Lab-grown or synthetic diamonds: what does the law say?
In Switzerland, there is no federal ordinance that specifically regulates the production or trade of synthetic diamonds : there are therefore no regulations concerning their denomination.
However, GGTL Laboratories Switzerland relies on the French decree no. 2002-65 of 14 January 2002 on the trade in precious stones and pearls, which was issued following a directive of the European Parliament (98/34/EC) relating in particular to information on technical standards and regulations.
Article 4 of this decree, which was reconfirmed by a majority on 3 June 2025 (despite a request for revision), stipulates that the term synthetic refers to «stones which are crystallised or recrystallised products, the manufacture of which, wholly or partially caused by man, has been obtained by various processes, whatever they may be, and the physical and chemical properties and crystalline structure of which correspond essentially to those of the natural stones which they copy».
For these reasons, our laboratory uses only the qualifier «synthetic» to name all man-made diamonds, even though some people consider the terms «laboratory-grown», «laboratory-created» and «synthetic» to be synonymous, while article 4 of the decree specifies that the term «grown» is prohibited to designate synthetic products. These terms are commercial names designed to avoid the word «synthetic», which is not always very appealing to consumers.
Finally, the term «laboratory» is overused, because for synthetic diamonds it would be more accurate to talk about «industrially-manufactured synthetic diamonds». And that comes from a laboratory 😉.