A used software license is basically freely available in Switzerland and the EU. Swiss courts as well as the European Court of Justice have already passed judgements which confirm this.There are also no contractual obstacles, as long as the resale of the standard software is not prohibited or limited in the license agreement between the software provider and the first purchaser. In addition, contractual obstacles are only effective between the author and the first purchaser, which means that you, as the later purchaser of the product keys or software licenses, can use them without hesitation.

Used software is generally freely available for sale in Switzerland and the European Union.

Art. 12 para. 2 of the Swiss Federal Act on Copyright and Related Rights ("URG") already clarifies that a computer program sold by the author can be resold and used (so-called principle of exhaustion). This
means that with or after the sale of work copy (this includes software), the author has lost his right to decide on its further distribution.

Based on this principle, the cantonal court of Zug has confirmed in its judgement of May 4, 2011 against the software company Adobe
(cantonal court ref. ES 2012, 822) that the trade with used software licenses is basically allowed under Swiss law.

The EU courts came to the same conclusion. In particular, the
Regional Court of Munich ruled in its ruling of April 4, 2008 in Case 30 O 8684/07 that no further consent from Microsoft was required for the resale of individual used Microsoft software licenses under a volume license agreement. This decision was later confirmed by the German Federal Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice. In 2014, for example, the German Federal Supreme Court held, with reference to a ruling by the European Court of Justice, that trade in used software is largely unrestricted and that such software is therefore generally available for over-the-counter sale

In order for the author's distribution right to be exhausted, it is generally necessary in particular that:

The software was originally brought into circulation in the EU, the EEA or Switzerland by sale with the consent of the author;

The author has granted this license against payment of an appropriate fee;

The author has granted the first purchaser a right to use the copy permanently;

Improvements and updates (so-called updates) which the software
downloaded by the subsequent purchaser has, in comparison to the
software downloaded by the first purchaser, are covered by a maintenance
agreement concluded between the author and the first purchaser;

The first purchaser has rendered the copy of the software installed
on his computer unusable (e.g. by permanently deleting it); and

The seller has also informed the customer that the purchase of a
product key does not yet constitute a license for lawful use of the
program. The license is formed from the respective installation and the
acceptance of the terms of use as a result.