It is a fair question, and we would rather answer it head-on than dodge it. A Windows or Office key listed at a fraction of the official price naturally raises eyebrows. The answer fits in one sentence: reselling software licences is lawful, but everything depends on where the key comes from and on how serious the seller is. Here is what you need in order to judge for yourself.
Why a licence can cost far less
Several perfectly ordinary reasons explain the gap:
- The licence type. An OEM licence, tied to a single machine, is structurally cheaper than a transferable retail licence. See our guide OEM or retail key.
- The secondary market. A company that renews its fleet, closes a site or moves to the cloud ends up with unused perpetual licences. They have value and they get resold.
- The activation method. A key that requires an offline activation step sells for less than one that activates in a single click. That is the case with our phone activation keys.
- The product generation. Office 2016 or 2019 logically cost less than Office 2024.
- Regional price differences. Publishers do not charge the same amount everywhere in the world.
- No box, no disc, no logistics. A key sent by e-mail carries no manufacturing, storage or shipping costs.
What the law says
In Switzerland, the Federal Act on Copyright and Related Rights (Copyright Act, CopA — Urheberrechtsgesetz, URG, SR 231.1) sets out a specific rule for software. Article 12 paragraph 2 provides that where the author has transferred the rights to a computer program, or has consented to such transfer, the program may subsequently be used or further transferred. This is the exhaustion principle: once the software has been sold with the rights holder’s consent, the rights holder can no longer object to its resale. German, French and Italian are the authoritative versions of the Act; the English wording above follows the federal administration’s unofficial translation.
In the European Union, the Court of Justice settled the question in UsedSoft v Oracle (Case C-128/11, judgment of 3 July 2012): the rights holder’s distribution right is exhausted on the first sale of a copy of a computer program, including where that copy was downloaded rather than supplied on a physical medium. The subsequent acquirer is then a lawful acquirer. The Court set clear conditions: the licence must have been granted for an unlimited period in return for a fee, the copy must have been put on the market with the rights holder’s consent, and the first acquirer must make their own copy unusable at the time of resale.
Two points, in the interests of accuracy: Switzerland is not a member of the European Union, and that judgment does not apply directly here — it is nevertheless the leading European authority and it illustrates a principle that Swiss law also recognises. And exhaustion only concerns perpetual licences: a subscription, by its very nature, cannot be resold.
The grey areas, stated plainly
Not everything in this market is clear-cut, and an informed buyer should know where the friction lies:
- Volume keys resold to consumers. Multiple activation keys intended for large organisations are not meant to be redistributed one by one outside the publisher’s partner network.
- Regional restrictions. Some game keys are limited to a given region and will not activate from Switzerland. A serious product page says so.
- Shared accounts. A third-party account is not a licence in your name. The risks are explained in our guide Shared account or individual key.
- Implausible discounts. A recent product advertised at 95% off on an anonymous website deserves suspicion, whatever the sales pitch alongside it.
How to recognise a serious reseller
A few checks, valid for any online shop:
- A verifiable identity. Company name, physical address, contact e-mail. A shop that will not say who it is cannot guarantee you anything.
- A stated governing law and place of jurisdiction. Knowing which court would hear a dispute is not a detail.
- An invoice for every order.
- Written replacement or refund terms, with a clear deadline.
- Reachable support that answers before the sale as well as after it.
- Transparency about the licence type: OEM, retail, tied to an account, offline activation. A seller who stays vague on this point is setting you up for disappointment.
How that works out at CHKey
- A Swiss company based in Lausanne, identified on our Legal Notice page and introduced on About us.
- Prices in Swiss francs. Our company is not liable for VAT, so the prices shown are net.
- A PDF invoice generated for every order and available in your customer account.
- Genuine keys, sourced from our commercial partners, with the licence type stated on every product page.
- Swiss law and place of jurisdiction in Lausanne, as set out in our Terms and Conditions of Sale.
- E-mail support at support@chkey.ch, Monday to Friday.
We do not claim to be an official reseller for Microsoft or any other publisher: we are an independent reseller, and we say so in black and white in our legal notice. Every buyer remains bound by the end-user licence agreement of the product they activate.
And if a key does not work
Contact us within 7 days of delivery at support@chkey.ch, with your order number and the error message. After verification, we replace the key or refund the order. The full terms are in our FAQ and on the Shipping & Returns page.