Ships a consumer interface, in Austria

Bundes-Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz (BGStG), §§ 2 Abs. 2 und 3, 4 bis 6, 9 Abs. 1 und 5, 10 Abs. 2 und 3, 13 Abs. 1, 14 und 19 Abs. 1 · Read the law's page

• No technical accessibility standard is codified in the provisions on discrimination (sections 4 to 6); if you offer goods or services that are available to the public, do not discriminate directly or indirectly against a person because of a disability, including through a neutral rule, criterion or procedure, or a feature of a designed living area, that can place persons with disabilities at a particular disadvantage, unless it is objectively justified by a legitimate aim with appropriate and necessary means (BGStG, ss. 2(2), 4(1) and 5(2)).
• A barrier that causes such a disadvantage need not be removed where removal would be unlawful or unreasonable because of disproportionate burdens, weighing the effort of removal, your economic capacity, public funding for the measures, the time since the Act came into force and the effect on the general interests of persons with disabilities; if removal is a disproportionate burden, still take reasonable measures that achieve at least a significant improvement, approaching equal treatment as closely as possible (BGStG, s. 6(1) to (3)).
• Expect a court to check whether accessibility rules apply to the case and whether and to what extent you met them, and to read as barrier-free the information-processing systems and other designed areas of life that persons with disabilities can access and use in the generally customary way, without particular difficulty and in principle without outside help (BGStG, s. 6(4) and (5)).
• Do not disadvantage a person who complains about discrimination or starts proceedings to enforce the ban, or a witness or supporter of the complaint, because of it (BGStG, s. 9(5)).
• A person who claims you discriminated against them must first ask a Landesstelle of the Sozialministeriumservice for conciliation; a court claim against you is admissible only if no amicable settlement was reached within three months of its start, and must be brought within three years, or one year for harassment (BGStG, ss. 10(2) and (3) and 14).

Audiovisuelle Mediendienste-Gesetz (AMD-G), §§ 30a Abs. 1 und 2, 30b und 64 Abs. 2 Z 2, BGBl. I Nr. 84/2001 in der Fassung BGBl. I Nr. 150/2020 · Read the law's page

• If you are a media service provider (Mediendiensteanbieter) with television programmes or on-demand catalogues, make sure that each year, according to your economic capacity and taking account of public funding for such measures, the share of accessible programmes in all your programmes and catalogues rises continuously and step by step above the level of 31 December 2020; you may make justified exceptions for live content; this duty does not apply for as long as the turnover from your audiovisual media service in the previous year did not exceed EUR 500,000, nor, if you provide only locally or regionally directed television programmes, for the audiovisual media services you offer (AMD-G, s. 30b(1)).
• After hearing a representative organisation for people with visual or hearing impairments and one for people with intellectual impairments, prepare an action plan with a concrete three-year timetable for raising each year the share of accessible programmes other than live broadcasts, split by the categories of information, entertainment, education, art and culture, and sport; send it to the regulatory authority and publish it so that it is easily, directly and permanently accessible (AMD-G, s. 30b(2)).
• Report to the regulatory authority each year by 31 March, in the standardised form of its guidelines, on the implementation of the action plan and the rise in the shares in each category, and publish the report in the same way as the plan; if the measures or increases in the plan were not met, give the reasons and the steps planned to make up the shortfall by the end of the following year (AMD-G, s. 30b(3)).
• If you provide a media service, give the federal and Land authorities and the municipalities in your service area, free of charge, the means at any time to make calls in crises and disasters and other important announcements to the public, and supply that information so that it is accessible; the authority or private person that issues the call pays the extra cost of making it accessible (AMD-G, s. 30a(1) and (2)).

Barrierefreiheitsgesetz (BaFG), § 34; Bundesvergabegesetz 2018 (BVergG 2018), §§ 107 Abs. 1 und 2 und 275 Abs. 1 und 2; Bundesvergabegesetz Konzessionen 2018 (BVergGKonz 2018), § 60 Abs. 1 und 2 · Read the law's page

• If you sell to a public contracting authority a product or service that the BaFG covers, expect the tender's technical specifications to require the accessibility requirements of Annex 1 of the BaFG, which section 34(1) makes mandatory accessibility requirements within the meaning of section 107(1) and section 275(1) of the Bundesvergabegesetz 2018 and section 60(1) of the Bundesvergabegesetz Konzessionen 2018; a product or service that meets harmonised standards or technical specifications whose references are published in the Official Journal of the European Union is treated as meeting them (BaFG, s. 34(1) and (3); Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 24(1)).
• If you tender for a performance intended for use by natural persons, expect the technical specifications to take account of design for all, including accessibility for persons with disabilities, and to refer to mandatory accessibility requirements that follow from a legal act of the European Union; the contracting authority may depart from this in objectively justified cases, in particular where no use by persons with disabilities is expected or the estimated additional costs are disproportionate (Bundesvergabegesetz 2018, s. 107(1) and (2); for sector contracting entities above the threshold values, s. 275(1) and (2); for concessions above the threshold values, the technical and functional requirements under Bundesvergabegesetz Konzessionen 2018, s. 60(1) and (2)).

Barrierefreiheitsgesetz (BaFG), §§ 2 Abs. 2 und 3, 3, 4 Abs. 3, 5, 6, 14, 15, 17, 18, 36, 37 Abs. 2 und 3 sowie Anlagen 1, 3 und 4, BGBl. I Nr. 76/2023 · Read the law's page

• If you offer or provide to consumers after 28 June 2025 a service listed in section 2(2) of the BaFG (electronic communications services other than emergency calls and machine-to-machine transmission services; services giving access to audiovisual media services; the websites, mobile services including apps, electronic tickets, transport information (for information screens, only interactive screens within the Union) and interactive self-service terminals (other than those built into vehicles, aircraft, ships and rolling stock) of air, bus, rail and waterborne passenger transport, where for urban, suburban and regional transport only the interactive self-service terminals are covered; consumer banking services; e-books and dedicated software; e-commerce services), design, offer and provide it to the requirements of Annex 1, Sections 3 and 4 (for urban, suburban and regional transport, Section 4 only) (BaFG, ss. 2(2), 4(3) and 14(1); Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 4(3) and 13(1)).
• If you are a microenterprise (fewer than ten persons employed and either annual turnover or annual balance sheet total of at most EUR 2 million) that offers or provides services, you are exempt from the accessibility requirements of section 4(3) and from all obligations connected with meeting them; if you rely on the exemption, give the Sozialministeriumservice on request the documents it needs to check it (BaFG, ss. 3(19), 6(1) and 24(2); Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 4(5)).
• Make websites, their online applications and mobile services including apps perceivable, operable, understandable and robust in a consistent and adequate way; make the products covered by the Act that you use to provide the service meet Section 1 (and where relevant Section 2) of Annex 1; give information about how the service works, about the products it uses and their accessibility features, through more than one sensory channel and in understandable, perceivable, text-based formats, in an adequate font size with sufficient contrast, with an alternative for non-text content; and where you offer support services (help desks, call centres, technical support, relay services and training services), give information on the accessibility of the service and its compatibility with assistive technologies through accessible means of communication (BaFG, Annex 1, Section 3, lit. a to d).
• If you provide electronic communications services, add real-time text beside voice and, where video is offered, total conversation services; if you provide services giving access to audiovisual media services, offer perceivable, operable, understandable and robust electronic programme guides that give information on the accessibility available, and transmit access components (subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, audio description, spoken subtitles, sign language interpretation) in full, in adequate quality, synchronised with sound and video, and so that users can control their display and use (BaFG, Annex 1, Section 4, lit. a and b).
• If you provide passenger transport services (other than urban, suburban and regional), give information on the accessibility of vehicles, surrounding infrastructure and buildings and on assistance, and on electronic tickets and ticketing services, real-time travel information and additional service information; for urban, suburban and regional transport, make the self-service terminals accessible (BaFG, Annex 1, Section 4, lit. c and d).
• If you provide consumer banking services, offer identification methods, electronic signatures, security and payment services that are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, and keep information at or below language level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (BaFG, Annex 1, Section 4, lit. e).
• If you provide e-books and dedicated software, keep text and audio synchronised, do not let the digital files block assistive technologies, ensure access to content, navigation and layout, allow alternative presentation, make accessibility features discoverable through metadata, and do not let digital rights management block accessibility features (BaFG, Annex 1, Section 4, lit. f).
• If you provide e-commerce services, give the accessibility information about the products and services on sale where the responsible operator supplies it, make identification, security and payment functions provided as a service accessible, and offer identification methods, electronic signatures and payment services that are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust (BaFG, Annex 1, Section 4, lit. g).
• Prepare the information of Annex 3 and state in your general terms and conditions, or a similar document, how the service meets the requirements, with a general description of the service in an accessible format, the explanations needed to understand how it is carried out and a description of how it meets the requirements of Annex 1, and present information showing that the way the service is provided and monitored ensures that it meets them (Annex 3, points 1 and 3); make it available to the public in written and oral form, including in a form accessible to persons with disabilities, and keep it for as long as you offer the service (BaFG, s. 14(2) and Annex 3).
• Keep procedures in place so that the requirements are always met while the service is offered, and take account of changes in the features of the service, in the requirements and in the harmonised standards or technical specifications relied on (BaFG, s. 14(3)); a service that meets harmonised standards or parts of them, whose references are published in the Official Journal of the European Union, is presumed to conform to the requirements they cover, and one that meets technical specifications is deemed to conform to the requirements they cover (s. 5).
• If a service does not conform, take the corrective measures needed, inform the Sozialministeriumservice and the competent authorities of the Member States where the service is provided at once, with details of the non-conformity and the measures taken, and hand over on its reasoned request the information and documents in German or English that show conformity, cooperating in remedying the non-conformity (BaFG, s. 14(4) and (5)).
• If you provide services through self-service terminals, prepare information on whether, and to what extent, the built environment of the terminals that falls within your responsibility is accessible to persons with disabilities, make it available to the public, including in an accessible form, and keep it for as long as you offer the service (BaFG, s. 15).
• The requirements apply only so far as compliance does not need a significant change that fundamentally alters the basic nature of the service, and only so far as it does not impose a disproportionate burden; if you rely on either, assess it (for the disproportionate burden against the criteria of Annex 4), document the assessment, keep the results for five years after the service was last provided, produce a copy on request, and send information to the Sozialministeriumservice and the market surveillance authorities of the Member State where the service is provided; if you rely on the disproportionate-burden exception, renew the assessment for each category or type of service when the service changes, when the Sozialministeriumservice asks and at least every five years (BaFG, ss. 17 and 18(1) to (4) and (6); Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 14).
• You cannot rely on the disproportionate-burden exception if you received public or private funds, other than your own, to improve accessibility (BaFG, s. 18(7); Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 14(6)).
• Websites and mobile applications need not make accessible recorded time-based media or office file formats published before 28 June 2025, online maps and map services that give essential navigation information in accessible digital form, third-party content that you neither finance, develop nor control, or archive content that is neither updated nor revised after 28 June 2025 (BaFG, s. 2(3)).
• A service that complies with the provisions on accessible information and information on accessibility in Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, Regulation (EC) No 1107/2006, Regulation (EU) No 1177/2010, Regulation (EU) No 181/2011, Regulation (EU) 2021/782 or the acts adopted under Directive 2008/57/EC meets the corresponding requirements of the BaFG, and the additional requirements of the BaFG apply in full (BaFG, s. 7; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 5).
• Until 28 June 2030 you may continue to provide services using products that you lawfully used for similar services before 28 June 2025; service contracts agreed before 28 June 2025 may continue unchanged until they expire, for no longer than five years from that date; and self-service terminals that you lawfully used before 28 June 2025 may stay in use for comparable services until the end of their economic useful life, for no longer than 20 years after first use and not beyond 28 June 2040 (BaFG, s. 37(2) and (3); Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 32).

Barrierefreiheitsgesetz (BaFG), §§ 21 bis 33, 35 und 36, BGBl. I Nr. 76/2023 · Read the law's page

• If the Sozialministeriumservice checks a product or service of yours, cooperate fully with it; make available free of charge the tools and access data needed for a full test for the duration of the check, and provide samples and trial provision of the service free of charge, bearing the transport costs (BaFG, ss. 23(1) and (2) and 25).
• Give the Sozialministeriumservice, on request, the relevant documents, technical specifications, data and information on conformity and technical aspects, including access to embedded software, copies of them, and information on the supply chain, distribution network, quantities on the market and other models with the same technical features (BaFG, s. 23(5) and (6)); allow its authorised persons to enter the premises, land and means of transport you use for your business during business hours (s. 23(4)).
• If the Sozialministeriumservice announces a check of a self-service terminal, keep the terminal available undisturbed for the time the check needs (BaFG, s. 23(7)).
• If a check shows that a product or service does not comply, bear the costs of the check that the Sozialministeriumservice orders by notice (BaFG, s. 23(9)).
• If the Sozialministeriumservice requires corrective measures for a product within a set period, take all suitable measures to bring the product into conformity and extend them to all the products you made available on the Union market; if you do not, withdraw or recall the product within the further period it sets, failing which it orders provisional measures by notice to withdraw, recall, prohibit or restrict the product on the Austrian market (BaFG, s. 26(1), (3) and (4)).
• If the Sozialministeriumservice finds that a service does not meet the requirements, take the corrective measures it requires within the period it sets; it must then by notice oblige you to take corrective or other proportionate measures, such as informing the public of the non-compliance or ceasing to offer or provide the service (BaFG, s. 28(1)); if the built-environment information of section 15 is missing, provide it within the period set by notice (s. 28(2)).
• If the Sozialministeriumservice finds a formal non-conformity (a CE marking missing or wrongly affixed, an EU declaration of conformity missing or wrong, technical documentation unavailable or incomplete, missing, wrong or incomplete manufacturer or importer details, or another unmet formal duty of section 9 or 11), correct it; if it persists the Sozialministeriumservice restricts or prohibits the product or has it withdrawn by notice (BaFG, s. 29(1) and (2)); if the Annex 3 information of a service is missing, incomplete or not made available in accessible form, correct it, failing which the Sozialministeriumservice obliges you by notice to take corrective or other proportionate measures (s. 29(3) and (4)).
• If you rely on the fundamental-alteration or disproportionate-burden exception, expect the Sozialministeriumservice to check that you made and documented the assessment, informed it, applied the criteria of Annex 4 properly, and met the accessibility requirements that still apply (BaFG, s. 24(1)).
• A notice of the Sozialministeriumservice, or its failure to decide, can be challenged by an appeal to the Bundesverwaltungsgericht; the federal minister responsible for social affairs may bring an appeal on a point of law (Amtsrevision) to the Verwaltungsgerichtshof against the Bundesverwaltungsgericht's decision (BaFG, ss. 31 and 32).
• Before the Sozialministeriumservice requests corrective action or issues a notice, it must give you the result of its investigation and at least ten working days to comment; once you show it that the lawful state has been restored, apply to have the measures it ordered by notice lifted in whole or in part (BaFG, ss. 26(1) and (4), 28(3), 29(5) and 30).
• A breach of the duties listed in section 36 is an administrative offence that the Sozialministeriumservice punishes with a fine; where the operator is a legal person, the person authorised to represent it externally, or a responsible agent it has appointed, answers for the breach and the legal person is jointly liable for the fine, unless the provision provides otherwise, and a substitute term of imprisonment is set for the case that the fine cannot be collected (BaFG, s. 36; Verwaltungsstrafgesetz 1991, ss. 9 and 16).