The new Tobacco Products Law and the revised Tobacco Products Ordinance entered into force on 1 October 2024. The new legislation introduces important amendments to the current law. In particular, these relate to the regulation of electronic cigarettes, tobacco products for heating and tobacco products for oral use. Moreover, further measures for the protection of children and young adults have been introduced.
On 1 January 2022, Switzerland introduced due diligence and reporting requirements to address risks in the supply chains of Switzerland-based businesses related to child labor and so-called conflict minerals. On 24 May 2024, the European Council adopted the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D), which imposes EU-level due diligence requirements in the value chain (i.e., upstream and downstream), on top of existing regulations in this area at the EU member state level.
In this update, we provide an overview of the evolving regulatory landscape of supply chain due diligence requirements in Switzerland and the EU, as well as their practical implications, and we suggest action items for Swiss businesses with respect to supply chain governance and compliance programs. In doing so, we refer to further materials prepared by our environmental, social and governance (ESG) team across our EU offices.
The European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR”) has ruled on a case brought against Switzerland by the Swiss association KlimaSeniorinnen on behalf of its members and four individual women of the association. The ECtHR found that Switzerland has violated Art. 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to take timely and sufficient action to adopt and implement relevant legislation and measures to mitigate climate change. The ECtHR also held that, from a procedural perspective, Switzerland failed to grant effective access to court to challenge the insufficient implementation of mitigation measures. In this contribution, we summarize the background of the case and the ECtHR’s decision and analyze its possible impacts.
With the publication of a new guideline on green marketing, the Swiss Unfair Competition Commission has provided greater clarity in the assessment of the admissibility of marketing communications with environmental or climate-related content. In particular, the Guideline sets out clear rules on the requirements for admissible marketing communications with an environmental reference and the associated requirements for evidence. In a legal environment characterized by vague legal provisions and considerable discretion given to the competent authorities, this new Guideline provides important clarification.
The legal framework for the labelling of vegan and vegetarian alternatives to meat is continuously evolving and also differs from country to country. In Switzerland, the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office had put forward a very strict interpretation, deeming as deceptive and thus prohibited any use of animal designations in the labelling of vegan and vegetarian meat alternatives. In a recent decision, the Administrative Court of the Canton of Zurich rejected this strict approach and deemed the use of the terms “planted.chicken”, “like chicken”, “like pork”, “pulled pork”, “vegan pork” or “chicken from plants” on the packaging of vegan meat alternatives as not deceptive.
Several providers of online games of luck and chance were recently confronted with the blocking of their websites by Swiss authorities. In two recent decisions, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court approved these blockings, confirming that foreign providers need to take appropriate technical measures from the outset to prevent their website from being blocked in Switzerland. Below, we provide a short overview of the legislative background of such blockings and the reasoning of the SFSC in its decisions. Moreover, we set out the most important considerations for foreign providers of online games of luck and chance in Switzerland.
It is well known that online booking platforms often contractually restrict the freedom of accommodation providers to set their own prices for the accommodation offered (so-called “price-fixing clauses”). A newly adopted amendment to the Swiss Act against Unfair Competition (UCA) now limits these as well as other practices of online booking platforms