Switzerland is not a member of the European Union or the European Economic Area. Consequently, EU law relating to the free movement of goods within the European Community does not apply. This fact was emphasized in the decision of the First Division of the Swiss Federal Court in the case of Kodak AG v. Jumbo Markt AG. Jumbo Markt had purchased genuine Kodak products in the United Kingdom and put them on the market in Switzerland. The products were covered by a European patent which had been completed in Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Under the European Patent Convention, after grant and completion, European patents have the same effect as if they had been granted under national laws and the various national rights arising from the same European patent are independent of each other.

Kodak sued to enforce its rights in Switzerland. At first instance before the Zurich Commercial Court it failed to obtain an injunction and appealed to the First Division of the Federal Court. After contrasting what it regarded as being the Anglo-Saxon view of issues relating to parallel imports based on a theory of implied license and what it regarded as the Continental view based on a theory of consumption or exhaustion of the right, the court found that Swiss law on the subject adopted the exhaustion principle. The court went on to consider what exactly it was that was exhausted under this theory and came to the conclusion that, since patents are purely territorial in nature, only sale of a product by the patent owner in Switzerland could exhaust rights under a Swiss patent. In reaching this conclusion, the court considered whether it was contrary to any principles of international law and decided that there were no principles of international law which were applicable to Switzerland that would require a different conclusion. The court therefore concluded that, unlike the situation with trademarks, where the Swiss constitution contains some relevant provisions, and copyright, where Swiss law had traditionally adopted a principle of international exhaustion, the Swiss part of a European Patent could be used to prevent importation into Switzerland of goods originally sold outside Switzerland by a company related to the owner of the Swiss rights.