- 28.05.2026
- News
E-cigarettes: Swiss Federal Supreme Court confirms legal limits on tank volumes
Two recent rulings by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court clearly confirm that the legal limits imposed on electronic cigarettes in Switzerland must be strictly respected — including in cases where manufacturers or distributors attempt to circumvent the law through technical or commercial loopholes.
According to a recent investigation by the magazine Beobachter, several products marketed on the Swiss market were being sold with systems allowing them to de facto exceed the legal limit of 2 ml of nicotine-containing liquid established under Swiss and European regulations. Some devices, for example, were sold with additional tanks (“Zusatztanks”) or designed in ways that allowed their total capacity to far exceed the authorised limit.
In an important ruling issued on 14 April 2026, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court sided with the Geneva cantonal chemist in a case involving e-cigarettes sold with additional tanks. The Court made it clear that the legal 2 ml limit cannot be circumvented through the inclusion of supplementary reservoirs supplied with the product.
In another case, a company marketed e-cigarettes with tank capacities of 3.5 ml and 4.3 ml while arguing that only 2 ml were effectively filled with liquid. Once again, the Federal Supreme Court rejected this interpretation and confirmed that the decisive criterion is the maximum capacity of the tank itself.
Examples of products covered by the two Federal Court judgments
These rulings are important for several reasons.
First, they reaffirm that the technical limits imposed on e-cigarettes are not merely recommendations, but binding legal requirements intended to protect public health — particularly the health of young people.
Second, they illustrate the many circumvention strategies currently emerging on the market for new nicotine products. For several years, there has been a rapid proliferation of so-called “big puff devices”, sometimes marketed with modular systems or separate reservoirs specifically designed to bypass existing restrictions.
Third, these rulings demonstrate the essential role played by cantonal enforcement authorities — especially cantonal chemists — in the concrete implementation of tobacco and nicotine product legislation. Without active enforcement by public authorities, a substantial share of legal violations risks remaining largely invisible.
These decisions come at a time when the e-cigarette market is evolving extremely rapidly, with continuously increasing device capacities, higher nicotine concentrations, and marketing strategies specifically targeting young consumers.
For AT Switzerland, these rulings underline the need to:
- ensure strict enforcement of existing legislation;
- strengthen the enforcement capacities of authorities;
- avoid regulatory grey zones;
- and rapidly adapt regulation to the evolving nicotine product market.
New nicotine products are now being developed according to an industrial logic of rapid innovation and permanent regulatory circumvention. In this context, clear rules alone are not sufficient — effective enforcement is essential.
Angeli, Thomas (2026) - Bundesgericht stoppt Trickserei der Vape-Industrie - Beobachter - 27. Mai 2026 https://www.beobachter.ch/konsum/bundesgericht-stoppt-trickserei-der-vape-industrie-940465
Angeli, Thomas (2024) Händler hebeln das Gesetz aus. Nach wie vor sind in Schweizer Onlineshops illegale Einweg-Vapes erhältlich. Dank einer Schlaumeierei. In : Beobachter, 13 septembre 2024. En ligne : https://www.beobachter.ch/gesundheit/vape-handler-tricksen-das-gesetz-aus-746154.
Tribunal fédéral, Arrêt du 14 avril 2026, ch. 2C_492/2025. https://search.bger.ch/ext/eurospider/live/de/php/aza/http/index.php?highlight_docid=aza://14-04-2026-2C_492-2025&lang=de&zoom=&type=show_document
Tribunal fédéral, du 14 avril 2026, ch. 2C_353/2025. http://relevancy.bger.ch/php/aza/http/index.php?highlight_docid=aza%3A%2F%2F14-04-2026-2C_353-2025&lang=de&type=show_document