Government wants to crack down on foreign tourists who evade their traffic fines
Unpaid fines by foreign visitors represent a significant loss of revenue for Swiss municipalities where the parking or speeding tickets were issued, and the parliament wants to remedy this.
“Violations of the Road Traffic Act remain without financial consequences for many tourists,” MP Ursula Zybach noted in a motion she submitted to the parliament on Thursday.
She is therefore asking the Federal Council to investigate possible options for collecting fines abroad, especially from law breakers in non-Schengen countries, where enforcing collection procedures is “extremely difficult,” Zyback said.
There is no word about when the Federal Council will decide in this matter.
This one commodity will become cheaper in 2026
There is a zero to none chance that the cost of health insurance will drop next year, but prices will be cut for another essential service.
This week, the Federal Council approved a new method for calculating electricity prices, which will result in savings for Swiss households and businesses.
The Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) is a financial indicator used to determine the amount that electricity grid operators can charge for the use of their infrastructure.
It is a complex concept, but suffice it to say that the government will now adopt this calculation method, which will slash the price of electricity by 0.55 percent in 2026.
As a result of this measure, the totality of electric bills paid by consumers in Switzerland is expected to fall by 124 million francs.
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For airline-rating platform, SWISS is not a premium carrier
This year, Airlineratings.com — one of the most important airline ranking websites — added a new category to its annual survey: the so-called ‘hybrid airlines’, which combine the characteristics of low-cost airlines with the traditional ones.
Switzerland’s national carrier, which has always promoted itself as a ‘premium’ airline, was demoted in the survey to this new “hybrid” status.
Not only that, but SWISS is not even near the top of the hybrid ranking: 11 other airlines were found to offer a better hybrid service.
In response, the airline said it is conducting its own surveys frequently, which show passengers are satisfied and have an “emotional connection” with the SWISS brand.
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The ups and downs of Swiss rents
A new analysis by Swiss Marketplace Group (SMG) shows in which cities rents have climbed or dropped in January 2025.
It found that asking rents (that is, rents for new tenants) have risen most in Lucerne (up 7.7 percent) and in Basel (6.6 percent).
In Zurich and Geneva, they went up only slightly — 0.5 percent each.
But in other cities, rented housing became less expensive: in Lausanne it dipped by 1.2 percent and in Lugano by 2.2 percent.
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