Why are the pins not rotated by 180 degrees? With a Schuko plug, where the cable runs at an angle, the hole for the earthing pin on the Schuko side is always opposite the outgoing cable. As the earthing pins of a Swiss three-pin socket are positioned towards the centre of the socket, this means that the cable also runs towards the centre of the socket. As the adapter on the Schuko side obviously accepts a CEE 7/7 plug, where the pin assignment (neutral and phase) on the left and right is irrelevant, retaining the pin assignment is not an argument. This leaves the use in a single, horizontally arranged Swiss socket outlet: Here, the earthing pin is indeed typically at the bottom, and the cable then also runs downwards. Of course, it would be best if both variants were available and you could choose.