A machinery business in Geneva works on both sides of a border that treats the same machine differently. Twelve kilometres away, in France, CE marking is a condition of sale. In Geneva it is not required, yet the substance behind it is: the Swiss Machinery Ordinance adopts the European Machinery Directive in full, so the essential requirements, the technical file and the declaration of conformity apply whether or not the two letters are affixed.
That asymmetry decides how you set the company up, what you demand from a French supplier, and who carries the liability when a machine changes hands. This guide covers it, then turns to the practical side in Geneva: where a workshop may be installed, which files go to the cantonal labour inspectorate, and which insurer is imposed on you.
Contents
One machine, two markets: the CE asymmetry
The Swiss position is stated plainly by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs: CE marking is not required in Switzerland, and affixing it is the responsibility of the manufacturer or its authorised representative. What the same authority does not say, because it is written elsewhere, is that Art. 2 of the Machinery Ordinance (MachO, SR 819.14) makes the content of Directive 2006/42/EC binding. Machinery may only be placed on the market if it endangers neither the safety nor the health of persons and any domestic animals, nor the integrity of property, nor the environment, and it must satisfy the directive’s requirements on design, conformity assessment, the declaration of conformity, CE marking, the instruction manual and its language.
For a Geneva business the practical reading is short. A machine sold in France carries the marking because French law demands it. A machine sold in Geneva does not have to carry it, but must be built, assessed and documented exactly as if it did. Since the two markets are served from the same workshop, nobody in this canton actually operates without the marking.
The Mutual Recognition Agreement between Switzerland and the European Union, in force since 2002 and covering twenty product sectors including machinery, exists precisely so that one assessment serves both markets. Losing its benefit would mean assessing twice.
Builder, importer, repairer: your company’s role
Most machinery businesses in the Geneva basin do not build from scratch. They import, integrate, rebrand, repair or recondition. Swiss product law places each of those activities somewhere specific, and the Product Safety Act (PrSA, SR 930.11) treats as a producer anyone who presents themselves as one by affixing their name, trade mark or other distinctive sign, and anyone who reconditions a product or otherwise alters its safety characteristics.
| What you actually do | What you carry |
|---|---|
| Build a machine in your Geneva workshop | Essential requirements, technical file, conformity assessment, declaration, instructions in the user’s language |
| Import a French machine and resell it as is | Verify assessment and documentation, keep the declaration, supply the instructions, cooperate with the authorities |
| Resell it under your own brand | The manufacturer’s full obligations, because the brand makes you the producer |
| Act as authorised representative of a foreign manufacturer | The mandate under Art. 5 of the directive, plus the duties of the EU market surveillance regulation |
| Integrate several machines into one line | A new assembly, and with it a new conformity assessment for the whole |
| Recondition or substantially modify a used machine | You become the producer of the modified machine, with the full documentation chain |
The second-hand trade is the trap most often sprung. Under the Product Safety Act, placing on the market means any supply of a product, for consideration or free of charge, whether new, used, reconditioned or substantially modified. A workshop that buys worn presses in France, refurbishes them and sells them in Geneva is not a dealer in the eyes of the law. It is a producer.
What conformity actually requires
Suva, accredited by the Swiss Accreditation Service as a conformity assessment body under SCESp 0008 and notified in the European Union under number 1246, describes the route in six steps: examine the applicable legislation, design to the essential health and safety requirements, compile the technical file under Annex VII, run the conformity assessment under Art. 12 and Annexes VIII to X, draw up the declaration of conformity under Annex II, and affix the CE marking.
Two points are worth isolating for a Geneva workshop.
- The designated standards: under Art. 3 MachO the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs designates the technical standards that give substance to the essential requirements. Building to one of them creates a presumption of conformity, which is what makes an inspection or a claim manageable.
- The language of the instructions: French for a machine used in this canton. A manual supplied only in English, or only in German because the supplier sits in Zurich, is a defect that an inspector can act on.
Putting a machine into service counts as placing it on the market where no prior placing occurred. A workshop that builds a special jig for its own production is therefore inside the regime, even though nothing is sold.
Your machinery business in Geneva
Whether you are the importer or the producer is a decision, not an accident
Incorporation and drafting of the corporate purpose, positioning the company in the chain of responsibility, structuring French purchases and the recovery of import VAT, payroll for workshop staff and cross-border workers, cost accounting: RISTER® handles the administrative and financial side of your project.
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The 20 January 2027 deadline
Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 replaces Directive 2006/42/EC from 20 January 2027. On 19 September 2025 the Federal Council opened the consultation on a total revision of the Machinery Ordinance, with the stated aim of maintaining the free movement of goods between Switzerland and the European Union in the machinery field and of updating the Mutual Recognition Agreement.
Three elements are already known. Six categories of machinery, including vehicle lifts, will require conformity assessment by a third-party body, which removes self-certification for them. The text covers machine learning and robotics, so machines whose safety functions change after commissioning fall squarely inside it. And under Art. 4(1bis) MachO, bodies assessing conformity under the new regulation must be accredited under the Accreditation and Designation Ordinance and satisfy Art. 30 of the regulation.
No Swiss entry-into-force date has been announced, and none should be assumed. What is certain is the European date, and the fact that a Geneva workshop selling into France will meet it first, through its customers.
Worth knowing
A garage equipment business is directly concerned: vehicle lifts are named among the six categories moving to third-party assessment. If that is your market, the design and certification budget for 2027 belongs in the business plan you write today.
Setting up in Geneva: zoning, plans and Suva
A workshop is installed only where the land use plan allows production. In this canton, industrial and craft land is largely held and developed by the Fondation pour les terrains industriels de Genève, which manages the industrial zones and supports the companies established there. Premises in a zone that does not permit the activity cannot be regularised afterwards.
Plan approval comes next, and it catches more workshops than founders expect. Ordinance 4 to the Labour Act subjects to plan approval, before construction or conversion, undertakings that are not industrial, among them foundries for iron, steel and other metals, iron shaping, and surface treatment such as galvanising, hardening, electroplating and anodising. A mechanical workshop with a treatment line goes through the cantonal labour inspectorate whatever its headcount.
Separately, the cantonal authority may classify the business as an industrial undertaking where permanent fixed installations are used and, among other criteria, machines or serial operations determine the work with at least six production workers. That classification brings a 45-hour maximum working week instead of 50, plan approval and an operating permit before production starts.
Accident insurance is imposed. Under Art. 66(1)(e) of the Federal Act on Accident Insurance, undertakings that work metal, wood, cork, plastics, stone or glass with machines, and foundries, are compulsorily insured with Suva, industrial or not.
Buying in France, selling in Switzerland
Since 1 January 2024 Switzerland has levied no customs duty on industrial products, whatever their origin, which covers machines and components under chapters 25 to 97 of the Harmonised System. Import VAT remains due at 8.1% and is recovered as input tax by a registered business. What crosses the border with the machine is therefore paperwork, not duty.
- Demand the declaration of conformity before payment, not on delivery. Without it you are importing a machine you cannot lawfully resell.
- Ask for the technical file to be available. You do not need to hold it, but you must be able to have it produced for an authority.
- Check the language of the instructions and have them translated into French if the supplier has not.
- Watch the Swiss made threshold if you assemble here. Components bought in France count as foreign cost, and an indication of Swiss origin requires at least 60% of the manufacturing cost to be generated in Switzerland, as explained in our article on the Swiss made label.
A French supplier who delivers to Switzerland with duties and taxes paid becomes liable for Swiss VAT and generally needs a fiscal representative here. Agreeing the incoterm before the first order avoids a supplier discovering the obligation after the fact and passing the cost back to you.
Who inspects your machines
Market surveillance under Art. 5(1) MachO follows Art. 20 to 28 of the Product Safety Ordinance and is shared between Suva for machines used in undertakings, the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention for those used outside them, and agriss for agriculture and horticulture.
The sanction is public: under Art. 5(2) MachO, prohibitions, restrictions and withdrawals of machinery are published in the Federal Gazette. And obligations continue after the sale, since Art. 8 of the Product Safety Act requires the producer or importer of consumer products to monitor risks, cooperate on traceability, examine complaints and notify the competent enforcement body immediately of any risk identified, together with the corrective measures taken.
RISTER tip
Decide in writing, before the first purchase order, whether your company acts as importer or as producer. The two positions carry different files, different insurance and different prices. A brand sticker applied to a French machine because a customer asked for it can turn a simple import into full manufacturer liability, with no one having decided it.
Common mistakes
The first is reading the absence of a Swiss CE requirement as an exemption. The marking is optional here, the conformity behind it is not.
The second is rebranding an imported machine without measuring the consequence: the brand creates the producer.
The third is treating refurbishment as maintenance. Reconditioning makes the workshop the producer of the machine it sells.
The fourth is signing a lease in a zone that does not allow production, or fitting out a surface treatment line before plan approval.
The fifth is buying in France without the declaration of conformity in hand, and discovering on resale that the file does not exist.
The sixth is planning a product range for 2030 on the current directive, when the European regime changes on 20 January 2027.
FAQ: machinery business in Geneva
Can a machine bought in France with CE marking be sold in Geneva?
Yes, and the marking is not what makes it lawful. The Swiss importer must verify that the conformity assessment and the documentation were carried out, keep the declaration of conformity, supply instructions in French and cooperate with the enforcement authorities. Without the declaration, the machine cannot lawfully be resold.
Is CE marking needed to sell a Geneva-built machine in France?
Yes. French law applies on the French market and requires the marking. The Mutual Recognition Agreement between Switzerland and the European Union, covering twenty product sectors including machinery, means a single conformity assessment serves both markets, but the machine placed on the French market carries the marking and the declaration.
Does a workshop that reconditions used machines have obligations?
Yes. Under the Product Safety Act, placing on the market covers any supply of a product, for consideration or free of charge, whether new, used, reconditioned or substantially modified, and anyone who reconditions a product or alters its safety characteristics is a producer. The reconditioned machine therefore needs a conformity file in the workshop’s own name.
Does a Geneva mechanical workshop need plan approval?
It depends on the processes. Ordinance 4 to the Labour Act requires plan approval before construction or conversion for foundries, iron shaping and surface treatment such as galvanising, hardening, electroplating and anodising, even when the undertaking is not industrial. A purely mechanical workshop without those processes is only concerned if the canton classifies it as an industrial undertaking.
What changes for machinery on 20 January 2027?
Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 replaces Directive 2006/42/EC. Switzerland opened the consultation on a total revision of the Machinery Ordinance on 19 September 2025. Six categories of machinery, including vehicle lifts, will require third-party conformity assessment, and the text covers machine learning and robotics. No Swiss entry-into-force date has been announced.
Which accident insurer applies to a machinery business in Geneva?
Suva, with no choice available. Art. 66(1)(e) of the Federal Act on Accident Insurance compulsorily insures with Suva the workers of undertakings that work metal, wood, cork, plastics, stone or glass with machines, as well as foundries, whether or not the undertaking is industrial.
Sources
- Machinery Ordinance (MachO, SR 819.14), Art. 1 to 5
- Product Safety Act (PrSA, SR 930.11), Art. 2, 3, 5 and 8
- State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Mutual Recognition Agreement between Switzerland and the EU
- Suva, CE conformity and conformity assessment body SCESp 0008
- Federal Council, consultation on the total revision of the Machinery Ordinance, 19 September 2025
- Ordinance 4 to the Labour Act (SR 822.114), Art. 1
- Federal Act on Accident Insurance (AIA, SR 832.20), Art. 66
- State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, abolition of customs duties on industrial products
Conclusion
A machinery business in Geneva is easy to incorporate and demanding to run correctly. The border makes the same machine subject to two different formal regimes and one identical substantive standard, the role you take in the chain decides who answers for a defect, the workshop itself may require plan approval, and Suva is imposed as accident insurer. Above all, the rules change on 20 January 2027.
RISTER – Fiduciary in Geneva incorporates your company through our company formation service, then runs administration, accounting, payroll and tax. To discuss your project, get in touch.
