Conditional requirement

Cassis-de-Dijon market access for EU/EEA-compliant products

Cassis-de-Dijon market access for EU/EEA-compliant products — conditional requirement, Switzerland. It binds producers and importers placing products on the Swiss market.

Jurisdiction
Switzerland
Record class
Conditional requirement
Last verified

Where this applies

This record is scoped to Switzerland. Scope is part of the claim: a rule that binds one part of a country does not bind the whole of it, and this library states the scope its sources state.

Instrument

THG (Bundesgesetz über die technischen Handelshemmnisse), Art. 16a–16d

Who it binds

Producers and importers placing products on the Swiss market

What it requires

THG Art. 16a lets products that meet the technical rules of the EU or of an EU/EEA member state, and are lawfully on the market there, circulate in Switzerland in principle without prior controls — the federal authority that administers the act writes that such products may "grundsätzlich auch in der Schweiz ohne vorgängige Kontrollen frei zirkulieren" (Art. 16a THG). Exceptions are possible only to protect overriding public interests: "Ausnahmen sind nur zum Schutz überwiegender öffentlicher Interessen möglich". The authority publishes a Negativliste of products that cannot enter on this basis, but it describes that list as an implementation aid which is "weder rechtsverbindlich noch abschliessend" — neither legally binding nor exhaustive — so the list is a guide, not the source of the exceptions. The whole catalogue of exceptions is reviewed every five years. Food is the one category treated separately, and it is not a liberalisation: "Im Unterschied zu den übrigen Produkten bedürfen Lebensmittel vor dem erstmaligen Inverkehrbringen einer Bewilligung durch das Bundesamt für Lebensmittelsicherheit und Veterinärwesen" (Art. 16c and 16d THG) — food needs an authorisation from the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office before it is first placed on the market. Art. 16b extends the same option inward: Swiss manufacturers producing solely for the domestic market may place goods on the Swiss market under EU or EU/EEA rules, "gemäss Artikel 16b THG".

Route to the authority

Further sources cited on this page

Last verified:

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"Cassis-de-Dijon market access for EU/EEA-compliant products." Certifidex, FutureTechnologies. Last verified 4 September 2026. https://certifidex.com/countries/ch/cassis-de-dijon-market-access

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