Cases from the Fairness Commission: a partially addressed delivery is not an unaddressed delivery

The complainant said no and complained that the respondent had repeatedly disregarded his request not to receive any more advertising. The telecommunications company, on the other hand, took the view in its response to the complaint that partially addressed advertising mail addressed "To all residents" and distributed by the post office could not be stopped individually for individual residents. The distribution was therefore to be regarded as a permissible addressed mailing.

The Fairness Commission could not follow this argument and upheld the complaint - for the following two reasons:

• Regardless of internal procedures and processes on the part of an advertiser or sales organization, commercial communication must comply with legal requirements. According to Art. 2 of the Unfair Competition Act (UCA), it does not do so if it disregards the wishes of the recipient, but instead violates good faith.
• By law, every addressee of an advertising measure has the option of preventing commercial communication from being sent to them. They can make this known by means of a stop-advertising sticker, an entry in the Robinson list of the Swiss Dialog Marketing Association SDV or an individual notification. This right of objection would be nullified if the stop-advertising sticker were invalid for a partially addressed mailing, as an address "To all residents" would also not allow an entry in the Robinson list. In this sense, a partially addressed item is equivalent to an unaddressed delivery and must strictly observe the stop-advertising sticker or other individual notices.