (23 March 2025). nau.ch, lawyer Sarah Schläppi (20 June 2026). ACSI (1 June 2022). Promotion days: Migros, Coop and Denner on Thursday since 5 February 2026; Aldi Suisse and Lidl Schweiz on Monday and Thursday. This page is not legal advice.

Rappn is neutral: a Swiss app for grocery prices and promotions, with no commercial agreements with the retailers.

Does the shop have to charge the price on the label?

As a rule yes, and several bodies say so. The Federal Consumer Affairs Bureau points in its FAQ to Art. 7 para. 3 of the Swiss Code of Obligations (OR/CO), under which displaying goods with a stated price generally counts as an offer. The Fédération romande des consommateurs puts it plainly in its guidance of 5 December 2017: «Le fait d'afficher des marchandises, en rayon ou en vitrine, avec un prix bien visible et aisément lisible, est considéré comme une offre (art. 7 al. 3, CO).» And SRF legal expert Gabriela Baumgartner wrote on 1 April 2021 that price markings on products are in principle binding.

Honesty requires a caveat: Swiss doctrine is not unanimous. The Federal Consumer Affairs Bureau notes in the same FAQ that this rule is contested, and that part of the literature reads it instead as an invitation to the buyer to make an offer. Arguing at the till with the Code of Obligations is therefore not arguing from a settled position.

The counter-exception is the obvious mistake. SECO illustrates it in both its German and French versions with a gold ring priced at 59.90 francs instead of 599 francs: an offer does not bind its author where the error is manifest. The FRC draws the same line, saying the shop must honour the displayed price unless the error is easily recognisable by the customer. Gabriela Baumgartner described the yardstick in 2021 as requiring the actual price to deviate substantially from the marked one; in her case — CHF 99 marked against CHF 269 actual — she reckoned the seller would struggle to convince a court that this was a material error. For that situation the Federal Consumer Affairs Bureau points to Art. 24 OR: an error is material only if the mistaken party would not have concluded the contract had they known the true facts.

We are not a legal advice service and only reproduce what these bodies publish themselves. In practical terms, lawyer Sarah Schläppi puts it this way on nau.ch (20 June 2026): you may tell the cashier that a different price was marked on the shelf and ask for a correction or a check.

Which price has to be on the shelf in the first place?

The one you actually pay. Per SECO, Art. 3 of the Price Indication Ordinance (PBV/OIP) requires the retail price to be shown, meaning the price actually payable in Swiss francs including all public charges, copyright remuneration, advance disposal contributions and other non-discretionary surcharges. For measurable goods the unit price per kilo, litre or metre is added; SECO illustrates it with «Golden Äpfel, CHF 3.50/kg» in German and «confiture, 185 g, 2.70 fr.; 14.95 fr./kg» in French. The Swiss Consumer Protection Foundation states in its online guide (updated 4 February 2026) that price information must be clear, unambiguous and easy to see and read, and lists CHF/kg, CHF/100 g and CHF/m as unit-price formats.

Where the price sits matters too. Lawyer Sarah Schläppi summarises on nau.ch that goods are to be priced individually where that is possible and expedient; a shelf label suffices where individual pricing is impractical, and what counts is that the price can be unambiguously assigned to the product concerned. Since 1 July 2022 the price must also be given at the moment of the offer and in its vicinity — ACSI described that change on 1 June 2022 as the consequence of a Federal Supreme Court ruling.

How often do shelf price and till price disagree?

Hard Swiss numbers are scarce. The best-known published test comes from K-Tipp: in issue 05/2016 of 9 March 2016 the magazine checked 50 products in two Coop and two Migros branches and found mislabelled prices in every one of them. We show the figures because they are the documented order of magnitude — but they are ten years old and say nothing about the situation today.

The two chains' answers are instructive because they point in different directions. Coop told K-Tipp that the price tags had evidently not been swapped. Migros replied that its till system is updated daily and that the customer therefore always pays the correct price — locating the error on the shelf rather than at the till. K-Tipp cited two long-running examples at the time, including an M-Budget camembert mislabelled for more than five months.

For you that means a wrong label can cut both ways. Sometimes you pay more than the marked price, sometimes less. Only the receipt shows what was actually charged.

Promotion not applied at the till: what do you do?

This is the case most people actually experience. A product is advertised as a promotion, the receipt shows the normal price — because last week's label stayed up, because a different variant was sitting in the bay, or because a quantity condition was not met. On Sarah Schläppi's formulation quoted above (nau.ch, 20 June 2026), you may point out the marked price at the till and ask for a correction or a check.

In practice the order of operations does most of the work: read the receipt while still in the shop, not at home. 20 Minuten repeated exactly that advice on 23 March 2025, because an error becomes markedly harder to prove afterwards. And if the chain does not correct it, the cantonal enforcement route remains, see below.

Which scanning errors happen most often?

On 23 March 2025, 20 Minuten had a cashier describe four recurring patterns. First, double-scanning identical items — reportedly at least once per shift. Second, mixing up organic and conventional lines, and lookalike fruit and vegetables: tomatoes, cabbage, onions, grapes, berries, citrus. Third, a multipack charged instead of a single bottle when a pack has been broken open on the shelf; the article advises placing single bottles separately on the belt. Fourth, the wrong barcode, when a stray code is scanned by accident.

Self-checkout adds a second issue that has nothing to do with saving money but does concern you: the random re-scan. SRF «Espresso» reported on 23 December 2024 (Peter Fritsche) on customers irritated by frequent checks at Coop; Coop said the checks are based on the random principle and that it does not comment in principle on details of security-relevant aspects. If you scan yourself, check the item list on screen before you pay.

Why the promotion changeover day is the trickiest of the week

Because that is when labels get swapped. Since 5 February 2026, Migros, Coop and Denner start their weekly promotions on Thursday; Aldi Suisse and Lidl Schweiz publish offers on Monday and Thursday. Those are precisely the days when old and new labels coexist for the shortest time.

Whether Thursday is worth it for your shop, or whether you are better off starting on Monday at Aldi Suisse or Lidl Schweiz, depends on what is on your list. There is no general answer: in Rappn you see this week's promotions across seven chains — Migros, Coop, Aldi Suisse, Lidl, Denner, Aligro and Otto's — with more than 10,000 offers and the price per kilo or litre alongside.

Am I entitled to a receipt?

The Code of Obligations contains a general right to a receipt. Art. 88 OR provides that a debtor making a payment is entitled to demand a receipt and, where the debt is settled in full, the return or cancellation of the debt instrument. So anyone who pays can ask for a receipt. We deliberately claim no more than that: we could not document a specific obligation aimed at shop tills beyond it.

The receipt is your only evidence in any case. Without it, an unapplied promotion is an assertion against a till. One detail on the side: the Federal Consumer Affairs Bureau notes that ordinary in-store purchases carry no general right of return — a right of withdrawal exists only for specific contract types such as doorstep sales or consumer credit. Goodwill is goodwill, not an entitlement.

Where do you report a wrong price?

Not to the federal government. SECO writes in its FAQ that it exercises overall supervision of enforcement of the price-indication rules and issues directives to the cantons, and that detected breaches are to be reported to the cantonal enforcement offices. SECO publishes an address list of the competent cantonal authorities. The Swiss Consumer Protection Foundation likewise points to the cantons as the enforcement authorities.

Realistically: a cantonal report gets the labelling fixed in the shop, it does not refund your difference. You recover the difference at the till or at customer service — with the receipt in hand.

How to find an overcharge when you only notice at home

The reason till errors go unnoticed is mundane: nobody compares thirty receipt lines against labels they can no longer remember. What helps is a reference point you do not have to retrieve from memory — a monthly spending review, for instance, in which an outlier finally stands out. If you hunt for marked-down stock anyway, the mechanics are set out in our guide to yellow-sticker shopping.

Two building blocks for that sit in Rappn. First, price-drop alerts: you save the products you buy regularly and get told when their price falls, so you know before you shop what an item should cost this week. Second, scanning your receipts, so the paperwork stays together instead of crumpling in a coat pocket. Alongside them, the unit-price comparison per kilo or litre takes the mystique out of large-format offers. Rappn is free, available in four languages, and paid for by no chain.

So what does this mean for you? It depends

It depends on how big the gap is. Over a few rappen, complaining costs more time than it returns. Over an unapplied promotion on a large pack, the trip to customer service is worth it — and per the bodies cited above, the Swiss starting position favours you as long as the error is not an obvious one.

It also depends on when you shop. Walk the aisles on a changeover day and you meet the highest density of freshly swapped labels. Skim the receipt while still in the shop and you settle the matter in two minutes rather than a week.

Next step: set a price alert in Rappn on the five products that land in your trolley every week. Then you know the price before you reach the till — and a wrong amount on the receipt stands out while you are still in the shop.