Claims rules

These rules apply to any claim concerning an order placed on Merka. They determine who is refunded, who bears the costs, and within what period. They supplement the terms and conditions and do not replace them.

They do not replace the law. The buyer retains the rights the Code of Obligations gives them against the seller, in particular the warranty for defects (art. 197 ff. CO). These rules limit what WE do, not what a court may decide.

Only the buyer opens a claim, and only after recorded delivery or a failure to deliver. The seller cannot open one: they respond to the claim made against them.

The period is 48 hours from the delivery recorded by the carrier. Once it has passed, the payment is made to the seller and our protection ends; the buyer's rights against the seller, for their part, remain.

If the tracking shows no handover and the transit time has been exceeded, the buyer is refunded in full, postage included.

The seller is not held liable: it is the carrier that answers for the loss, from posting until handover. Our refund does not prejudge the compensation the seller may obtain from it.

A claim whose examination shows that the item matches the listing is closed without a refund, and the payout to the seller resumes its course.

Regret is not a ground. There is no right of withdrawal in Switzerland for an online purchase: art. 40a ff. CO cover only doorstep and telephone selling. A concluded sale remains a sale.

Where the item has a defect but the buyer wishes to keep it, the parties may agree on a price reduction. The buyer may request it; the seller may offer it.

The reduction is capped at the price of the item plus the postage. It extinguishes the claim: once the agreement is concluded, no further refund is owed on the same ground.

It is the outcome these rules favour. No one sends anything back, the item stays with the person who wanted it, and the seller keeps a sale. It corresponds to the price reduction of art. 205 CO.

Where the return would cost more than the item, or the item is unusable, the buyer is refunded without having to send it back. They are not required to keep it or to destroy it.

This outcome is decided by us, never imposed on the seller without examination: it makes them lose the item AND the price.

Where the seller asks for their item back, we provide the buyer with a return label. The refund takes place upon recorded receipt of the returned parcel, not before.

A buyer who does not send it back within fourteen days loses the benefit of the claim, and the payout to the seller resumes its course.

Where the defect is established, the return postage is borne by the seller. Art. 208 para. 2 CO places on them the damage resulting directly from the delivery of defective goods, and para. 3 reverses the burden of proof against them.

Where the item is as described and the return is only a favour, the postage is borne by the person asking for it.

We advance the label in both cases. The sum is then withheld from the next payout of the party who owes it, never invoiced separately.

The buyer attaches to their claim photographs of the defect and of the packaging received. The seller may attach their own in response.

Evidence is requested, never demanded: a parcel that never arrived cannot be photographed. Its absence does not close the claim, but it weighs in the examination.

It is kept in a private space, accessible only to the parties and to the arbitration, and deleted with the order.

We write to each party separately. Nothing said to one is passed to the other without a decision to do so.

The seller has three days to respond. Their silence does not block the procedure: once that period has passed, the decision is taken on the file as it stands, in the buyer's favour.

Below 50 francs, the decision may be automatic. Above, it is taken by a person, with a written reason that is kept.

That threshold is a threshold of COST, not of trust: arbitrating a smaller sum by hand costs more than the sum itself.

On the 3th automatic refund obtained by the same buyer, the decision goes back to a person, whatever the amount.

The refund covers the sum actually held: the price of the item, the postage, and the protection fee. We do not cap it.

We do not refund what we did not collect, in particular a payment concluded outside the platform, which is covered by nothing.

The refund is ordered on the day of the decision. It appears on the original payment method within the bank's own timescales, generally within five working days.

That timescale does not depend on us and we prefer to announce it rather than let you discover it.

A claim that is manifestly unfounded, repeated, or based on falsified evidence leads to the suspension of the account.

The suspension is notified with its reason. It does not affect orders in progress, which run to completion.

Where the parcel comes back to the seller because the buyer did not collect it within the post office's deadline, or because the address was inaccurate through their own fault, the buyer is refunded the price of the item but bears the outward postage.

The seller gets their item back and keeps the costs they actually incurred. It is not a penalty: it is an expense incurred for a service rendered.

Where the address was inaccurate because of our label, the postage is at our expense.

The seller has seven days after payment to hand over the parcel. Once that period has passed, the sale is cancelled automatically and the buyer is refunded in full, item, postage and protection fee, without having to ask.

The cancellation nevertheless has a cost: our banking provider does not return the payment processing fees. Those fees, together with the protection fee of the sale, remain at the expense of the seller who did not dispatch. They are withheld from their next payout and appear until then on their "My money" screen.

This rule applies only to an established failure: a seller who is prevented and tells us before the deadline bears nothing. It never applies to a decided claim, where the disagreement concerns the item and not the dispatch.