Is it legal to travel with a 1W/1000mW laser?
I'm planning on travelling from the UK to Switzerland in the summer of this year. There is a good shop there that sells high powered laser pointers. These would be quite strong (between 500mW to 100mW) and nothing like the standard laser pointers used for academic/work presentations.
I remember hearing somewhere that it's illegal to attempt to import high powered lasers into any EU country due to some stupid people pointing them at aircraft a few years back and causing a commotion.
Is this true?
Best Answer
Switzerland is not an EU country and not part of the EEA nor the customs union. Importation into Switzerlandm especially from a non-EU country, is subject to Swiss rules.
In Switzerland, for health reasons (to avoid eye injuries and glaring, both intentional and accidental), all laser pointers except those of class 1 and clearly marked as such are classified as hazardous and banned.
Ownership, possession, importation, transiting and distribution of hazardous laser pointers are prohibited without justification and licence from June 1, 2019. The last exceptions concerning class 2 pointers ended on June 1, 2021.
Any thing above 0.039 mW is certainly not allowed (but some lasers under 0.039 mW are also banned), even if you are just passing through Switzerland.
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Answer 2
Neither the UK nor Switzerland are part of the EU or EEA, so the rules you heard about seem not to apply.
However, Switzerland has banned all laser products above class 1:
Switzerland has banned selling, distributing, importing, or giving away laser pointers above Class 1, as of June 1 2019.
As of June 2019, this is the most restrictive laser pointer law of any major country; Class 2 pointers (up to 1 milliwatt) are legal in most countries, and Class 3R pointers (up to 5 milliwatts) are legal in the U.S.
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