Sat, Oct 4, 2025

USA CUSTOMER INFO

Important note about U.S. Customs Duties!

All international shipments — regardless of order value — may be subject to import duties and taxes applied by U.S. Customs authorities.

These fees are not set or collected by MemoriaObscuraCouture, but are entirely decided and enforced by the United States government.

Couriers cannot deliver parcels until these fees are paid by the recipient.

We can't shipp parcels without your phone number. Please put your phone number to your order! If charges remain unpaid and the shipment is returned to us, as stated in our store policies, we will issue a refund minus any customs duties and return shipping costs charged to us.

We understand that these rules can be frustrating, but unfortunately they are mandatory and apply to all international businesses.

Shipping to the USA

At the moment, all orders are shipped under DDU (Delivered Duty Unpaid) service. This means:

We ship your parcel directly to your address in the US.
When the package arrives at customs, duties and taxes are collected by your local customs office before delivery.
You will receive a notification from the courier (UPS/DHL) with the exact amount to be paid.
If charges remain unpaid and the shipment is returned to us, as stated in our store policies, we will issue a refund minus any customs duties and return shipping costs charged to us.

We are working to introduce DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) soon — with that option, duties and taxes will already be prepaid by us but for now we can only offer DDU shipping.

How much could customs duties be?

U.S. import duties on accessoires, masks and headpieces are usually range between 20% and 50% (for aluminium!) of the order value. Below is a practical example (approximate values, just to give you an idea):

Order of $150 → Shipping $136 → around $186 + Customs duties 50% → total around $279

Legal imprint

Terms & Conditions and Right of Withdrawal

1. Scope

2. Conclusion of contract

3. Right of Withdrawal

4. Prices and terms of payment

5. Terms of delivery and shipping

6. Retention of Title

7. Liability for Defects (Warranty)

8. Redeeming Promotional Vouchers

9. Redeeming Gift Certificates

10. Governing Law

11. Alternative Dispute Resolution

12. Our Disclaimer of Liability to Etsy Ireland UC

1) Scope

1.1 These General Terms and Conditions (hereinafter "GTC") of Hanspeter Rüesch, trading under "MemoriaObscura" (hereinafter "Seller"), apply to all contracts for the delivery of goods that a consumer or entrepreneur (hereinafter "Customer") has with the Seller with regard to the goods presented by the seller in his online shop. The inclusion of the customer's own conditions is hereby contradicted, unless something else has been agreed.

1.2 These General Terms and Conditions shall apply accordingly to contracts for the delivery of vouchers, unless expressly agreed otherwise.

1.3 A consumer within the meaning of these General Terms and Conditions is any natural person who enters into a legal transaction for purposes that are predominantly neither commercial nor self-employed. Entrepreneur within the meaning of these terms and conditions is a natural or legal person or a partnership with legal capacity who, when concluding a legal transaction, acts in the exercise of their commercial or independent professional activity.

2) Conclusion of contract

2.1 The product descriptions contained in the seller's online shop do not represent binding offers on the part of the seller, but serve to enable the customer to submit a binding offer.

2.2 The customer can submit the offer via the online order form integrated in the seller's online shop. After placing the selected goods in the virtual shopping cart and going through the electronic ordering process, the customer submits a legally binding contract offer with regard to the goods contained in the shopping cart by clicking the button that concludes the ordering process.

2.3 The seller can accept the customer's offer within five days - by sending the customer a written order confirmation or an order confirmation in text form (fax or e-mail), whereby receipt of the order confirmation by the customer is decisive in this respect, or - by he delivers the ordered goods to the customer, in which case the receipt of the goods by the customer is decisive, or - by asking the customer to pay after the order has been placed. If there are several of the above alternatives, the contract is concluded at the point in time when one of the above alternatives occurs first. The period for accepting the offer begins on the day after the customer has sent the offer and ends at the end of the fifth day following the sending of the offer.
If the seller does not accept the customer's offer within the aforementioned period, this is deemed to be a rejection of the offer with the result that the customer is no longer bound by his declaration of intent.

2.4 When submitting an offer via the seller's online order form, the text of the contract is saved by the seller after the conclusion of the contract and sent to the customer in text form (e.g. email, fax or letter) after the order has been sent. The seller does not make the contract text accessible beyond this. If the customer has set up a user account in the seller's online shop before sending his order, the order data will be archived on the seller's website and can be called up free of charge by the customer via his password-protected user account by providing the corresponding login data.

2.5 Before submitting a binding order via the seller's online order form, the customer can identify possible input errors by carefully reading the information displayed on the screen. An effective technical means for better recognition of input errors can be the enlargement function of the browser, with the help of which the display on the screen is enlarged. The customer can correct his entries as part of the electronic ordering process using the usual keyboard and mouse functions until he clicks on the button that concludes the ordering process.

2.6 German and English are available for the conclusion of the contract.

2.7 Order processing and contact are usually made via email and automated order processing. The customer must ensure that the e-mail address provided by him for order processing is correct so that the e-mails sent by the seller can be received at this address. In particular, when using SPAM filters, the customer must ensure that all e-mails sent by the seller or by third parties commissioned to process the order can be delivered.

3) Right of Withdrawal

Exclusion of revocation - right of return for custom-made products and hygiene articles.
Please note that our items are non-returnable!

Custom made:
Are all items that are individually manufactured in terms of shape, color and equipment.

Hygiene products:
Are all items that can be worn on the face, fingers and head.

Due to their color and nature (backing with fleece, etc.), cleaning / disinfection is not possible.

Goods that are damaged during shipping are excluded.

If you receive your item damaged, please contact us immediately with pictures.

4) Prices and terms of payment
4.1 Unless otherwise stated in the seller's product description, the prices quoted are total prices. Sales tax is not shown, since the seller is a small business within the meaning of

4.2 For deliveries to countries outside the European Union, additional costs may arise in individual cases for which the seller is not responsible and which are to be borne by the customer. These include, for example, costs for money transfers by banks (e.g. transfer fees, exchange rate fees) or import duties or taxes (e.g. customs duties). Such costs can also be incurred in relation to the money transfer if the delivery is not made to a country outside the European Union, but the customer makes the payment from a country outside the European Union. UStG is. Any additional delivery and shipping costs are specified separately in the respective product description.

4.3 The payment option(s) will be communicated to the customer in the seller's offer on Etsy.
4.4 The seller allows payment via the payment method Etsy Payments. The customer can use the payment methods offered to him within the framework of Etsy Payments.
When using this payment method, payment is processed via Etsy Ireland UC,
66/67 Great Strand Street, Dublin 1, Ireland (hereinafter: Etsy UC), unless payment is made in US dollars or Canadian dollars. In this case, payment is processed by Etsy Inc., 117 Adams Street, www.etsy.com/de/legal/etsy-payments/?ref=list
Je nach Artikel und Sitz des Kunden sind die vorgenannten Zahlungsarten gegebenenfalls nur eingeschränkt verfügbar. Die konkret für die jeweilige Ware verfügbare(n) Zahlungsart(en) wird/ werden dem Kunden im jeweiligen Angebot des Verkäufers bzw. im Rahmen der Bestellabwicklung angezeigt.Brooklyn, NY 11201, United States of America (hereinafter: Etsy Inc.).
Etsy UC or Etsy Inc. enables the customer to use Etsy Payments as part of payment processing different types of payment in the form of
- Credit cards
- Debit/bank cards
- Etsy Gift Cards and Etsy Credits
- PayPal
- Klarna Pay Later (Germany)
- iDEAL (only in the Netherlands)
- Immediately (Austria and Germany)
- Apple Pay
- Android Pay
Etsy UC or Etsy Inc. may use other payment service providers to process payments.
www.etsy.com/de/legal/etsy-payments/?ref=list
Depending on the item and the location of the customer, the aforementioned payment methods may only be available to a limited extent. The specific payment method(s) available for the respective goods is/are displayed to the customer in the respective offer from the seller or as part of the order processing.

4.5 If advance payment by bank transfer has been agreed, payment is due immediately after conclusion of the contract, unless the parties have agreed on a later due date.

4.6 When selecting the "PayPal" payment method, the payment is processed via the payment service provider PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg subject to the PayPal Terms of Use, available at www.paypal.com/de/webapps/mpp/ua/useragreement-full. This requires i.a. requires that the customer opens a PayPal account or already has such an account.

5) Delivery and shipping conditions

5.1 Goods are delivered to the delivery address specified by the customer, unless otherwise agreed. When processing the transaction, the delivery address specified in the seller's order processing is decisive. Deviating from this, if the payment method PayPal is selected, the delivery address stored by the customer at PayPal at the time of payment is decisive.

5.2 If the transport company sends the shipped goods back to the seller because delivery to the customer was not possible, the customer bears the costs for the unsuccessful shipment. This does not apply if the customer is not responsible for the circumstance that led to the impossibility of delivery or if he was temporarily prevented from accepting the service offered, unless the seller announced the service to him a reasonable time in advance had. Furthermore, this does not apply with regard to the costs for the delivery if the customer effectively exercises his right of withdrawal. If the customer effectively exercises the right of cancellation, the regulation made in the seller's cancellation policy applies to the return costs.

5.3 Collection by the customer is not possible for logistical reasons.

5.4 Vouchers are given to the customer as follows: - by post

6) Retention of title

If the seller pays in advance, he retains ownership of the delivered goods until the purchase price owed has been paid in full.

7) Liability for Defects (Warranty)
7.1 If the purchased item is defective, the statutory liability for defects applies.

7.2 The customer is asked to complain about delivered goods with obvious transport damage to the delivery agent and to inform the seller of this. If the customer does not comply, this has no effect whatsoever on his statutory or contractual claims for defects.

8) Governing Law

Swiss law applies to all legal relationships between the parties, excluding the laws on the international purchase of movable goods.

For consumers, this choice of law only applies insofar as the protection granted by mandatory provisions of the law of the state in which the consumer has his habitual residence is not withdrawn.

11) Alternative Dispute Resolution
11.1 The EU Commission provides a platform for online dispute resolution on the Internet under the following link: ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr

This platform serves as a contact point for the out-of-court settlement of disputes arising from online purchase or service contracts in which a consumer is involved.

11.2 The seller is neither obliged nor willing to participate in a dispute settlement procedure before a consumer arbitration board.

12 Our Disclaimer of Liability to Etsy Ireland UC

12.1 At this point we would like to point out that the company headquarters are in Basel, Ch and that customer orders are shipped from the Federal Republic of Germany; contrary to the representation recorded by Etsy in the shipping confirmations and shop system. We would also like to point out that we have pointed this out to Etsy Ireland UC several times since 2019 and asked them to provide the shop function for correction.

12.2 (Description "Shipped by a small company from Germany)
-We would like to point out that this designation is simply wrong and is beyond our control. Here, too, a correction on our part is not possible; since Etsy does not provide this function. We do not run a small business in Germany.

12.3 (Display "In stock" and "In stock")
- At this point we would like to point out that these designations (except for items marked as "ready for dispatch" and/or "ready made") cannot be corrected by us and are incorrect. We would like to point out again that we work on order / production order. Here we are forced to provide information because otherwise it is not possible to post an article. Here, too, we have often approached Etsy in the past and asked for changes and/or the provision of a corresponding function in the shop administration.

For extrajudicial settlements of consumer disputes, the European Union has launched an online platform ("ODR platform"):

https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr