On 21 August 2024, the Swiss Federal Council announced the adoption of certain measures included in the European Commission’s 14th package of sanctions against Russia, which will enter into force on 27 August 2024 (the official media release is available here). The adoption of further measures of the 14th EU package is currently under consideration by the Swiss Federal Council. The newly adopted measures mainly consist in (i) an alignment with the EU diamond ban,…
On 16 May 2024, SECO published the updated version of its Auslegungshilfe Sanktionsmassnahmen (“interpretation guideline for sanctions measures”; “FAQs”), which includes additional guidance on the following five topics: (i) proof of the non-Russian origin of imported diamonds and diamond products in relation to the prohibition of Art. 14e of the Ordinance of 4 March 2022 on measures in connection with the situation in Ukraine (“Ordinance”); (ii) the mandatory format for fulfilling the reporting obligation for…
Having focused on the enforcement of sanctions by Australia and Ukraine in the past weeks, we now turn our attention to the sanctions enforcement trends in Switzerland. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (“SECO”) is responsible for the enforcement of violations under the Federal Act on the Implementation of International Sanctions (“Embargo Act”; accessible here) and thus also for violations under the Ordinance on Measures in connection with the situation in the Ukraine (“Swiss Ordinance”; accessible…