E-cigarettes in Switzerland

Future of e-cigarettes in Switzerland

Home to around 8.4m people, Switzerland is one of the richest countries in the world per capita. It is known for its lenient tobacco regulations – it has not ratified a global tobacco control treaty – yet despite this Switzerland’s smoking rate was 23% in 2019, lower than neighbouring France or Germany. Furthermore, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) study in 2018, smoking prevalence is falling every year and the WHO estimates this trend will continue for the next five years.

Switzerland was also one of the first markets where heated tobacco products were launched. By 2022, all e-cigarettes will be regulated along with the tobacco products under federal law. The intention of the Federal Tobacco Products Act is to guarantee uniform regulation across Switzerland, but cantons will be entitled to implement stricter regulations.

The law distinguishes between e-cigarettes (both nicotine-containing and nicotine-free) and tobacco products.

Non-nicotine e-cigarettes will have some of the provisions of the Tobacco Act applied to them, notably with respect to advertising restrictions, thus going beyond the TPD. Besides that, they will continue to be regulated as consumer products under the Federal Act on Food Safety.