Tobacco advertising ban Switzerland 2024. Disregard of popular will and legislator.
Tobacco advertising ban Switzerland from 2024. The first draft law is online since 31.08.22 on the tobacco advertising ban (link see below at resources on the topic). The first consultation on the law makes us fear bad things. It is a disregard for the will of the people and the legislature. This bill is even more blatant than the initiators wanted. It goes far beyond that.
Addendum 12/14/2022: I talked to a politician and my media lawyer about this. Both currently assume that the draft law cannot be implemented in this way. My media lawyer also told me: On 01.09.2023, a new data protection law will come into force in Switzerland. This law contradicts the tobacco advertising ban in several points. In the tobacco advertising ban, it is stipulated that users must identify themselves with an identity card in order to access tobacco content on the Internet (e.g. online stores and cigars.zone). However, it is not regulated how this should be done. For data protection reasons, a central location would have to be set up where users can register; there, their identity card would be stored electronically. And with the code, users can log on to the websites to view the content. However, the Tobacco Advertising Ban assumes that users will have to submit their identity card to every tobacco website (e.g. electronically); but this is a "horror scenario" for every user, because it is unclear how the website operators can protect this data from access at all, according to the new data protection law. Incredibly exciting. Let's be surprised...
From here on you read the original text:
Disregard for the will of the people and the legislature
What does the ban on tobacco advertising mean? The goal is a 100% smoke-free society. "Regardless of the product, our general goal is to establish non-smoking as the norm." This is what a Swiss institution, which does not wish to be named, wrote to me by e-mail on March 23, 2022. Mechanisms are being set in motion to make access to a legal product more and more difficult.
Quotes from the 10/19/22 newsletter from Centre Patronal:
Quote 1:
According to the Federal Council's preliminary draft, advertising on the Internet and in all other electronic media is to be banned even if suitable measures are taken to ensure that the advertising can only be viewed by adults. In doing so, the Federal Council is creating a highly problematic precedent that could later also be introduced for other consumer goods.
Quote 2:
In addition, the Federal Council is behaving contradictorily. In the explanatory report on the consultation, it claims that a total ban is necessary because there are no suitable measures to ensure that advertising in online newspapers and magazines or other digital services can only be viewed by adults. However, the same Federal Council also states on August 31 that "reliable systems for age verification for online commerce exist and are applied".
In addition, the new federal law on the protection of minors in the areas of film and video games also makes the making available of films and video games on the Internet dependent on an age check. What applies to online commerce and to making films and video games accessible must also apply explicitly to online advertising. The ban on online advertising in the preliminary draft therefore violates both equality of rights and the prohibition of discrimination.
Source: Newsletter from 19.10.22 from Centre Patronal. Please read the newsletter.
First consultation and then what?
The consultations are public. Any person in Switzerland can comment on them. An MS Word document is available on the Internet for completion. The deadline for responses is 30.11.2022, after which the responses will be evaluated. This will take several months, depending on the topic and the number of responses. During 2023, the law will be discussed in the various political bodies and institutions and adjustments will be made.
You can find links to the bill and all other documents below in Resources on the topic.
Tobacco advertising ban: logging in only with proof of identity?
In the case of Zigarren.Zone, this could mean that readers only get access to the content if they are over 18 and can identify themselves. Such services are offered by Swiss ID, for example. But: from abroad, Zigarren.Zone would still be readable without proof of identity. Here it is necessary to install the technical requirements on the website.
It is also currently unclear whether product sliders or product banners in online cigar stores are considered advertising or not. According to the draft law, yes.
Cigar articles at Zigarren.Zone
All contributions of Zigarren.Zone are not considered advertising, but free expression of opinion (text, photo and video contributions), regardless of whether a fee was paid (and I am not afraid to criticize). Many cigar brands are represented on the site, so it is considered a kind of "comparison portal".
I test cigars, rate them and explain how they taste to me. Zigarren.Zone is financed by banner ads on the website, by ads in the online magazine FlashCigar and by producing videos about cigars. It is currently unclear how this will look from 2024.
FlashCigar will be sent only to Zigarren.Zone Plus members starting in 2022 and will no longer be public. After the article you will find a registration form for Zigarren.Zone Plus. The tobacco advertising ban will cost me some "rebuilding".
Geo-targeting because of tobacco advertising ban?
Currently, it is even being discussed whether foreign Internet media on the topic of "tobacco" will be able to be seen in Switzerland at all from 2024. If the law is implemented in this drastic form, geo-targeting will be used. This means that tobacco websites from abroad can no longer be seen in Switzerland because they contain tobacco advertising.
This would mean that, for example, the websites of Cigar Journal and Cigar Aficionado could no longer be read in Switzerland. My personal opinion on this: China and Russia use such geo-targeting measures; for Switzerland such an action in the tobacco sector would be a blatant step.
Resources on the topic
Tobacco advertising ban:
>> Cover letter
>> Reply form, deadline until 30.11.2022
>> Recommend the Newsletter from 19.10.22 from Centre Patronal.
Hello Vasilij,
Here I can only advise "resist the beginnings". I see this in our country. First the bans, which are expanding more and more. First advertising bans, then smoking bans in public spaces (which only a few know - even on the Bavarian lakes the smoking ban applies), then the ban in the gastronomy. This came about in Bavaria because of a "citizens' petition." This was brought by a political party in course. The consequence is, that it looks very bad in this federal state with the smoking outside of the private area. According to this, many restaurants and tobacco stores have and had enormous economic difficulties or even had to close. This "double standard" is simply also shabby e.g. the tobacco tax we take gladly, but smokes please not. This morality is also rather questionable in another respect and that is: The population is supposed to be open and tolerant to everything - the big issue of "discrimination". But with smokers, there seems to be the welfare in order. See the, if still rare possibilities-either in front of the door ("we should stay outside") or smoking ban in marquees or, for example, at train stations in the "last" corner of the platform. Just in the state of Bavaria in which I live it has become quite bad, it is said we have in Germany of the "strictest smoking ban".
So Mr. Heimsath of artofsmoke also comes to the statement to our cigar louge and cigar club Würzburg "A lighthouse in the Diaspora". There is nothing more to add or?
So much for my opinion on this subject.
Have a nice day.
Volker
Hello Volker, thank you for your comment. I also find it alarming what is going on. In Switzerland the goal is to get a 0% smoking society. I don't know the timetable. WHO also wants to eradicate smoking, worldwide. Let's still enjoy cigars how and where we can. Otherwise, at some point underground lounges will form, like back then in the USA with alcohol prohibition. Nevertheless I like to say ?HAPPY SMOKE? ~ Vasilij
Yes that is the right approach and these underground lounges are already starting to emerge.
Many greetings
Volker