E-Infinity

E-Infinity ships cameras and lenses to Switzerland free of shipping cost, but the price at checkout does not include Swiss import VAT. FedEx will bill you 8.1% VAT plus its own clearance fee before or at delivery.

The reasoning

The shop's Delivery Details page splits the world into regions and promises tax-paid delivery only for the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States, where it states there will be no taxes or duties to pay on arrival. Switzerland is not in any of those groups, so it falls under "Rest of the World", which is shipped via FedEx from Hong Kong and carries the explicit warning that customers may be liable to import duties when the order arrives. Shipping itself is free to most countries, with a surcharge only for remote areas, and nothing on the site suggests a Swiss VAT registration or CHF pricing inclusive of tax.

What complicates it is that Switzerland is never named on the page, so the verdict rests on the catch-all wording rather than a Swiss-specific statement, and E-Infinity does hold UK and EU stock that it sometimes uses, which could in principle change the origin and the clearance treatment of an individual order. No Swiss buyer report was found confirming what FedEx actually invoices; the Trustpilot reviews praising "no customs fees" come from EU customers, for whom the shop clears duty-paid anyway, and they say nothing about Swiss deliveries.

If it goes wrong

A camera body is a high-value item: on a CHF 3,000 order the 8.1% VAT alone is about CHF 240, and FedEx adds a disbursement fee well above Swiss Post's flat charge. Small accessories under roughly CHF 62 in value should still arrive with nothing to pay.