Under Art. 48 ChemO, manufacturers are required to submit reports. According to Art. 2 para. 1 let. b ChemO, manufacturer means:
1. any natural or legal person domiciled in Switzerland or with a registered office or branch in Switzerland, who manufactures, extracts or imports substances, preparations or objects in a professional or commercial capacity, and,
2. any person who obtains substances, preparations or objects in Switzerland and supplies them on a commercial basis, without altering their composition:
- under his own name, without specifying the name of the original manufacturer,
- under his own trade name,
- in packaging other than that provided by the original manufacturer,
- for a different intended use, or
- at a location where the labelling in accordance with Article 10 paragraph 3 letter b has not been applied in the official language by the original manufacturer,
3. a person is deemed to be the sole manufacturer if he arranges for the manufacture of a substance, preparation or object in Switzerland by a third party, and if he is domiciled or has a registered office or branch in Switzerland; if he has neither his domicile, a registered office or branch in Switzerland, the third party is the sole manufacturer.
In other words, as well as the actual manufacturer, an importer of substances and preparations, a formulator and a repackager are also considered to be manufacturers within the meaning of the ChemO and are thus required to submit reports. Also deemed to be manufacturers are relabellers placing a product on the market under their own name or under their own trade name, and traders taking a product to a part of the country where labelling in the official language has not been applied. In the case of contract manufacturing, the Swiss client is deemed to be the manufacturer.
