Foto Erhardt bills Swiss addresses net, without German VAT, and hands the parcel over unclearedes, so Swiss import VAT of 8.1% plus the carrier's clearance fee are charged to you on delivery. On a CHF 400 camera order expect roughly CHF 50 extra when the parcel arrives.
Three separate shop pages (FAQ, terms, shipping) all point the same way, which is why confidence is high; the weakness is that the shipping-cost page renders its rate table via JavaScript, so the exact Swiss shipping price and clearing carrier could not be verified.
The shop's own pages are consistent on this point. The English FAQ states that invoices for Swiss addresses are issued without VAT, and the terms say prices include German VAT only when the delivery country is inside the EU, so goods leave Germany net. The shipping page then says customs or import charges are levied once the parcel reaches the destination country and that clearance fees are at the buyer's expense, with the shop explicitly disclaiming control over their amount and pointing Swiss customers to the Swiss tariff database. That is a plain DAP arrangement: nothing Swiss is collected at checkout.
What complicates it is the size of the bill rather than who pays it. Foto Erhardt does not publish a Switzerland-specific shipping rate or name the clearing carrier for Swiss parcels; the terms only mention DHL, a forwarding agent or a parcel service generally, and the shipping-cost table on the site is loaded dynamically and could not be read in full. Since 2024 there is no duty on cameras and lenses, so the charge is import VAT at 8.1% on goods plus shipping, plus a clearance fee that varies from about CHF 16 with a Post-handled parcel to considerably more with an express service, and split deliveries can produce that fee twice.
Partial or split shipments: a buyer reported paying two separate DHL handling fees because one order arrived in several parcels. Bulky items sent by forwarding agent can also carry higher clearance costs.
“Fees for customs clearance are at your expense; we have no control over these fees”
“Invoices issued for Swiss addresses do not include VAT.”
“inkl. Mehrwertsteuer sofern der Kunde kein Land außerhalb der Europäischen Union als Lieferland auswählt”
“Deliveries outside Germany are only possible against prepayment, credit card or PayPal”
“weil ich aus der Schweiz bestelle, musste ich plötzlich zwei separate Handling-Gebühren an DHL zahlen”
Shop policies change. Watch this one and we will re-check it for you, and tell you if the answer moves.