¹ Aids to pro­duc­tion²⁰³ are defined as ma­ter­i­al and or­gan­isms used in ag­ri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion. This in­cludes in par­tic­u­lar fer­til­isers, plant pro­tec­tion sub­stances, fod­der and plant propaga­tion ma­ter­i­al.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may de­clare aids to pro­duc­tion with com­par­able non-ag­ri­cul­tur­al areas of use to be sub­ject to the reg­u­la­tions set out in this Chapter.

¹ Only the fol­low­ing aids to pro­duc­tion may be im­por­ted or cir­cu­lated:

a.

those which are suit­able for the in­ten­ded use;

b.

those which have no un­desir­able side-ef­fects when used ac­cord­ing to the reg­u­la­tions; and

c.

those which en­sure that ba­sic products treated with such aids are used to pro­duce food and con­sumer goods that meet the re­quire­ments of le­gis­la­tion on food­stuffs.

² Any per­son who uses aids to pro­duc­tion must com­ply with the in­struc­tions for use.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may draw up reg­u­la­tions con­cern­ing the im­port, cir­cu­la­tion and use of aids to pro­duc­tion. In par­tic­u­lar it may re­strict or ban the im­port, cir­cu­la­tion and use of aids to pro­duc­tion.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue reg­u­la­tions for the im­port and cir­cu­la­tion of aids to pro­duc­tion.

² It may sub­ject the fol­low­ing to com­puls­ory ap­prov­al:

a.

the im­port and cir­cu­la­tion of aids to pro­duc­tion as well as the im­port­ers and those who re­lease them for cir­cu­la­tion;

b.

pro­du­cers of fod­der and plant propaga­tion ma­ter­i­al;

c.

pro­du­cers of oth­er aids to pro­duc­tion in­so­far as veri­fic­a­tion of pro­duc­tion meth­ods play an im­port­ant role in en­sur­ing that such aids to pro­duc­tion meet the re­quire­ments for re­lease in­to cir­cu­la­tion.²⁰⁵

³ It shall stip­u­late which fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies must be in­cluded in the ap­prov­al pro­ced­ure.

⁴ If aids to pro­duc­tion are sub­ject to com­puls­ory ap­prov­al un­der the terms of oth­er de­crees, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate a com­mon ap­prov­al au­thor­ity.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late col­lab­or­a­tion between the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies in­volved.

⁶ For­eign ap­prov­al or re­peal of ap­prov­al and for­eign test re­ports and cer­ti­fic­ates of con­form­ity based on equal re­quire­ments shall be re­cog­nised in­so­far as the con­di­tions for the use of the aids to pro­duc­tion re­lat­ing to ag­ro­nomy and the en­vir­on­ment are com­par­able. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may al­low ex­cep­tions.²⁰⁶

⁷ The im­port and cir­cu­la­tion of aids to pro­duc­tion ap­proved in Switzer­land and oth­er coun­tries shall be un­res­tric­ted. Such aids shall be des­ig­nated by the agency re­spons­ible.

⁸ The use of an­ti­bi­ot­ics and sim­il­ar sub­stances for en­han­cing per­form­ance in an­im­als is for­bid­den. The au­thor­it­ies must be in­formed ac­cord­ingly if such sub­stances are used for thera­peut­ic pur­poses; a re­cord must be kept of the treat­ment pro­gramme. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall stip­u­late meas­ures con­cern­ing im­por­ted meat un­der the terms of Art­icle 18.

Plant pro­tec­tion sub­stances put in­to cir­cu­la­tion law­fully in areas covered by the Agree­ment of 21 June 1999²⁰⁸ between the Swiss Con­fed­er­a­tion and the European Uni­on on Trade in Ag­ri­cul­tur­al Products may be cir­cu­lated in Switzer­land. If this is con­trary to the in­terests of the gen­er­al pub­lic, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­strict or ban the im­port and cir­cu­la­tion of such sub­stances.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue reg­u­la­tions on the la­belling and pack­aging of aids to pro­duc­tion.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may stip­u­late that only those in­di­vidu­al vari­et­ies of plants may be im­por­ted in­to Switzer­land, cir­cu­lated, re­cog­nised or used which are re­gistered in a cata­logue of plant vari­et­ies. It shall draw up reg­u­la­tions for in­clu­sion in cata­logues of plant vari­et­ies.

² It may au­thor­ise the FO­AG to set up cata­logues of plant vari­et­ies.

³ It may ac­cept re­gis­tra­tion in a cata­logue of plant vari­et­ies in an­oth­er coun­try as equi­val­ent to re­gis­tra­tion in a Swiss cata­logue of plant vari­et­ies.

¹ The can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies may ob­lige the users of land not in­ten­ded for the pro­duc­tion of plant propaga­tion ma­ter­i­al to en­sure a safe dis­tance between their plots and neigh­bour­ing crops of the same type if such ac­tion is ne­ces­sary for reas­ons of breed­ing, propaga­tion or plant pro­tec­tion.

² Those profit­ing from the above stip­u­la­tion must provide ap­pro­pri­ate com­pens­a­tion for the users of the land where cul­tiv­a­tion is re­stric­ted.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­quire the pro­du­cers of aids to pro­duc­tion and trad­ing firms to provide in­form­a­tion about the quant­it­ies of aids to pro­duc­tion that are brought in­to cir­cu­la­tion in Switzer­land.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall be no­ti­fied of sup­plies of con­cen­trated feed and fer­til­iser so that it can bal­ance ex­cesses of nu­tri­ents na­tion­ally and re­gion­ally.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the per­sons sub­ject to the duty to no­ti­fy and in par­tic­u­lar reg­u­late which data shall be re­cor­ded and which body shall re­ceive the data.

¹ Any per­son who puts plant pro­tec­tion sub­stances in­to cir­cu­la­tion shall no­ti­fy the Con­fed­er­a­tion that it has done so.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine which data shall be re­cor­ded and which body shall re­ceive the data.

¹ Any per­son who puts aids to pro­duc­tion in­to cir­cu­la­tion must provide the re­cip­i­ents with in­form­a­tion as to their char­ac­ter­ist­ics and in­ten­ded use.

² The fed­er­al agen­cies re­spons­ible are au­thor­ised to in­form the gen­er­al pub­lic about the char­ac­ter­ist­ics and in­ten­ded use of aids to pro­duc­tion.

¹ If aids to pro­duc­tion or plant or an­im­al ma­ter­i­al pose a po­ten­tial threat to the health of hu­mans, an­im­als, plants or the en­vir­on­ment or to the eco­nomy of the ag­ri­cul­tur­al sec­tor as a res­ult of a ra­dio­act­ive, bio­lo­gic­al, chem­ic­al, nat­ur­al or oth­er event that has re­per­cus­sions at an in­ter­na­tion­al, na­tion­al or re­gion­al level, the FO­AG may take pre­vent­ive meas­ures after con­sult­ing the fed­er­al agen­cies con­cerned.

² In par­tic­u­lar the FO­AG may take the fol­low­ing pre­vent­ive meas­ures:

a.

re­strict, ban or stip­u­late con­di­tions for graz­ing, out­door ex­er­cise or har­vest­ing;

b.

re­strict, ban or stip­u­late con­di­tions for im­port­ing, cir­cu­lat­ing or us­ing aids to pro­duc­tion and plant and an­im­al ma­ter­i­al;

c.

in the case of im­me­di­ate danger, stip­u­late that:

1.

the po­ten­tially dan­ger­ous aids to pro­duc­tion or plant or an­im­al ma­ter­i­al be con­fis­cated or col­lec­ted and des­troyed,

2.

farms must stop pro­duc­tion,

3.

farms must dis­pose of their pro­duce.

³ Pre­vent­ive meas­ures must be re­vised reg­u­larly and mod­i­fied or can­celled de­pend­ing on the ex­tent of the as­sessed risk.

⁴ If losses res­ult from an of­fi­cial or­der, those suf­fer­ing the losses may re­ceive ap­pro­pri­ate com­pens­a­tion.

¹ Land own­ers must tol­er­ate the prac­tice of leav­ing land fal­low without claim­ing com­pens­a­tion provided it is in the pub­lic in­terest. A pub­lic in­terest arises in par­tic­u­lar if land must be left fal­low in or­der to main­tain ag­ri­cul­tur­al use, to pro­tect against nat­ur­al threats or to con­serve flora and fauna that re­quire spe­cial pro­tec­tion.

² Land own­ers must tol­er­ate the prac­tice for at least three years. If the own­er wishes to farm the land him­self or her­self after this peri­od, or wishes to have it farmed by a ten­ant farm­er, the per­son farm­ing the land up un­til then must be in­formed ac­cord­ingly at least six months in ad­vance.

³ The can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies shall draw up the ne­ces­sary pro­vi­sions for im­ple­ment­a­tion; they shall de­cide in in­di­vidu­al cases wheth­er leav­ing land fal­low is to be tol­er­ated.

¹ The FO­AG runs an in­form­a­tion sys­tem for im­ple­ment­ing this Act, and in par­tic­u­lar for al­loc­at­ing sub­sidies and car­ry­ing out fed­er­al stat­ist­ic­al sur­veys.

² The in­form­a­tion sys­tem con­tains per­son­al data in­clud­ing data on farm­ers who pro­duce primary products, and data on farms and live­stock.

³ The FO­AG may make the data avail­able for down­load­ing by the fol­low­ing agen­cies or people or pass on the data to them:

a.

the Fed­er­al Food Safety and Veter­in­ary Of­fice (FS­VO)²¹²: to en­sure food safety, food hy­giene, fod­der safety, an­im­al wel­fare and an­im­al pro­tec­tion and fault­less primary pro­duc­tion;

b.

the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Pub­lic Health (FOPH)²¹³: to en­sure food safety, food hy­giene and pro­tec­tion against fraud­u­lent mis­rep­res­ent­a­tion;

c.

the Fed­er­al Of­fice of the En­vir­on­ment (FOEN): to sup­port the im­ple­ment­a­tion of le­gis­la­tion on the pro­tec­tion of the en­vir­on­ment, nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age and wa­ters;

d.

oth­er fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies: in or­der for them to ful­fil the tasks as­signed to them, in­so­far as the Fed­er­al Coun­cil sees fit;

e.

can­ton­al ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­it­ies: in or­der for them to ful­fil their leg­al du­ties in their re­spect­ive areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity;

f.

third parties that have been del­eg­ated tasks re­lat­ing to the im­ple­ment­a­tion of le­gis­la­tion on ag­ri­cul­ture un­der the terms of art­icles 43 and 180;

g.

third parties au­thor­ised by the farm­er.

¹ The FO­AG op­er­ates an in­form­a­tion sys­tem for plan­ning, re­cord­ing and man­aging mon­it­or­ing pro­ced­ures in ac­cord­ance with this Act and for eval­u­at­ing the res­ults. The in­form­a­tion is in­ten­ded in par­tic­u­lar for veri­fic­a­tion of dir­ect pay­ments.

² The FO­AG’s in­form­a­tion sys­tem is part of the com­mon cent­ral in­form­a­tion sys­tem op­er­ated by the FO­AG, the FS­VO and the FOPH²¹⁴ for the en­tire food chain and with the aim of en­sur­ing food safety, fod­der safety, an­im­al wel­fare, an­im­al pro­tec­tion and fault­less primary pro­duc­tion.

³ The FO­AG’s in­form­a­tion sys­tem con­tains per­son­al data in­clud­ing:

a

data on mon­it­or­ing and the res­ults there­of;

b.

data on ad­min­is­trat­ive meas­ures and crim­in­al sanc­tions.

⁴ As part of their leg­al du­ties, the fol­low­ing au­thor­it­ies and oth­er au­thor­ised agen­cies may pro­cess data in the in­form­a­tion sys­tem on­line:

a.

the FS­VO: to en­sure food safety, food hy­giene, fod­der safety, an­im­al wel­fare and an­im­al pro­tec­tion, as well as fault­less primary pro­duc­tion;

b.

the FOPH²¹⁵: to en­sure food safety, food hy­giene and pro­tec­tion against fraud­u­lent mis­rep­res­ent­a­tion;

c.

the can­ton­al ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­it­ies and agen­cies man­dated by them to carry out checks: to ful­fil their tasks in their in­di­vidu­al areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity;

d.

third parties that have been as­signed ex­ec­ut­ive tasks.

⁵ As part of their leg­al ob­lig­a­tions, the fol­low­ing agen­cies and in­di­vidu­als may down­load data from the in­form­a­tion sys­tem:

a.

the FS­VO: to en­sure food safety, food hy­giene, fod­der safety, an­im­al wel­fare and an­im­al pro­tec­tion, as well as fault­less primary pro­duc­tion;

b.

the FOPH²¹⁶: to en­sure food safety, food hy­giene and pro­tec­tion against fraud­u­lent mis­rep­res­ent­a­tion;

c.

the FOEN: to sup­port the im­ple­ment­a­tion of le­gis­la­tion on the pro­tec­tion of the en­vir­on­ment, the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age and wa­ters;

d.

oth­er fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies: to ful­fil the tasks they have been as­signed, in­so­far as the Fed­er­al Coun­cil sees fit;

e.

the can­ton­al ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­it­ies and the agen­cies man­dated by them to carry out checks: to ful­fil their tasks in their in­di­vidu­al areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity;

f.

the farm­ers, for data con­cern­ing them;

g.

third parties who have au­thor­isa­tion from the farm­er.

¹ The FO­AG op­er­ates a geo­graph­ic­al in­form­a­tion sys­tem as sup­port for the ex­ec­ut­ive tasks as­signed to the fed­er­al and can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies un­der the terms of this Act.

² The in­form­a­tion sys­tem con­tains data on land and land-use as well as fur­ther data for re­gion­al ex­ec­ut­ive tasks.

³ Ac­cess and use of the data are covered by the pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 5 Oc­to­ber 2007²¹⁷ on Geo­graph­ic­al In­form­a­tion.

¹ The FO­AG op­er­ates an in­form­a­tion sys­tem for re­cord­ing the move­ment of nu­tri­ents in ag­ri­cul­ture.

² Farms that sup­ply nu­tri­ents are ob­liged to re­cord all sup­plies in the in­form­a­tion sys­tem.

³ Farms that re­ceive nu­tri­ents are ob­liged to con­firm all sup­plies in the in­form­a­tion sys­tem.

⁴ As part of their leg­al ob­lig­a­tions, the fol­low­ing agen­cies and in­di­vidu­als can down­load data from the in­form­a­tion sys­tem:

a.

the FO­AG: for sup­port in im­ple­ment­ing le­gis­la­tion on wa­ter pro­tec­tion;

b.

the can­ton­al ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­it­ies and agen­cies man­dated by them to carry out checks: to ful­fil their as­signed tasks in the rel­ev­ant area of re­spons­ib­il­ity;

c.

the farm­er, for data that con­cerns him or her;

d.

third parties who have au­thor­isa­tion from the farm­er.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall op­er­ate a cent­ral in­form­a­tion sys­tem to re­cord the use of plant pro­tec­tion sub­stances by pro­fes­sion­al and com­mer­cial users and by pub­lic bod­ies.

² Any per­son who uses plant pro­tec­tion sub­stances pro­fes­sion­ally or com­mer­cially must re­cord their use in the in­form­a­tion sys­tem.

³ With­in the scope of their stat­utory du­ties, the fol­low­ing au­thor­it­ies and per­sons may ac­cess the data in the in­form­a­tion sys­tem on­line:

a.

the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies con­cerned: to sup­port im­ple­ment­a­tion in their par­tic­u­lar area of re­spons­ib­il­ity;

b.

the can­ton­al ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­it­ies and the agen­cies that they in­struct to carry out checks: to ful­fil their du­ties in their par­tic­u­lar area of re­spons­ib­il­ity;

c.

the users, for data that re­late to them;

d.

third parties au­thor­ised to do so by users.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall draw up reg­u­la­tions re­gard­ing the in­form­a­tion sys­tem ac­cord­ing to Art­icles 165c^bis–165f^bis in par­tic­u­lar for:²¹⁹

a.

the form of the data col­lec­tion and the dates when in­form­a­tion must be provided;

b.

the struc­ture and the data cata­logue;

c.

re­spons­ib­il­ity for data pro­cessing;

d.

en­ti­tle­ment to ac­cess, namely the scope of en­ti­tle­ment to on­line ac­cess;

e.

the or­gan­isa­tion­al and tech­nic­al meas­ures re­quired to en­sure data pro­tec­tion and data se­cur­ity;

f.

col­lab­or­a­tion with the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies;

g.

the dur­a­tion of stor­age and point at which the data are to be des­troyed;

h.

archiv­ing.

¹ The data in the an­im­al move­ments data­base pur­su­ant to Art­icle 45b of the Epi­zo­ot­ic Dis­eases Act of 1 Ju­ly 1966²²¹ (EzDA) may be pro­cessed in or­der to im­ple­ment ag­ri­cul­tur­al meas­ures. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late which data may be pro­cessed.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may del­eg­ate tasks re­lated to the im­ple­ment­a­tion of ag­ri­cul­tur­al meas­ures to Iden­titas AG (Art. 7a EzDA). The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the del­eg­a­tion of tasks, the bear­ing of costs and the pro­cessing of data.

¹ With the ex­cep­tion of copy­right, all rights con­cern­ing in­tan­gible goods pro­duced by per­sons em­ployed by the FO­AG or by the re­search in­sti­tutes un­der the terms of the Fed­er­al Per­son­nel Act of 24 March 2000²²², as part of their of­fi­cial tasks, be­long to the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

² In the case of com­puter pro­grammes writ­ten by the per­sons men­tioned in para­graph 1 as part of their of­fi­cial tasks, the FO­AG or the re­search in­sti­tutes en­joy ex­clus­ive rights of use. In or­der to trans­fer rights in oth­er copy­right work cat­egor­ies, the FO­AG and the re­search in­sti­tutes may draw up con­trac­tu­al reg­u­la­tions with those who own the rights.

³ Any per­son who has pro­duced in­tan­gible goods un­der the terms of para­graphs 1 and 2 must re­ceive an ap­pro­pri­ate share of any profit ac­cru­ing from their com­mer­cial­isa­tion.

¹ An ob­jec­tion may be filed lodged with of­fice re­spons­ible against rul­ings is­sued by or­gan­isa­tions and busi­nesses un­der Art­icle 180.

² Ob­jec­tions to rul­ings is­sued by fed­er­al of­fices, fed­er­al de­part­ments and can­ton­al courts of the last in­stance con­cern­ing the ap­plic­a­tion of this Act and the pro­vi­sions for its im­ple­ment­a­tion may be filed with the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court; this does not ap­ply to can­ton­al rul­ings con­cern­ing struc­tur­al im­prove­ments.²²³

^2bis Be­fore the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court is­sues a de­cision on an ob­jec­tion con­cern­ing the im­port, ex­port or cir­cu­la­tion of plant pro­tec­tion sub­stances, it shall con­sult the as­sess­ment boards in­volved in the pre-court pro­ced­ure.²²⁴

³ The fed­er­al of­fice re­spons­ible is en­titled to take leg­al pro­ceed­ings un­der the pro­vi­sions of can­ton­al and fed­er­al law against or­ders is­sued by the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies as part of the ap­plic­a­tion of this Act and the pro­vi­sions for its im­ple­ment­a­tion.

⁴ The can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies shall give no­tice of its rul­ings im­me­di­ately and without charge to the fed­er­al of­fice re­spons­ible. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may al­low ex­cep­tions.

In its im­ple­ment­a­tion le­gis­la­tion, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may in­clude an op­pos­i­tion pro­ced­ure against de­cisions of the court of first in­stance.

¹ In the case of in­fringe­ments of this Act, its im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions or rul­ings based there­on, the fol­low­ing ad­min­is­trat­ive meas­ures may be taken:

a.

warn­ing;

b.

with­draw­al of re­cog­ni­tion, per­mits, quotas and such like;

c.

ex­clu­sion from en­ti­tle­ment;

d.

ex­clu­sion from dir­ect mar­ket­ing;

e.

ban on sup­ply­ing, re­ceiv­ing and pro­cessing;

f.

per­form­ance by a third party at the ex­pense of the per­son breach­ing the pro­vi­sions or rul­ings and of the or­gan­isa­tion to which the tasks have been del­eg­ated;

g.

con­fis­ca­tion of goods;

h.²²⁶

pay­ment of a pen­alty not ex­ceed­ing 10,000 francs.

² If products are put in­to cir­cu­la­tion un­law­fully or sub­sidies are ap­plied for or re­ceived un­law­fully, a pay­ment may be de­man­ded cor­res­pond­ing to, at the most, the total amount re­ceived for cir­cu­lat­ing products un­law­fully or the total amount of sub­sidies ap­plied for or re­ceived un­law­fully.²²⁷

³ In or­der to re­store the law­ful po­s­i­tion, the fol­low­ing meas­ures may be taken in ad­di­tion:

a.

ban on the use and cir­cu­la­tion of products or la­bels;

b.

re­fus­al of products for im­port or ex­port;

c.

ob­lig­a­tion to re­pur­chase or call in products or to is­sue a pub­lic warn­ing of the po­ten­tial risks of products;

d.

neut­ral­isa­tion, with­draw­al or de­struc­tion of products.²²⁸

¹ Sub­sidies may be re­duced or with­drawn if the ap­plic­ant in­fringes this Act, its im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions or rul­ings based there­on.

² The re­duc­tion or re­fus­al ap­plies at least for those years in which the ap­plic­ant has been in in­fringe­ment.

^2bis In the event of non-com­pli­ance with the pro­vi­sions of le­gis­la­tion on the pro­tec­tion of wa­ters, the en­vir­on­ment and an­im­al wel­fare re­lat­ing to ag­ri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion, re­duc­tions or with­draw­al may be ex­ten­ded to all types of dir­ect pay­ments.²²⁹

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall stip­u­late re­duc­tions in the case of an in­fringe­ment of reg­u­la­tions on dir­ect pay­ments and ar­able farm­ing.²³⁰

¹ If the re­quire­ments by which a sub­sidy is gran­ted are no longer met or if ob­lig­a­tions or con­di­tions are dis­reg­arded, the re­cip­i­ent shall be re­quired to re­pay all or part of the sub­sidies.

² Sub­sidies or fin­an­cial ad­vant­ages that have been gran­ted wrongly shall be re­paid or de­duc­ted re­gard­less of the ap­plic­a­tion of crim­in­al pro­vi­sions.

¹ Re­cip­roc­al trans­ac­tions by dom­in­ant un­der­tak­ings in the mar­ket for ag­ri­cul­tur­al pro­duce and aids to pro­duc­tion in which the sign­ing of a con­tract is made con­di­tion­al on the pur­chase of goods and ser­vices at dis­pro­por­tion­ate prices are un­law­ful un­der Art­icle 7 of the Car­tel Act of 6 Oc­to­ber 1995²³² and are sub­ject to sanc­tions Art­icle 49a or 50 of the same Act.

² A price is con­sidered dis­pro­por­tion­ate in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 if it dif­fers con­sid­er­ably from the price of com­par­able goods or ser­vices in the re­gions covered by the Agree­ment between the Swiss Con­fed­er­a­tion and the European Com­munity on Trade in Ag­ri­cul­tur­al Products of 21 June 1999²³³.

³ Art­icles 8 and 31 of the Car­tel Act of 6 Oc­to­ber 1995 do not ap­ply in pro­ced­ures con­duc­ted by the Com­pet­i­tion Com­mis­sion re­lat­ing to para­graph 1.

¹ Any per­son who un­law­fully uses a des­ig­na­tion of ori­gin or a geo­graph­ic­al in­dic­a­tion pro­tec­ted un­der Art­icle 16 or a clas­si­fic­a­tion or la­bel un­der Art­icle 63 shall on com­plaint be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty. In re­la­tion to clas­si­fic­a­tion and la­belling un­der Art­icle 63, mon­it­or­ing agen­cies man­dated by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil un­der Art­icle 64 para­graph 4 and used by the can­tons also have the right to file a com­plaint.

² Any per­son sus­pec­ted of com­mit­ting an of­fence for com­mer­cial gain shall be pro­sec­uted ex of­fi­cio, and shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty. …²³⁵

¹ Un­less the of­fence car­ries a more severe pen­alty un­der a dif­fer­ent pro­vi­sion, a per­son who wil­fully com­mits any of the fol­low­ing acts shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 40,000 francs:²³⁶

a.²³⁷

vi­ol­ates or makes un­per­mit­ted use of the com­mon iden­tity de­vised by the Con­fed­er­a­tion un­der Art­icle 12 para­graph 3;

a^bis.²³⁸

in­fringes the la­belling reg­u­la­tions that have been is­sued or re­cog­nised un­der Art­icle 14 para­graph 1 let­ters a–c, e and f and Art­icle 15;

a^ter.²³⁹breaches the reg­u­la­tions on the use of of­fi­cial marks un­der Art­icle 14 para­graph 4;

b.

in­fringes the reg­u­la­tions is­sued un­der Art­icle 18 para­graph 1 on the de­clar­a­tion of goods pro­duced us­ing meth­ods that are banned in Switzer­land;

c.

re­fuses, fals­i­fies or provides in­com­plete in­form­a­tion when data is col­lec­ted un­der Art­icle 27 or Art­icle 185;

c^bis.²⁴⁰

fails to meet the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 27a para­graph 1 or fails to com­ply with a per­mit re­quire­ment or meas­ures ordered un­der Art­icle 27a para­graph 2;

d.

provides false or mis­lead­ing in­form­a­tion in a pro­ced­ure con­cern­ing a sub­sidy or for the al­loc­a­tion of quotas;

e.

pro­duces or sells milk or dairy products in breach of the reg­u­la­tions or or­ders is­sued by the Con­fed­er­a­tion on the basis of this Act;

f.²⁴¹

plants vines without a per­mit, fails to com­ply with pro­vi­sions on clas­si­fic­a­tion or fails to ful­fil his or her ob­lig­a­tions con­cern­ing trade in wine;

g.

in­fringes reg­u­la­tions on ar­ti­fi­cial in­sem­in­a­tion un­der Art­icle 145;

g^bis.²⁴²

fails to com­ply with the pro­vi­sions on the im­port of breed­ing an­im­als, sperm, ova and em­bry­os un­der Art­icle 146;

g^ter.²⁴³

in­fringes the reg­u­la­tions on the breed­ing, im­port or cir­cu­la­tion of ge­net­ic­ally mod­i­fied live­stock ac­cord­ing to Art­icle 146a;

g^quater.²⁴⁴

in­fringes the pre­vent­ive meas­ures is­sued un­der Art­icle 148a;

h.

in­fringes the reg­u­la­tions on the pro­tec­tion of com­mer­cial crops un­der Art­icles 151, 152 or 153;

i.²⁴⁵

fails to com­ply with the in­struc­tions for use un­der Art­icle 159 para­graph 2 or the reg­u­la­tions on use un­der Art­icle 159a;

k.²⁴⁶

pro­duces, im­ports, stocks, trans­ports, cir­cu­lates, sells or re­com­mends aids to pro­duc­tion that are sub­ject to man­dat­ory ap­prov­al (Art­icle 160), uses an­ti­bi­ot­ics and sim­il­ar sub­stances to en­hance per­form­ance in live­stock or fails to re­gister their use for thera­peut­ic pur­poses (Art­icle 160 para­graph 8);

k^bis.²⁴⁷

pro­duces, im­ports, stocks, trans­ports, cir­cu­lates, sells or re­com­mends aids to pro­duc­tion without be­ing ap­proved or re­gistered with the rel­ev­ant au­thor­ity;

k^ter.²⁴⁸

in­fringes the reg­u­la­tions on la­belling and pack­aging of aids to pro­duc­tion is­sued un­der Art­icle 161;

k^quater.²⁴⁹

im­ports, stocks, trans­ports, cir­cu­lates, sells or re­com­mends banned aids to pro­duc­tion (Art­icle 159a);

l.

im­ports, uses or cir­cu­lates plant propaga­tion ma­ter­i­al of a type not in­cluded in a cata­logue of plant vari­et­ies (Art­icle 162);

m.

fails to com­ply with the safety dis­tances set out in Art­icle 163;

n.

fails to provide the in­form­a­tion re­quired un­der Art­icle 164;

o.

fails to ful­fil his or her ob­lig­a­tion to provide in­form­a­tion un­der Art­icle 183.

² A per­son com­mits any of the fore­go­ing acts through neg­li­gence shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing. 10,000 francs.

³ Un­less the of­fence car­ries a more severe a per­son who wil­fully com­mits any of the fol­low­ing acts shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 5,000 francs:

a.²⁵⁰

…

b.

fails to com­ply with a pro­vi­sion on im­ple­ment­a­tion whose con­tra­ven­tion is de­clared to be an of­fence.

⁴ At­tempts and com­pli­city are also of­fences.

⁵ In par­tic­u­larly minor cases, pro­sec­u­tion or im­pos­i­tion of a pen­alty may be dis­pensed with.

If the of­fence has been com­mit­ted by a leg­al en­tity or a group of per­sons, Art­icles 6 and 7 of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974²⁵¹ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law ap­ply.

¹ The can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies are re­spons­ible for pro­sec­u­tions.

² Any per­son who breaches the reg­u­la­tions on im­port­ing, ex­port­ing or trans­it­ing goods shall be pro­sec­uted and be li­able to the pen­al­ties un­der the le­gis­la­tion on cus­toms tar­iffs. The au­thor­it­ies may not pro­ceed with a pro­sec­u­tion in par­tic­u­larly minor cases of vi­ol­a­tion con­cern­ing the use of im­port quotas for ag­ri­cul­tur­al products.²⁵²

³ If an act sim­ul­tan­eously con­sti­tutes an of­fence un­der para­graph 2 and an of­fence pro­sec­uted by the Fed­er­al Of­fice for Cus­toms and Bor­der Se­cur­ity, the pen­alty for the more ser­i­ous of­fence ap­plies; the pen­alty may be raised ac­cord­ingly.²⁵³

Art­icles 37–39 of the Fed­er­al Sub­sidies Act of 5 Oc­to­ber 1990²⁵⁴ on con­tra­ven­tions, fraud­u­lent ac­quis­i­tion of an ad­vant­age and pro­sec­u­tion do not ap­ply.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall draw up the re­quired pro­vi­sions for im­ple­ment­a­tion in­so­far as re­spons­ib­il­ity is not as­signed by law to an­oth­er agency.

² It may del­eg­ate the task of draw­ing up reg­u­la­tions that are pre­dom­in­antly tech­nic­al or ad­min­is­trat­ive to the EAER und, in con­nec­tion with plant pro­tec­tion sub­stances, to the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Home Af­fairs or its agen­cies, or to sub­or­din­ate fed­er­al of­fices.²⁵⁵

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may con­clude in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments in the field of ag­ri­cul­ture in­de­pend­ently, with the ex­cep­tion of agree­ments on trade in ag­ri­cul­tur­al products.

² After con­sult­ing the oth­er in­ter­ested fed­er­al of­fices and au­thor­it­ies, the FO­AG may con­clude agree­ments of a tech­nic­al nature with for­eign ag­ri­cul­tur­al au­thor­it­ies, pub­lic re­search in­sti­tu­tions or in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions re­gard­ing in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

the re­cog­ni­tion of agen­cies re­spons­ible for test­ing, as­sess­ing con­form­ity, ap­prov­ing, re­gis­ter­ing and li­cens­ing in the ag­ri­cul­tur­al sec­tor;

b.

the re­cog­ni­tion of test re­ports, con­form­ity as­sess­ments and li­cens­ing con­cern­ing plant pro­tec­tion and aids to pro­duc­tion as well as meth­ods of pro­duc­tion;

c.

tech­nic­al col­lab­or­a­tion and the ex­change of in­form­a­tion with re­gard to plant pro­tec­tion and the ap­prov­al and cir­cu­la­tion of aids to pro­duc­tion;

d.

con­di­tions and ob­lig­a­tions con­cern­ing the sale or pur­chase of ge­net­ic re­sources for food and ag­ri­cul­ture from state-con­trolled gene banks;

e.

the re­cog­ni­tion of des­ig­na­tions of ori­gin re­lat­ing to ag­ri­cul­tur­al pro­duce;

f.

dir­ect pay­ments, mar­ket sup­port meas­ures and sub­sidies for pro­cessing in en­claves and in the Prin­cip­al­ity of Liecht­en­stein that con­cern the ap­plic­a­tion of this Act and of reg­u­la­tions on ag­ri­cul­ture un­der le­gis­la­tion on live­stock epi­dem­ics, an­im­al pro­tec­tion, pro­tec­tion of wa­ters, en­vir­on­ment­al pro­tec­tion or the pro­tec­tion of nature and cul­tur­al her­it­age;

g.

pro­jects that are part of in­ter­na­tion­al ag­ri­cul­tur­al re­search pro­grammes.

¹ The FO­AG, its re­search and ex­per­i­ment­al sta­tions (Art­icle 114) and the Fed­er­al Stud Farm (Art­icle 147) may provide com­mer­cial ser­vices for third parties if such ser­vices:

a.

are closely re­lated to their main tasks;

b.

do not com­prom­ise the com­ple­tion of their main tasks; and

c.

re­quire a neg­li­gible amount of ad­di­tion­al ma­ter­i­al and per­son­nel.

² Com­mer­cial ser­vices must be provided at a cost-ef­fect­ive price based on an es­tim­ate of cost and in­come. The EAER may al­low ex­cep­tions for cer­tain ser­vices if they do not en­tail com­pet­i­tion for private busi­nesses.

¹ Un­less the Con­fed­er­a­tion is re­spons­ible, im­ple­ment­a­tion is the task of the can­tons.

² The can­tons shall is­sue the ne­ces­sary pro­vi­sions for im­ple­ment­a­tion and in­form the EAER ac­cord­ingly.

³ The can­tons shall des­ig­nate agen­cies or or­gan­isa­tions to be re­spons­ible for im­ple­ment­a­tion and su­per­vi­sion.

⁴ If a can­ton fails to draw up pro­vi­sions for im­ple­ment­a­tion in good time, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall do so as a tem­por­ary meas­ure.

⁵ For im­ple­ment­ing the meas­ures con­cern­ing dir­ect pay­ments, the can­tons use defined ba­sic data, re­cord the ne­ces­sary land and how it is used as well as the oth­er ne­ces­sary ob­jects in the geo­graph­ic­al in­form­a­tion sys­tem in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 165e and cal­cu­late the sub­sidies for each farm on the basis of these data.²⁵⁸

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall su­per­vise the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Act by the can­tons.

² If a can­ton is neg­li­gent in its im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Act, the Con­fed­er­a­tion may re­duce or re­fuse the sub­sidies. This also ap­plies even if a right of ap­peal un­der Art­icle 166 para­graph 3 is not ex­er­cised.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons may work with busi­nesses and or­gan­isa­tions in or­der to im­ple­ment the Act or set up ap­pro­pri­ate or­gan­isa­tions to do so.

² The co­oper­a­tion between these busi­nesses and or­gan­isa­tions shall be su­per­vised by the au­thor­it­ies. The tasks and powers trans­ferred to them must be de­tailed by the rel­ev­ant au­thor­it­ies, to whom they must sub­mit re­ports and ac­counts. Par­lia­ment­ary con­trol may be ex­er­cised in the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the can­tons may au­thor­ise the busi­nesses and or­gan­isa­tions who work with them to levy an ap­pro­pri­ate charge for their activ­it­ies. Their rates must be ap­proved by the EAER.

¹ The agen­cies re­spons­ible for im­ple­ment­a­tion shall reg­u­late the ne­ces­sary con­trol meas­ures and data col­lec­tion as re­quired for im­ple­ment­ing this Act, its im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions or the rul­ings based there­on.²⁵⁹

^1bis The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may draw up reg­u­la­tions in or­der to en­sure that, for the im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act and of oth­er le­gis­la­tion on ag­ri­cul­ture, con­trol activ­it­ies are uni­form, stand­ard­ised and com­ple­ment­ary and that the ne­ces­sary in­form­a­tion is ex­changed among the con­trol agen­cies re­spons­ible.²⁶⁰

² In­di­vidu­als, busi­nesses or or­gan­isa­tions that prompt the need for con­trols through their un­law­ful con­duct, or hinder or pre­vent con­trols are li­able for any costs in­curred.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may del­eg­ate cer­tain con­trol meas­ures and data col­lec­tion to the can­tons.

⁴ It may spe­cify charges for con­trols that do not res­ult in a com­plaint, in par­tic­u­lar for:

a.

phytosan­it­ary con­trols;

b.

con­trols of seeds and seed­lings;

c.

con­trol ana­lyses;

d.

fod­der con­trols.²⁶¹

⁵ It may stip­u­late that the im­port­er has to pay for spe­cial con­trols ow­ing to known or new risks in con­nec­tion with cer­tain aids to ag­ri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion or plants.²⁶²

⁶ It may stip­u­late fur­ther charges in­so­far as Switzer­land has un­der­taken to levy such charges un­der the terms of an in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ment.²⁶³

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall co­ordin­ate the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Food­stuffs Act of 9 Oc­to­ber 1992²⁶⁵, the Cus­toms Tar­iff Act of 18 March 2005²⁶⁶ and this Act; in ad­di­tion it may re­quire the Fed­er­al Tax Ad­min­is­tra­tion to pass on in­form­a­tion.²⁶⁷

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall set up a cent­ral of­fice to in­vest­ig­ate in­fringe­ments con­cern­ing:

a.

pro­tec­ted la­belling for ag­ri­cul­tur­al products;

b.

the im­port, trans­it and ex­port of ag­ri­cul­tur­al products;

c.

de­clar­a­tion of ori­gin and pro­duc­tion meth­ods.

Every in­di­vidu­al is ob­liged to provide the rel­ev­ant agen­cies with the in­form­a­tion re­ques­ted in par­tic­u­lar, as well as present­ing proof and hand­ing it over for ex­am­in­a­tion as re­quired by the im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act, its im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions or the rul­ings based there­on; moreover, every in­di­vidu­al must al­low in­spect­ors ac­cess to the busi­ness and to com­mer­cial and stor­age premises, to in­spect the ac­counts and cor­res­pond­ence and to take samples.

The FO­AG and the fed­er­al, can­ton­al and loc­al au­thor­it­ies shall provide mu­tu­al sup­port and ex­change all the in­form­a­tion re­quired for ful­filling their tasks.

¹ In or­der to cre­ate the es­sen­tial basis for im­ple­ment­ing the Act and for mon­it­or­ing its ef­fect, the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall col­lect and re­cord data on cer­tain sec­tors and on in­di­vidu­al busi­nesses con­cern­ing:

a.

the con­duct of ag­ri­cul­tur­al policy meas­ures;

b.

the as­sess­ment of the eco­nom­ic situ­ation in the ag­ri­cul­tur­al sec­tor;

c.

the mon­it­or­ing of the mar­ket situ­ation;

d.

the as­sess­ment of the ef­fects of ag­ri­cul­ture on the nat­ur­al her­it­age and the main­ten­ance of farm­land.

^1bis It shall mon­it­or the eco­nom­ic, eco­lo­gic­al and so­cial situ­ation in the ag­ri­cul­tur­al sec­tor and the pub­lic ser­vices provided by ag­ri­cul­ture.²⁷¹

^1ter It shall as­sess the ef­fect­ive­ness of the meas­ures un­der this Act.²⁷²

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may is­sue dir­ect­ives in or­der to har­mon­ise data col­lec­tion and data re­cord­ing and to stand­ard­ise stat­ist­ics on ag­ri­cul­ture.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may man­date fed­er­al or can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies or oth­er agen­cies to col­lect data and keep a re­gister. Re­mu­ner­a­tion is paid for this ser­vice.

⁴ The fed­er­al agency re­spons­ible may pro­cess the data col­lec­ted for stat­ist­ic­al pur­poses.

⁵ and ⁶ …²⁷³

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall set up a stand­ing ad­vis­ory com­mit­tee com­pris­ing at the most 15 mem­bers who ad­vise the Coun­cil on the im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act.

¹ The pro­vi­sions that have been re­pealed re­main ap­plic­able to all facts oc­cur­ring dur­ing their peri­od of valid­ity, with the ex­cep­tion of pro­ced­ur­al reg­u­la­tions.

^2–9 …²⁷⁵

¹⁰ The re­quire­ment re­gard­ing proof of eco­lo­gic­al per­form­ance un­der Art­icle 70 para­graph 2 comes in­to force five years at the latest after this Act comes in­to force.

^11–13 …²⁷⁶

¹⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall stip­u­late re­quire­ments con­cern­ing the re­pay­ment of the loan to the joint or­gan­isa­tion un­der Art­icle 1 para­graph 2 of the Cheese Mar­ket­ing Act of 27 June 1969²⁷⁷. The De­part­ments and Of­fices des­ig­nated by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil are au­thor­ised to is­sue in­struc­tions to the joint or­gan­isa­tion re­gard­ing the real­isa­tion of as­sets and the set­tle­ment of li­ab­il­it­ies; con­tri­bu­tions from the Con­fed­er­a­tion are con­di­tion­al on com­pli­ance with such in­struc­tions. The choice of li­quid­at­ors by the joint or­gan­isa­tion must be ap­proved by the De­part­ment des­ig­nated by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil. The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall cov­er the cost of li­quid­a­tion of the joint or­gan­isa­tion. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­sure that no pro­ceeds from the li­quid­a­tion go to the spon­sors of the joint or­gan­isa­tion; it shall also de­cide what pro­por­tion of the share cap­it­al must be re­paid.

¹⁵ Art­icle 55 comes in­to force only when the re­peal of the Grain Act of 20 March 1959²⁷⁸ comes in­to force.

^1–4 …²⁸¹

⁵ Art­icle 138 comes in­to force only when the new Vo­ca­tion­al and Pro­fes­sion­al Edu­ca­tion and Train­ing Act of 13 Decem­ber 2002²⁸² comes in­to force.

⁶ and ⁷ …²⁸³

⁸ …²⁸⁴

¹ Wine pro­duced in and be­fore 2007 may be pro­cessed and la­belled un­der the cur­rent le­gis­la­tion. It may be sold to con­sumers un­til sup­plies are ex­hausted.

² …²⁸⁶

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall sub­mit a re­port by 30 June 2016 that in­cludes a meth­od for as­sess­ing the use of ge­net­ic­ally mod­i­fied plants. This re­port must in­clude an opin­ion on wheth­er ge­net­ic­ally mod­i­fied plants of­fer ad­vant­ages for pro­du­cers, con­sumers and the en­vir­on­ment in com­par­is­on with stand­ard ag­ri­cul­tur­al products and aids to pro­duc­tion. On the basis of the meth­od presen­ted, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall draw up a cost-ef­fect­ive­ness bal­ance sheet for Switzer­land of the ge­net­ic­ally mod­i­fied plants that ex­ist when the amended ver­sion of this Act of 22 March 2013²⁸⁸ comes in­to force.

² In con­sulta­tion with the can­tons and the rel­ev­ant sec­tors, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall set out the aims and strategies for re­cog­nising and mon­it­or­ing res­ist­ance to an­ti­bi­ot­ics and the re­duc­tion of the use of an­ti­bi­ot­ics by the end of 2014.

³ When draw­ing up the aims and strategies men­tioned in para­graph 2, the fol­low­ing in par­tic­u­lar must be taken in­to ac­count:

a.

the en­vir­on­ment­al aims of ag­ri­cul­ture;

b.

in­ter­na­tion­al re­com­mend­a­tions and guidelines;

c.

cur­rent sci­entif­ic know­ledge.

⁴ On the basis of re­ports, the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons shall ex­am­ine wheth­er the aims men­tioned in para­graph 2 have been achieved and, if ne­ces­sary, take cor­res­pond­ing meas­ures.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­cides on the com­mence­ment date.

³ Art­icles 40–42 ap­ply un­til 31 Decem­ber 2008.²⁸⁹

Com­mence­ment date:²⁹⁰ 1 Jananu­ary 1999
Art­icles 28–45 and An­nex let­ters l–n: 1 May 1999
Art­icle 160 para­graph 7 and An­nex No 7: 1 Au­gust 1999