SW: No to the new Tobacco Products Act

The draft is not convincing, neither from the point of view of a liberal understanding of the state nor in terms of health policy or consumer protection. Not to mention the massive encroachment on economic and advertising freedom. According to the press release, France has had a comprehensive ban on advertising tobacco products for decades, combined with higher prices than in Switzerland. Nevertheless, the proportion of smokers in our neighboring country is still higher - combined with a worrying growth in illegal trade. In Switzerland, there is also a lack of evidence that the proportion of smokers has developed more positively in those cantons that have enacted advertising bans that go beyond federal law than in the other cantons. A central argument of prevention and health policy makers - that advertising bans have a direct influence on the number of smokers - thus collapses. All the more so as tobacco consumption in Switzerland has fallen continuously in recent years.

The new Tobacco Products Act (TabPG), as presented by Federal Councillor Berset in spring, was opposed in Bern shortly before the consultation deadline by Councillors of State Filippo Lombardi (SW Schweizer Werbung) and Hans Hess (Association of the Swiss Tobacco Trade), National Councillor Gregor Rutz (IG Freiheit) and Babette Sigg (Konsumentenforum Kf). Although they approve of a specific law on tobacco products, the preliminary draft is, in their opinion, an expression of a restrictive health policy that increasingly disempowers citizens and a fundamental attack on the free market economy, the press release continues. Above all, however, it has the potential to expand into an unmanageable flood of bans and regulations. Alcoholic beverages and foods containing sugar, salt and fat are particularly at risk. Such a law no longer corresponds to an appropriate prevention policy, but instead exudes the spirit of interventionism and state paternalism. Numerous business associations and organizations such as SGV and Economiesuisse, as well as the communications and media industry, have spoken out against the preliminary draft in their own statements. Only the increased protection of young people met with approval.