Federal Act
on War Materiel
(War Materiel Act, WMA)

This Act has as its aim the ful­fil­ment of Switzer­land’s in­ter­na­tion­al ob­lig­a­tions and the re­spect of its for­eign policy prin­ciples by means of con­trolling the man­u­fac­ture and trans­fer of war ma­ter­i­el and re­lated tech­no­logy, while at the same time main­tain­ing an in­dus­tri­al ca­pa­city in Switzer­land that it ad­ap­ted to the re­quire­ments of its na­tion­al de­fence.

The fol­low­ing re­quire au­thor­isa­tion by the Con­fed­er­a­tion:

a.

the man­u­fac­ture of war ma­ter­i­el;

b.

the trade in war ma­ter­i­el;

c.

the broker­age of war ma­ter­i­el;

d.

the im­port, ex­port and trans­it of war ma­ter­i­el;

e.

the trans­fer of in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty, in­clud­ing know-how, and the grant­ing of re­lated rights, provided this relates to war ma­ter­i­el and is in­ten­ded for private in­di­vidu­als or leg­al en­tit­ies that have their dom­i­cile or headquar­ters abroad.

This Act ap­plies without pre­ju­dice to cus­toms le­gis­la­tion, the reg­u­la­tions on pay­ment trans­ac­tions and oth­er le­gis­la­tion on for­eign trade.

The pro­vi­sions re­lat­ing to the ini­tial li­cence (Art. 9–11) do not ap­ply to fed­er­al arma­ments com­pan­ies.⁶ The pro­vi­sions on broker­age (Art. 15 and 16), im­port and ex­port (Art. 17–19), and the trans­fer of in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty or the grant­ing of rights thereto (Art. 20 and 21) do not ap­ply to arma­ments com­pan­ies, provided that their activ­it­ies re­late to the pro­cure­ment of war ma­ter­i­el for the Swiss armed forces.

¹ The fol­low­ing are deemed to be war ma­ter­i­el:

a.

Weapons, weapons sys­tems, mu­ni­tions and mil­it­ary ex­plos­ives;

b.

Equip­ment that has been spe­cific­ally con­ceived or mod­i­fied for use in com­bat or for the con­duct of com­bat and which is not as a gen­er­al rule used for ci­vil­ian pur­poses.

² War ma­ter­i­el also in­cludes in­di­vidu­al com­pon­ents and as­sembly pack­ages, which may also be par­tially pro­cessed, provided it is dis­cern­able that such com­pon­ents can­not be used in the same form for ci­vil­ian pur­poses.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate what is war ma­ter­i­el in an or­din­ance.

¹ “Man­u­fac­ture” with­in the mean­ing of this Act is any pro­fes­sion­al activ­ity in­volving the pro­duc­tion of war ma­ter­i­el or the modi­fic­a­tion of parts es­sen­tial to its func­tion.

² “Trade” with­in the mean­ing of this Act is any pro­fes­sion­al activ­ity in­volving the of­fer, ac­quis­i­tion or passing on of war ma­ter­i­el.

³ “Broker­age” is:

a.

the cre­ation of the es­sen­tial re­quire­ments for the con­clu­sion of con­tracts re­lat­ing to the man­u­fac­ture, of­fer, ac­quis­i­tion or passing on of war ma­ter­i­el, the trans­fer of in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty, in­clud­ing know-how, or the grant­ing of rights thereto, in­so­far as they re­late to war ma­ter­i­el;

b.

the con­clu­sion of such con­tracts if this ser­vice is provided by third parties.

¹ It is pro­hib­ited:

a.

to de­vel­op, pro­duce, broker, ac­quire, trans­fer to any­one, im­port, ex­port, carry in trans­it, or store nuc­le­ar, bio­lo­gic­al or chem­ic­al weapons (NBC weapons) or to pos­sess them in any oth­er way;

b.

to in­cite any­one to carry out an act men­tioned in let­ter a above;

c.

to as­sist any­one to carry out an act men­tioned in let­ter a above.

² The fore­go­ing pro­hib­i­tion does not ap­ply to acts that are in­ten­ded:

a.

to en­able the de­struc­tion of NBC weapons by the agen­cies re­spons­ible there­for; or

b.

to provide pro­tec­tion against the ef­fects of NBC weapons or to com­bat such ef­fects.

³ The pro­hib­i­tion also ap­plies to acts car­ried out abroad, ir­re­spect­ive of the law at the place of com­mis­sion, if:

a.

the acts vi­ol­ate in­ter­na­tion­al law agree­ments to which Switzer­land is a party; and

b.

the per­pet­rat­or is Swiss or is dom­i­ciled in Switzer­land.

¹ It is pro­hib­ited:

a.

to de­vel­op, pro­duce, broker, ac­quire, trans­fer to any­one, im­port, ex­port, carry in trans­it, or store anti-per­son­nel mines or to pos­sess them in any oth­er way;

b.

to in­cite any per­son to carry out an act men­tioned in let­ter a;

c.

to as­sist in com­mit­ting an act men­tioned in let­ter a⁹.

² For the de­vel­op­ment of pro­ced­ures in mine de­tec­tion, mine clear­ance, or mine de­struc­tion tech­niques and for train­ing in such pro­ced­ures, the re­ten­tion or trans­fer of a num­ber of anti-per­son­nel mines is per­mit­ted. The num­ber of such mines shall not ex­ceed the min­im­um num­ber ab­so­lutely ne­ces­sary for the above-men­tioned pur­poses.¹⁰

³ Anti-per­son­nel mines are ex­plos­ive devices that are placed un­der, on, or near the ground or any oth­er sur­face and which are con­ceived or mod­i­fied so as to ex­plode as a res­ult of the pres­ence, ap­proach, or con­tact of a per­son, and which are in­ten­ded to in­ca­pa­cit­ate, in­jure or kill one or more per­sons. Mines de­signed to be det­on­ated by the pres­ence, prox­im­ity or con­tact of a vehicle as op­posed to a per­son that are equipped with anti-hand­ling devices¹¹ are not con­sidered anti-per­son­nel mines as a res­ult of be­ing so equipped.¹²

⁴ “Anti-hand­ling device” means a device in­ten­ded to pro­tect a mine and which is part of, linked to, at­tached to or placed un­der the mine and which ac­tiv­ates when an at­tempt is made to tamper with or oth­er­wise in­ten­tion­ally dis­turb the mine.¹³

¹ It is pro­hib­ited:

a.

to de­vel­op, pro­duce, broker, ac­quire, trans­fer to any­one, im­port, ex­port, carry in trans­it, or store cluster mu­ni­tion or to pos­sess the same in any oth­er way;

b.

to in­cite any­one to carry out an act men­tioned in let­ter a above;

c.

to as­sist any­one to carry out an act men­tioned in let­ter a above.

² Para­graph 1 also ap­plies to ex­plos­ive bomb­lets that are spe­cific­ally in­ten­ded to be dis­persed or re­leased by dis­pensers af­fixed to an air­craft.

³ For the de­vel­op­ment of pro­ced­ures for de­tect­ing, clear­ing, or des­troy­ing cluster mu­ni­tion and for train­ing in such pro­ced­ures, the re­ten­tion or trans­fer of a quant­ity of cluster mu­ni­tion is per­mit­ted. The quant­ity of cluster mu­ni­tion re­tained shall not ex­ceed the min­im­um quant­ity ab­so­lutely ne­ces­sary for the above-men­tioned pur­poses.

¹ The dir­ect fin­an­cing of the de­vel­op­ment, man­u­fac­ture or ac­quis­i­tion of pro­hib­ited war ma­ter­i­el is it­self pro­hib­ited.

² Dir­ect fin­an­cing with­in the mean­ing of this Act is the dir­ect grant­ing of cred­its, loans or gifts or com­par­able fin­an­cial ad­vant­ages in or­der to pay or ad­vance costs and ex­pendit­ures that are as­so­ci­ated with the de­vel­op­ment, man­u­fac­ture or ac­quis­i­tion of pro­hib­ited war ma­ter­i­el.

¹ The in­dir­ect fin­an­cing of the de­vel­op­ment, man­u­fac­ture or ac­quis­i­tion of pro­hib­ited war ma­ter­i­el is it­self pro­hib­ited where the pro­hib­i­tion of dir­ect fin­an­cing is cir­cum­ven­ted thereby.

² In­dir­ect fin­an­cing with­in the mean­ing of this Act is:

a.

par­ti­cip­a­tion in com­pan­ies that de­vel­op, man­u­fac­ture or ac­quire pro­hib­ited war ma­ter­i­el;

b.

the ac­quis­i­tion of debt se­cur­it­ies or oth­er in­vest­ment products is­sued by such com­pan­ies.

¹ Any­one who on Swiss ter­rit­ory:

a.

wishes to man­u­fac­ture war ma­ter­i­el;

b.

wishes to trade in war ma­ter­i­el for his own ac­count or for the ac­count of an­oth­er, or to broker war ma­ter­i­el on a pro­fes­sion­al basis for re­cip­i­ents abroad, ir­re­spect­ive of the loc­a­tion of the war ma­ter­i­el

re­quires an ini­tial li­cence.

² No ini­tial li­cence is re­quired by those who:

a.

sup­ply as sub-con­tract­ors com­pan­ies in Switzer­land that hold an ini­tial li­cence;

b.

ex­ecute or­ders from the Swiss gov­ern­ment in re­spect of war ma­ter­i­el for the Swiss armed forces;

c.¹⁷

man­u­fac­ture, trade in, or acts as a pro­fes­sion­al broker out­side Switzer­land for fire­arms un­der the le­gis­la­tion on weapons, their com­pon­ents or ac­cessor­ies or their mu­ni­tions or mu­ni­tions com­pon­ents and who there­fore holds a li­cence to trade arms un­der the le­gis­la­tion on weapons;

d.

man­u­fac­tures or trades in Switzer­land in ex­plos­ives, pyro­tech­nic devices or pro­pel­lant powder covered by the le­gis­la­tion on ex­plos­ives and who there­fore holds a li­cence un­der the le­gis­la­tion on ex­plos­ives.¹⁸

¹ The ini­tial li­cence is gran­ted to nat­ur­al or leg­al per­sons if:

a.

the ap­plic­ant of­fers the re­quired guar­an­tee for the prop­er con­duct of their busi­ness af­fairs; and

b.

the in­ten­ded activ­ity is not con­trary the na­tion­al in­terest.

² If the ap­plic­ant also re­quires au­thor­isa­tion in terms of the fed­er­al or can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion on weapons for his activ­it­ies, the ini­tial li­cence is gran­ted only if au­thor­isa­tion un­der the le­gis­la­tion on weapons has been gran­ted.

¹ The ini­tial li­cence is non-as­signable and ap­plies only to the war ma­ter­i­el men­tioned therein. It may be of lim­ited dur­a­tion and sub­ject to con­di­tions and re­quire­ments.

² It may be re­voked com­pletely or in part if the re­quire­ments for its grant are no longer ful­filled.

³ It does not re­place au­thor­isa­tions that must be ob­tained in terms of oth­er reg­u­la­tions un­der fed­er­al or can­ton­al law.

In re­spect of the activ­it­ies that re­quire a li­cence in terms of this Act, a dis­tinc­tion is made between the fol­low­ing spe­cif­ic li­cences:

a.¹⁹

...

b.

broker­age li­cence;

c.

im­port li­cence;

d.

ex­port li­cence;

e.

trans­it li­cence;

f.

li­cence to enter in­to agree­ments re­lat­ing to the trans­fer of in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty, in­clud­ing know-how, or the grant­ing of rights thereto;

g.²⁰

trad­ing li­cence.

¹ Any­one who on Swiss ter­rit­ory wishes to broker war ma­ter­i­el for a re­cip­i­ent abroad, without op­er­at­ing his own pro­duc­tion plant for the man­u­fac­ture of war ma­ter­i­el in Switzer­land, re­quires, in ad­di­tion to an ini­tial li­cence in terms of Art­icle 9, a spe­cif­ic li­cence for each in­di­vidu­al case.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide ex­cep­tions for cer­tain coun­tries.

³ Any­one who acts as a pro­fes­sion­al broker for a re­cip­i­ent abroad in re­spect of fire­arms un­der the le­gis­la­tion on weapons, their com­pon­ents or ac­cessor­ies, or their mu­ni­tions or mu­ni­tions com­pon­ents shall re­ceive a spe­cif­ic li­cence only if he proves that he holds a cor­res­pond­ing li­cence to trade arms un­der the le­gis­la­tion on weapons.²²

¹ A broker­age li­cence may be lim­ited in dur­a­tion and sub­ject to con­di­tions and re­quire­ments.

² If ex­cep­tion­al cir­cum­stances so re­quire, a broker­age li­cence may be sus­pen­ded or re­voked.

¹ Any­one who on Swiss ter­rit­ory trades in war ma­ter­i­el with per­sons abroad, without op­er­at­ing his own pro­duc­tion plant for the man­u­fac­ture of war ma­ter­i­el in Switzer­land, re­quires, in ad­di­tion to an ini­tial li­cence in terms of Art­icle 9, a spe­cif­ic li­cence for each in­di­vidu­al case.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide ex­cep­tions for cer­tain coun­tries.

³ Any­one who from Swiss ter­rit­ory trades with per­sons abroad in fire­arms un­der the le­gis­la­tion on weapons, their com­pon­ents or ac­cessor­ies, or their mu­ni­tions or mu­ni­tions com­pon­ents shall re­ceive a spe­cif­ic li­cence only if he proves that he holds a cor­res­pond­ing li­cence to trade arms un­der the le­gis­la­tion on weapons.²⁴

¹ A trad­ing li­cence may be lim­ited in dur­a­tion and sub­ject to con­di­tions and re­quire­ments.

² If ex­cep­tion­al cir­cum­stances so re­quire, a trad­ing li­cence may be sus­pen­ded or re­voked.

¹ The im­port, ex­port and trans­it of war ma­ter­i­el re­quire a li­cence from the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

² A trans­it li­cence is also re­quired for de­liv­er­ies to a Swiss free ware­house or cus­toms ware­house or for de­liv­er­ies from such ware­houses abroad.²⁵.

3 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the li­cens­ing re­quire­ments and the pro­ced­ure for the trans­it of war ma­ter­i­el through the air­space.

^3bis It may provide for a sim­pli­fied li­cens­ing pro­ced­ure for the ex­port or trans­it to or from cer­tain coun­tries, or provide for ex­emp­tions from li­cens­ing.²⁶

^3ter It may provide for a sim­pli­fied li­cens­ing pro­ced­ure for the im­port of spe­cif­ic parts, as­sembly pack­ages or an­onym­ous com­pon­ents.²⁷

⁴ No im­port li­cence un­der this Act is re­quired by those who:

a.

im­port war ma­ter­i­el in­ten­ded for use by the Swiss Con­fed­er­a­tion;

b.²⁸

bring fire­arms, their com­pon­ents or ac­cessor­ies, or their mu­ni­tions or mu­ni­tions com­pon­ents in­to Swiss ter­rit­ory un­der the le­gis­la­tion on weapons;

c.

im­port ex­plos­ives, pyro­tech­nic devices or pro­pel­lant powder.²⁹

¹ As a gen­er­al rule, an ex­port li­cence may be gran­ted only if it relates to a de­liv­ery to a for­eign gov­ern­ment or to an un­der­tak­ing act­ing on be­half of a for­eign gov­ern­ment, and if a de­clar­a­tion is provided by that gov­ern­ment stat­ing that the ma­ter­i­el will not be re-ex­por­ted (a non-re-ex­port de­clar­a­tion).

² A non-re-ex­port de­clar­a­tion may be waived in the case of in­di­vidu­al parts or as­sembly pack­ages of war ma­ter­i­el if it is es­tab­lished that, once abroad, they will be in­teg­rated in­to a pro­duct and not re-ex­por­ted un­mod­i­fied, or in the case of an­onym­ous com­pon­ents, that their value in com­par­is­on with the fin­ished war ma­ter­i­el is neg­li­gible.

¹ Im­port, ex­port and trans­it li­cences are lim­ited in their dur­a­tion.

² If ex­cep­tion­al cir­cum­stances re­quire, they may be sus­pen­ded or re­voked.

¹ A li­cence is re­quired in or­der to enter in­to a con­tract for the trans­fer from Switzer­land to a nat­ur­al per­son or leg­al en­tity with dom­i­cile or re­gistered of­fice abroad of in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty in­clud­ing know-how that is es­sen­tial for the man­u­fac­ture or the use of war ma­ter­i­el. The same ap­plies to en­ter­ing in­to a con­tract that grants rights to such in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty and know-how.

² In­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty, in­clud­ing know-how, that:

a.

is re­quired for the routine car­ry­ing out of in­stall­a­tion work, main­ten­ance, in­spec­tion and re­pair of war ma­ter­i­el whose ex­port has been li­censed;

b.

is avail­able in the pub­lic do­main;

c.

that must be dis­closed for the pur­poses of a re­quest for a Pat­ents in an­oth­er coun­try; or

d.

that is used for the pur­poses of ba­sic sci­entif­ic re­search.

is not sub­ject to the fore­go­ing li­cens­ing re­quire­ment.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for ex­emp­tions for cer­tain coun­tries.

A li­cence is not gran­ted if the re­cip­i­ent has his re­gistered of­fice or dom­i­cile in a coun­try to which the ex­port of the rel­ev­ant war ma­ter­i­el is pro­hib­ited.

The man­u­fac­ture, broker­age, ex­port and trans­it of war ma­ter­i­el for re­cip­i­ents abroad shall be au­thor­ised if this is not con­trary to in­ter­na­tion­al law, in­ter­na­tion­al ob­lig­a­tions, and the prin­ciples of Swiss for­eign policy.

The ex­port of re­place­ment parts for war ma­ter­i­el whose ex­port has been au­thor­ised shall also be au­thor­ised if no ex­cep­tion­al cir­cum­stances have aris­en in the in­ter­ven­ing peri­od that would re­quire the re­voc­a­tion of the ori­gin­al li­cence.

The im­port of war ma­ter­i­el shall be au­thor­ised if it is not con­trary to in­ter­na­tion­al law or na­tion­al in­terests.

The grant­ing of li­cences is not per­mit­ted if en­force­ment meas­ures in terms of the Em­bargo Act of 22 March 2002³¹ have been ordered.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue reg­u­la­tions on the con­trol of the man­u­fac­ture, trade, broker­age, im­port, ex­port and trans­it of war ma­ter­i­el as well as the trans­fer of in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty, in­clud­ing know-how, or the grant­ing of rights thereto, to the ex­tent that these re­late to war ma­ter­i­el.

The hold­er of a li­cence un­der this Act or the pro­pri­et­or and the staff of the cor­res­pond­ing com­pany are ob­liged to provide the con­trol au­thor­it­ies with all the in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ments re­quired for ap­pro­pri­ate con­trols to be car­ried out.

¹ The con­trol au­thor­it­ies have the right to enter and in­spect the busi­ness premises of per­sons ob­liged to provide in­form­a­tion dur­ing nor­mal work­ing hours without pri­or no­tice and to ex­am­ine the rel­ev­ant doc­u­ments. They shall con­fis­cate in­crim­in­at­ing ma­ter­i­el. In the event of sus­pi­cion of an of­fence, more rig­or­ous pro­vi­sions of pro­ced­ur­al law are re­served.

² If ne­ces­sary, they may in the course of their con­trols call in can­ton­al and com­mun­al po­lice of­ficers, the in­vest­ig­at­ing au­thor­it­ies of the Cus­toms Ad­min­is­tra­tion, and the Fed­er­al In­tel­li­gence Ser­vice.³²

³ They may pro­cess per­son­al data in ac­cord­ance with the ob­ject­ives of this Act. Par­tic­u­larly sens­it­ive per­son­al data may be pro­cessed only where it relates to ad­min­is­trat­ive or crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings and sanc­tions. Ad­di­tion­al par­tic­u­larly sens­it­ive per­son­al data may be pro­cessed only if this is in­dis­pens­able for hand­ling the in­di­vidu­al case.

⁴ They are ob­liged to pre­serve pro­fes­sion­al secrecy and to take all the pre­cau­tion­ary meas­ures re­quired in their field to pre­vent in­dus­tri­al es­pi­on­age.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate the re­spons­ible agen­cies and reg­u­late the pro­ced­ur­al de­tails. Bor­der con­trols are the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the cus­toms au­thor­it­ies.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­cide on ap­plic­a­tions that are of sub­stan­tial im­port­ance to for­eign or se­cur­ity policy. In ad­di­tion, the pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ure of 20 Decem­ber 1968³³ gov­ern the pro­ced­ure.

³ The pro­ced­ure for ap­peals against or­ders or rul­ings made in terms of this Act is gov­erned by the gen­er­al pro­vi­sions on fed­er­al ad­min­is­trat­ive pro­ced­ure.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate a Cent­ral Of­fice for com­bat­ing il­leg­al activ­it­ies in con­nec­tion with war ma­ter­i­el.

² The Cent­ral Of­fice shall par­ti­cip­ate in en­force­ment and in the pre­ven­tion of of­fences and shall re­port vi­ol­a­tions of the pro­vi­sions of this Act to the com­pet­ent pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies. In­so­far as and for as long as its du­ties re­quire, it is en­titled to pro­cess per­son­al data, in­clud­ing par­tic­u­larly sens­it­ive per­son­al data and per­son­al­ity pro­files.³⁴

The li­cences provided for by this Act Fees are sub­ject to fees. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil stip­u­lates the rates.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall re­port to the Con­trol Com­mit­tees of the Fed­er­al Par­lia­ment on the de­tails re­lat­ing to the ex­port of war ma­ter­i­el.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully com­mits any of the fol­low­ing acts is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence or a mon­et­ary pen­alty: ³⁵

a.

the man­u­fac­ture, im­port, trans­it, ex­port, trade in, or broker­age of war ma­ter­i­el, or the con­clu­sion of con­tracts for the trans­fer of in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty in­clud­ing know-how re­lat­ing to war ma­ter­i­el, or for the grant­ing of rights thereto without the rel­ev­ant li­cence or in vi­ol­a­tion of the con­di­tions or re­quire­ments stip­u­lated in a li­cence;

b.

the pro­vi­sion of in­cor­rect or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion in an ap­plic­a­tion when such in­form­a­tion is es­sen­tial for the grant­ing of a li­cence or the use of such an ap­plic­a­tion that has been com­pleted by a third party;

c.³⁶

the fail­ure to re­port war ma­ter­i­el for im­port, ex­port or trans­it or the mak­ing of a in­cor­rect de­clar­a­tion in re­spect of its im­port, ex­port or trans­it;

d.

the de­liv­ery, trans­fer or broker­age of war ma­ter­i­el for a re­cip­i­ent or des­tin­a­tion oth­er than that named in the li­cence;

e.

the trans­fer of in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty, in­clud­ing know-how, re­lat­ing to war ma­ter­i­el, or the grant­ing of rights thereto to a re­cip­i­ent or des­tin­a­tion oth­er than that named in the li­cence;

the par­ti­cip­a­tion in fin­an­cial deal­ings re­lat­ing to an il­leg­al war ma­ter­i­el trans­ac­tion or the pro­cure­ment fund­ing for such a trans­ac­tion as an in­ter­me­di­ary.

² In ser­i­ous cases the pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence of at least one year but not ex­ceed­ing ten years. The cus­todi­al sen­tence may be com­bined with a mon­et­ary pen­alty.³⁷

³ If the act is com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, a mon­et­ary pen­alty not ex­ceed­ing 180 daily pen­alty units may be im­posed.³⁸

⁴ In the case of un­au­thor­ised im­port or trans­it, an act com­mit­ted abroad is also a crim­in­al of­fence.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully com­mits any of the fol­low­ing acts without be­ing able to claim an ex­emp­tion un­der Art­icle 7 Para­graph 2 is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing ten years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty:³⁹

a.

the de­vel­op­ment, man­u­fac­ture, broker­age, ac­quis­i­tion, sur­render to an­oth­er, im­ports, ex­port, trans­it, stock­pil­ing, or any oth­er form of pos­ses­sion of nuc­le­ar, bio­lo­gic­al or chem­ic­al weapons (NBC weapons);

b.

in­cite­ment to com­mit any of the acts lis­ted un­der let­ter a; or

c.

as­sist­ing in the com­mis­sion of an act lis­ted un­der let­ter a.

² A cus­todi­al sen­tence may be com­bined with a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁴⁰

³ If the act is com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, the pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year or a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁴¹

⁴ An act com­mit­ted abroad is an of­fence in terms of these pro­vi­sions ir­re­spect­ive of the law of the place of com­mis­sion if:

a.

it vi­ol­ates in­ter­na­tion­al law agree­ments to which Switzer­land is a con­tract­ing party and

b.

the of­fend­er is Swiss or is dom­i­ciled in Switzer­land.

⁵ Art­icle 7 para­graphs 4 and 5 of the Crim­in­al Code⁴² ap­ply.⁴³

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully com­mits any of the fol­low­ing acts without be­ing able to claim an ex­emp­tion un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 2 is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing ten years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty:⁴⁴

a.

the de­vel­op­ment, man­u­fac­ture, broker­age, ac­quis­i­tion, sur­render to an­oth­er, im­port, ex­port, trans­it, stock­pil­ing, or any oth­er form of pos­ses­sion of anti-per­son­nel mines;

b.

in­cite­ment to com­mit any of the acts lis­ted un­der let­ter a; or

c.

as­sist­ing in the com­mis­sion of an act lis­ted un­der let­ter a.

² A cus­todi­al sen­tence may be com­bined with a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁴⁵

³ If the act is com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, the pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year or a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁴⁶

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully com­mits any of the fol­low­ing acts without be­ing able to claim an ex­emp­tion un­der Art­icle 8a para­graph 3 is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing ten years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty:

a.

the de­vel­op­ment, man­u­fac­ture, broker­age, ac­quis­i­tion, sur­render to an­oth­er, im­port, ex­port, trans­it, stock­pil­ing, or any oth­er form of pos­ses­sion of cluster mu­ni­tion;

b.

in­cite­ment to com­mit any of the acts lis­ted un­der let­ter a; or

c.

as­sist­ing in the com­mis­sion of an act lis­ted un­der let­ter a.

² A cus­todi­al sen­tence may be com­bined with a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

³ If the act is com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, the pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year or a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully fails to com­ply with the pro­hib­i­tion of fin­an­cing un­der Art­icles 8b or 8c without be­ing able to claim an ex­emp­tion un­der Art­icle 7 para­graph 2, Art­icle 8 para­graph 2 or Art­icle 8a para­graph 3is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² A cus­todi­al sen­tence may be com­bined with a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

³ A per­son who merely ac­cepts the pos­sib­il­ity of an of­fence against the pro­hib­i­tion of fin­an­cing un­der Art­icles 8bor 8c does not com­mit an of­fence.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully com­mits any of the fol­low­ing acts is li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 100,000 francs:⁴⁹

a.

the re­fus­al to provide in­form­a­tion, sub­mit doc­u­ments or per­mit ac­cess to busi­ness premises in terms of Art­icles 27 and 28 para­graph 1 or provides false in­form­a­tion in this con­nec­tion;

b.

the vi­ol­a­tion in any oth­er way of a pro­vi­sion of this Act or of an im­ple­ment­ing reg­u­la­tion, the con­tra­ven­tion of which is de­clared to be an of­fence, or the fail­ure to com­ply with an or­der is­sued with no­tice of the ap­plic­ab­il­ity of the pen­al­ties in terms of this Art­icle, un­less the crim­in­al con­duct con­sti­tutes a dif­fer­ent of­fence.

² At­tempts and com­pli­city are of­fences.

³ If the act is com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, the pen­alty is a fine of up to 40 000 francs.

⁴ The right to pro­sec­ute pre­scribes after five years.⁵⁰

In re­la­tion to of­fences in com­mer­cial en­ter­prises, Art­icle 6 of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974⁵¹ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law ap­plies.

The court shall or­der the con­fis­ca­tion of the war ma­ter­i­el con­cerned, ir­re­spect­ive of the crim­in­al li­ab­il­ity of any per­son, if and to the ex­tent that no guar­an­tee of its law­ful con­tin­ued use is offered. The con­fis­cated war ma­ter­i­el, to­geth­er with any pro­ceeds of sale, be­comes the prop­erty of the Con­fed­er­a­tion sub­ject to the re­ser­va­tion of the Fed­er­al Act of 19 March 2004⁵³ on the Di­vi­sion of Con­fis­cated As­sets.

Con­fis­cated as­sets or rights to com­pens­a­tion be­come the prop­erty of the Con­fed­er­a­tion sub­ject to the re­ser­va­tion of the Fed­er­al Act of 19 March 2004⁵⁵ on the Di­vi­sion of Con­fis­cated As­sets.

¹ The pro­sec­u­tion and judge­ment of of­fences are sub­ject to fed­er­al jur­is­dic­tion.

² The fed­er­al and can­ton­al li­cens­ing and con­trol au­thor­it­ies, the can­ton­al and com­mun­al po­lice and the cus­toms au­thor­it­ies are ob­liged to re­port of­fences against this Act that they de­tect or which come to their know­ledge in the course of their du­ties to the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land.

The re­spons­ible fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies and the can­ton­al and com­mun­al po­lice may dis­close data to each oth­er and to the rel­ev­ant su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies in­so­far as this is re­quired for the en­force­ment of this Act.

¹ The fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for en­force­ment and con­trols, and the pre­ven­tion or pro­sec­u­tion of of­fences may co­oper­ate with the re­spons­ible for­eign au­thor­it­ies as well as with in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions or agen­cies and co­ordin­ate in­vest­ig­a­tions provided:

a.

this is re­quired for the en­force­ment of this Act or cor­res­pond­ing for­eign reg­u­la­tions; and

b.

the for­eign au­thor­it­ies or in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions or agen­cies are bound by pro­fes­sion­al secrecy or cor­res­pond­ing du­ties of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity and guar­an­tee pro­tec­tion from in­dus­tri­al es­pi­on­age in their field of activ­ity.

² They may in par­tic­u­lar re­quest for­eign au­thor­it­ies and in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions or agen­cies to hand over data re­quired. In or­der to ob­tain such data they may dis­close data re­lat­ing to:

a.

the con­di­tion, quant­ity, des­tin­a­tion and place of use, pur­pose and re­cip­i­ent of goods, com­pon­ents, and in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty, in­clud­ing know-how, or rights thereto;

b.

per­sons in­volved in the man­u­fac­ture, sup­ply, broker­age or fund­ing of goods or com­pon­ents, or in the trans­fer of in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty, in­clud­ing know-how, or the grant­ing of rights thereto;

c.

fin­an­cial deal­ings re­lat­ing to the trans­ac­tion.

³ If the for­eign state holds a re­cip­roc­al right, the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies may in terms of para­graph 1 dis­close the data in terms of para­graph 2 with or without hav­ing been re­ques­ted to do so if the for­eign au­thor­ity provides an as­sur­ance that the data:

a.

will be pro­cessed only for pur­poses that fall with­in the terms of this Act; and

b.

will be used in ju­di­cial crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings only if it has been ob­tained in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions on in­ter­na­tion­al mu­tu­al as­sist­ance.

⁴ They may also dis­close the data to in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions or agen­cies sub­ject to the re­quire­ments of para­graph 3, whereby the re­quire­ment of a re­cip­roc­al right may be waived.

⁵ The pro­vi­sions on in­ter­na­tion­al mu­tu­al as­sist­ance in crim­in­al mat­ters re­main re­served.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue the im­ple­ment­a­tion reg­u­la­tions.

² ...⁵⁶

The Fed­er­al Act of 30 June 1972⁵⁷ on War Ma­ter­i­el is re­pealed.

...⁵⁸

¹ ...⁵⁹

² Con­tracts on the trans­fer of in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty, in­clud­ing know-how, or the grant­ing of rights thereto that were entered in­to pri­or to this Act com­ing in­to force do not re­quire a li­cence un­der this Act.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the date on which this Act comes in­to force; un­til fed­er­al le­gis­la­tion on weapons comes in­to force, it may re­frain from bring­ing in­di­vidu­al pro­vi­sions in­to force.

³ It shall reg­u­late trade in pro­pel­lant powder that is in­ten­ded for ci­vil­ian pur­poses un­til re­lated stat­utory pro­vi­sions have come in­to force.

Com­mence­ment Date: 1 April 1998⁶⁰