Ships a consumer interface, in France

Code pénal, art. 225-1 et 225-2 · Read the law's page

• Do not refuse to supply a good or a service to a natural person on the ground of the person's handicap, or to a legal person on the ground of the handicap of all or some of its members (Art. 225-1 and 225-2, 1°); the same applies to making the supply conditional on a condition based on such a ground (Art. 225-2, 4°).
• Do not obstruct the normal exercise of any economic activity on such a ground (Art. 225-2, 2°).
• The Penal Code names no technical accessibility standard for a website or app: the duty is the ban on discrimination on the ground of handicap in the supply of a good or service (Penal Code, Art. 225-1 and 225-2).

Loi n° 2008-496 du 27 mai 2008, art. 1er, 2 (3°), 4 et 5 · Read the law's page

• If you offer goods or services, do not treat a person less favourably than another is, has been or would be treated in a comparable situation on the ground of the person's handicap, in access to or supply of those goods or services (Art. 1, first paragraph; Art. 2, 3°).
• Do not apply a provision, criterion or practice, neutral in appearance, that is liable to put persons at a particular disadvantage on the ground of handicap in access to or supply of goods and services, unless it is objectively justified by a legitimate aim and the means of achieving that aim are necessary and appropriate (Art. 1, second paragraph; Art. 2, 3°).
• Do not treat a person unfavourably for having testified in good faith to discriminatory conduct or reported it (Art. 3).
• If a person who considers they are the victim of such discrimination presents facts to the court from which it may be presumed, prove that the measure was justified by objective factors unrelated to any discrimination (Art. 4).
• The Act names no technical accessibility standard for a website or app: the duty is the ban on direct and indirect discrimination on the ground of handicap in access to and supply of goods and services (Loi n° 2008-496, Art. 1 and 2, 3°).

Code de la consommation, art. L. 112-8 et L. 131-7; ordonnance n° 2023-857 du 6 septembre 2023; décret n° 2017-875 du 9 mai 2017, art. 3 · Read the law's page

• If your annual turnover exceeds the threshold of EUR 250 million, calculated for each legal unit on the average annual turnover achieved in France over the last three accounting years before the year concerned, make the telephone number that receives a consumer's call about the performance of a contract with a professional or the handling of a complaint accessible to deaf, hard-of-hearing, deafblind and aphasic people through a simultaneous written and visual translation service, at no extra cost to end users and at your expense (Code de la consommation, Art. L. 112-8; Décret 2017-875, Art. 3, I).
• Make the telephone reception services concerned accessible directly or, failing that, through a dedicated online interface delivering the translation service (Art. L. 112-8).
• Provide the accessibility yourself, entrust it under your own responsibility to a specialised operator, or provide it through the universal telephone accessibility solution of Article 105 of Loi n° 2016-1321 of 7 October 2016 (Art. L. 112-8).
• From 1 October 2026 run the translation service during the same opening hours as your customer service; until 30 September 2026 it had to run for at least half of those hours (Décret 2017-875, Art. 3, II).
• You may instead make the customer reception service accessible directly through professional telephone advisers who master French Sign Language, written transcription or cued speech; an electronic communications application may replace the simultaneous written and visual translation service only if it guarantees accessibility of equivalent quality and the same translation conditions (Loi n° 2016-1321, Art. 105, IV and VI).

Loi n° 2005-102 du 11 février 2005, art. 78; décret n° 2017-875 du 9 mai 2017, art. 2 et 6 · Read the law's page

• If you are a private person charged with a public service mission, make the telephone reception services that receive your users' calls accessible to deaf, hard-of-hearing, deafblind and aphasic people through a simultaneous written and visual translation service, at no extra cost to them and at your charge, directly or through a dedicated online platform (Act of 11 February 2005, Art. 78).
• Provide the accessibility yourself, entrust it under your responsibility to a specialised operator, or use the universal telephone accessibility solution of Article 105 of Loi n° 2016-1321 of 7 October 2016, and guarantee the confidentiality of the conversations translated or transcribed (Art. 78).
• Give deaf and hard-of-hearing users, at their request, a simultaneous written and visual translation of any oral or sound information concerning them, on the terms and within the time set by regulation (Art. 78).
• From 1 October 2026 run the translation service during the same opening hours as your telephone reception service; until 30 September 2026 it had to run for at least half of those hours (Décret 2017-875, Art. 2).
• You may instead make the reception service accessible directly through professional telephone advisers who master French Sign Language, written transcription or cued speech (Loi n° 2016-1321, Art. 105, IV).

Code de la commande publique, art. R2111-6 et R2311-3 · Read the law's page

• If you sell works, supplies or services to a public buyer in France, the technical specifications of the contract take into account accessibility criteria for persons with disabilities or criteria of functionality for all users, except in a duly justified case (Code de la commande publique, Art. R2111-6); the article names no standard, so the criteria are the ones the specifications state.
• If you sell under a defence or security contract, the technical specifications take those criteria into account whenever possible (Art. R2311-3).

Décret n° 2019-768 du 24 juillet 2019 · Read the law's page

• Make your online public communication services accessible to persons with disabilities in accordance with the harmonised standards, or parts of them, whose references are published in the Official Journal of the European Union under Article 6 of Directive (EU) 2016/2102 (Décret 2019-768, Art. 1).
• Apply the accessibility framework (référentiel d'accessibilité) adopted jointly by the minister for persons with disabilities and the minister for digital affairs, which sets the technical arrangements for implementing accessibility and the format of the statement and the home-page mention (Art. 5); version 4 of the Référentiel général d'amélioration de l'accessibilité (RGAA) was adopted by joint order of 20 September 2019, and its publisher has issued revisions since (4.0 to 4.1 and 4.1 to 4.1.2).
• Publish online the accessibility statement required by Article 47(III) of the Act, in the manner the framework specifies, with at least: the publication manager's contact details, the service name and a link to the multi-year plan; the state of the service against the accessibility obligation, the evaluation elements and the list of inaccessible content with reasons and accessible alternatives; and the means for users to report accessibility difficulties and the remedies available (Art. 6, I and II).
• Communicate the statement to the administration through the teleservice, under the arrangements set jointly by the two ministers (Art. 6, III).
• Show on the home page the accessibility mention required by Article 47(IV), in the manner the framework specifies (Art. 6, IV).
• Include in the continuing training of your staff who work on the services a theoretical and practical course on digital accessibility and compliance with the accessibility requirements (Art. 7).
• The duties of Article 47 bind an enterprise only if its average annual turnover achieved in France over the last three accounting years closed before the year concerned reaches EUR 250 million (Art. 2).
• You need not make the following content accessible: office files published before 23 September 2018 unless needed for an administrative procedure within your tasks; prerecorded audio and video published before 23 September 2020; live audio and video; online maps and mapping services, if essential information on maps giving a location or route is provided in accessible digital form; third-party content you neither finance, develop nor control; reproductions of heritage collection items that cannot be made fully accessible because the requirements are incompatible with preserving the item or the authenticity of the reproduction, or because no automated and economical transcription solution is available; intranet and extranet content published before 23 September 2019, until the site is thoroughly revised; and website and mobile application content that is neither needed for an active administrative procedure nor updated or modified after 23 September 2019, such as archives (Art. 3).
• You may leave content or functionality inaccessible where making it accessible would be a disproportionate burden: where your size, resources and nature do not allow it, or where the expected benefit for persons with disabilities is too low against your cost, taking account of the frequency and duration of use and the importance of the service; provide an accessible alternative where that is reasonably possible (Art. 4).
• Meet the duties by the dates in Article 10: for the persons in 1° to 3° of Article 47(I), 23 September 2019 (websites, intranets and extranets created since 23 September 2018), 23 September 2020 (those created before) and 23 June 2021 (mobile applications, packaged software and digital street furniture); for the enterprises in 4°, 1 October 2019, 1 October 2020 and 1 July 2021 on the same pattern; digital street furniture installed before those dates may stay in service until the end of its economically useful life, at most fifteen years from entry into service (Art. 10).

Loi n° 2005-102 du 11 février 2005, art. 47 (I, 2°) et 47-1 · Read the law's page

• If you are a private-law person delegated a public service mission, make your online public communication services (websites, intranets, extranets, mobile applications, packaged software and the application and interactive part of digital street furniture) accessible to persons with disabilities, in accordance with the accessibility requirements fixed by the decree under Article 47(V) (Act of 11 February 2005, Art. 47, I, 2°, and II).
• Publish an accessibility statement and draw up a multi-year accessibility plan, made public and broken down into annual action plans, for a term of no more than three years (Art. 47, III).
• Show on the home page of every such service a clearly visible mention of whether it complies with the accessibility rules (Art. 47, IV).
• Give easy and direct access, from every such service, to the accessibility statement, the multi-year plan and the current year's action plan, and let users easily report breaches of the accessibility rules (Art. 47, IV).
• If Arcom serves a formal notice that you have failed the obligations in I, III or IV of Article 47, comply within the period it sets (Art. 47-1, II).
• The accessibility duty applies to the extent that it does not create a disproportionate burden for you (Art. 47, II; Décret 2019-768, Art. 4).

Loi n° 2005-102 du 11 février 2005, art. 47 (I, 4°) et 47-1 · Read the law's page

• If your turnover exceeds the threshold set by the decree under Article 47(V), make your online public communication services (websites, intranets, extranets, mobile applications, packaged software and the application and interactive part of digital street furniture) accessible to persons with disabilities, in accordance with the accessibility requirements fixed by that decree (Act of 11 February 2005, Art. 47, I and II); the threshold is EUR 250 million of average annual turnover achieved in France over the last three accounting years closed before the year concerned (Décret 2019-768, Art. 2).
• Publish an accessibility statement and draw up a multi-year accessibility plan, made public and broken down into annual action plans, for a term of no more than three years (Art. 47, III).
• Show on the home page of every such service a clearly visible mention of whether it complies with the accessibility rules (Art. 47, IV).
• Give easy and direct access, from every such service, to the accessibility statement, the multi-year plan and the current year's action plan, and let users easily report breaches of the accessibility rules (Art. 47, IV).
• If Arcom serves a formal notice that you have failed the obligations in III or IV of Article 47, comply within the period it sets (Art. 47-1, II).
• The accessibility duty applies to the extent that it does not create a disproportionate burden for you (Art. 47, II; Décret 2019-768, Art. 4).

Code de la consommation, art. L. 312-95 et L. 314-32; Code monétaire et financier, art. L. 133-44 (V), L. 311-14, L. 315-8-1, L. 323-1 et L. 323-2 · Read the law's page

• If you provide consumer banking contracts or services after 28 June 2025 (the pre-contractual information sheets and credit contracts, investment services, payment services and the operations of a payment account, the services linked to payment accounts, and the management of electronic money), make them meet the accessibility requirements of Article L. 412-13 of the Code de la consommation and of the Arrêté of 9 October 2023 (Code de la consommation, Art. D. 412-50, I, 4°).
• As lender, make sure that the contracts of section 11 of chapter II of title I of book III of the Code de la consommation, and the information sheets, offers and credit contracts you provide to your customers, meet those requirements (Art. L. 312-95 and L. 314-32).
• As payment service provider, make sure the authentication methods you provide to your customers meet those requirements (Code monétaire et financier, Art. L. 133-44, V).
• As a professional providing the payment-account and payment services of the Code monétaire et financier, make sure the operations and services you provide to your customers are accessible in accordance with Article L. 412-13 (Art. L. 311-14).
• As electronic money issuer, make sure all the operations needed to manage electronic money meet those requirements (Art. L. 315-8-1).
• As investment services provider, entity providing investment services that is not subject to the authorisation procedure of Article L. 531-2, or investment adviser, make sure the investment services of Articles L. 321-1 and L. 321-2 you provide, and all the operations needed to carry out, manage and terminate them, meet those requirements (Art. L. 323-1 and L. 323-2).
• Provide identification methods, electronic signatures and security and payment services that are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, and make sure the information is understandable and does not exceed level B2 (advanced) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Arrêté of 9 October 2023, Art. 9, 4°).
• Meet the same obligations as other service providers on information about the service, corrective measures and cooperation with the authorities (Code de la consommation, Art. D. 412-57).
• The requirements apply only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change amounting to a fundamental alteration of the nature of the service and does not impose a disproportionate burden; if you receive funding from sources other than your own resources to improve the accessibility of a service, you cannot rely on the disproportionate burden for it (Code de la consommation, Art. L. 412-13, II).
• Context: the accessibility requirements for services and all the obligations tied to them do not apply to an enterprise that employs fewer than ten persons and whose annual turnover or balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 2 million (Code de la consommation, Art. L. 412-13, I).
• Context: contracts concluded before 28 June 2025 may run unmodified until they end and at the latest until 28 June 2030; you may keep using until 28 June 2030 products you lawfully used before 28 June 2025 to provide similar services; self-service terminals lawfully used before 28 June 2025 may stay in use for similar services until the end of their economically useful life, up to fifteen years from entry into service (Loi n° 2023-171, Art. 16, VIII, B to D).

Code de la consommation, art. L. 412-13, D. 412-50, D. 412-57 à D. 412-61 et R. 451-4; arrêté du 9 octobre 2023, chapitres III à V · Read the law's page

• If you provide to consumers after 28 June 2025 electronic communications services (other than machine-to-machine transmission), services giving access to audiovisual media services, the listed elements of air, rail, bus and coach, metro, tram, trolleybus and inland waterway passenger transport services (websites, mobile services and apps, e-tickets and ticketing services, travel information, and interactive self-service terminals in the Union), consumer banking contracts and services, or e-commerce services, design and provide them to meet the accessibility requirements of chapters III and V of the Arrêté of 9 October 2023 (Code de la consommation, Art. L. 412-13, I and D. 412-50, I and D. 412-57, 1°).
• Make your websites, including related online applications, and your mobile device services, including mobile applications, accessible in a consistent and appropriate way by making them perceivable, operable, understandable and robust (Arrêté of 9 October 2023, Art. 8, 3°).
• Provide information on how the service works and on how it relates to any products used, with its accessibility features and its interoperability with assistive devices, through more than one sensory channel, in an understandable way and in text formats that allow other formats (Arrêté, Art. 8, 2°).
• Make your support services (help desks, call centres, technical support, relay and training services) give information on the accessibility of the service and its compatibility with assistive technologies through accessible modes of communication (Arrêté, Art. 8, 4°).
• For electronic communications services, including emergency communications, offer real-time text in addition to voice, total conversation where video is offered, synchronised voice and text emergency communications passed to the most appropriate emergency call-reception centre, and support for communication adapted to aphasia under the reference framework adopted by joint order (Arrêté, Art. 9, 1°).
• For services giving access to audiovisual media services, provide perceivable, operable, understandable and robust electronic programme guides and information on the availability of accessibility features, and make sure that subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, audio description, spoken subtitles and sign language interpretation are fully transmitted, in appropriate quality, synchronised with sound and video, and adjustable by the user (Arrêté, Art. 9, 2°).
• For passenger transport services, provide information on the accessibility of vehicles, surrounding infrastructure and the built environment and on assistance for persons with disabilities, and information on smart ticketing systems and real-time travel information (Arrêté, Art. 9, 3°).
• For e-commerce services, provide the accessibility information on the products and services offered when the responsible operator supplies it, and make identification, security and payment functions provided as part of a service, and identification methods, electronic signatures and payment services, perceivable, operable, understandable and robust (Arrêté, Art. 9, 5°).
• Set out the information assessing how the service meets the accessibility requirements in your general terms and conditions or an equivalent document, describing the service in accessible formats and explaining how the requirements are met, make it available to the public in written and oral form including in an accessible way, and keep it as long as the service is available (Code de la consommation, Art. D. 412-57, 2°, and the annex to Art. D. 412-57).
• Put procedures in place so that the provision of services stays compliant, taking account of any change in the service, in the requirements or in the harmonised standards or technical specifications against which conformity is declared (Art. D. 412-57, 3°).
• If a service is non-compliant, take the corrective measures needed and inform the market surveillance authorities of the Member States where you provide it, with details of the non-conformity and of any measure taken; on their reasoned request, supply all the information needed to show conformity and cooperate (Art. D. 412-57, 4° and 5°).
• If you rely on the disproportionate-burden defence, assess it on the criteria of the annex to Article D. 412-60, keep the results for five years from the last time the service was provided, give the authorities a copy on request, renew the assessment for each category or type of service when the service is altered, when the inspecting agents ask and at least every five years, and inform the market surveillance authorities of the Member State where the service is provided (Art. D. 412-60, I, III and IV).
• The requirements apply only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change amounting to a fundamental alteration of the nature of the service and does not impose a disproportionate burden; if you receive funding from sources other than your own resources to improve the accessibility of a service, you cannot rely on the disproportionate burden for it (Art. L. 412-13, II).
• Context: the accessibility requirements for services and all the obligations tied to them do not apply to an enterprise that employs fewer than ten persons and whose annual turnover or balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 2 million (Art. L. 412-13, I).
• Context: the section does not apply to pre-recorded time-based media and office file formats published before 28 June 2025, online maps whose essential information is provided in an accessible digital form, third-party content you neither fund, develop nor control, or website and mobile application content that is an archive, which only holds content not updated or edited after 28 June 2025 (Art. D. 412-50, III).
• Context: services that conform to the accessible-information requirements of the EU passenger rights regulations are deemed to meet the accessibility requirements, and services that conform to harmonised standards or technical specifications are presumed to meet the requirements those cover (Art. D. 412-58 and D. 412-59).
• Context: contracts concluded before 28 June 2025 may run unmodified until they end and at the latest until 28 June 2030; you may keep using until 28 June 2030 products you lawfully used before 28 June 2025 to provide similar services; self-service terminals lawfully used before 28 June 2025 may stay in use for similar services until the end of their economically useful life, up to fifteen years from entry into service, and their renewal must secure a balanced territorial distribution (Loi n° 2023-171, Art. 16, VIII, B to D).

Loi n° 2005-102 du 11 février 2005, art. 48; décret n° 2023-778 du 14 août 2023; arrêté du 14 août 2023 · Read the law's page

• If you publish, distribute or sell digital books, or publish software specialised in access to, navigation in, reading and use of digital books (including services integrated on mobile devices and mobile applications), meet the accessibility requirements set by the Arrêté of 14 August 2023 (Loi n° 2005-102, Art. 48, I).
• As publisher of digital books, design book files that meet the accessibility requirements of the arrêté and fill in the metadata of the files in accordance with it (Décret 2023-778, Art. 2, I).
• As distributor or disseminator of digital books, receive, store and send the files to retailers without compromising their accessibility features or changing their metadata (Décret 2023-778, Art. 2, II).
• As retailer of digital books, store and supply the files to the consumer without compromising their accessibility features, and faithfully restore to the consumer the metadata on accessibility characteristics (Décret 2023-778, Art. 2, III).
• As publisher of software specialised in digital books, design and provide software that supports the accessibility of the book files (Décret 2023-778, Art. 2, IV).
• Make sure procedures are in place so that the provision of digital books or specialised software stays compliant, taking account of changes in them, in the requirements and in the harmonised standards or technical specifications against which conformity is declared (Décret 2023-778, Art. 2, V).
• Give the information of Annex V of Directive (EU) 2019/882 in written, oral and accessible form and keep it as long as your services are available (Loi n° 2005-102, Art. 48, III).
• Meet the requirements of the Arrêté of 14 August 2023: accessible products used in the service, information on how the service works and on its accessibility features, support services that give accessibility information, and for digital books synchronised text and audio, no obstruction of assistive technologies, access to content and navigation, alternative renderings, accessibility metadata and digital rights management that does not block accessibility features (Arrêté of 14 August 2023, Art. 1 and 2).
• On a reasoned request of Arcom supply all the information needed to show that the service conforms, and take any corrective measure it asks for when it reports a non-conformity; if you find a non-conformity, take the corrective measures needed and inform Arcom (Loi n° 2005-102, Art. 48, IV and V).
• If you rely on either defence, keep the evidence and results of the assessment for five years from the date of the last version of the book or software made available to the public, give Arcom a copy on request, renew the assessment when the book or software is modified, on Arcom's request and at least every five years, and inform the authorities of the Member State where the book or software is placed on the market (Décret 2023-778, Art. 3).
• The requirements apply only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change amounting to a fundamental alteration of the nature of the product or service and does not impose a disproportionate burden; if you receive funding from sources other than your own resources to improve accessibility you cannot rely on the disproportionate burden for the service (Loi n° 2005-102, Art. 48, II).
• If you employ fewer than ten persons and your annual turnover or balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 2 million, the accessibility requirements of Article 48 and the obligations tied to them do not apply to you (Loi n° 2005-102, Art. 48, I).
• Context: the decree and the arrêté apply to digital books and specialised software published from 28 June 2025, and from 28 June 2030 to those published before 28 June 2025 (Décret 2023-778, Art. 7; Arrêté of 14 August 2023, Art. 3).
• Context: digital books and specialised software that respect the harmonised standards published in the Official Journal of the European Union, or failing them the technical specifications adopted by the European Commission, are presumed to meet the requirements (Décret 2023-778, Art. 1).

Loi n° 86-1067 du 30 septembre 1986, art. 28 (5° bis et 5° ter), 33-1, 33-3 (I, 4°), 34-2 (III) et 20-6 · Read the law's page

• If you edit a terrestrial television service (other than a national programme company), agree in the convention with Arcom the substantial proportions of programmes made accessible to deaf or hard-of-hearing people by suitable means, in particular at peak hours; if your annual average audience exceeds 2.5% of the total television audience, the duty applies to all your programmes except advertisements, with the derogations the convention may provide for particular programmes; for a local television service the convention may lighten the obligations (Loi n° 86-1067, Art. 28, 5° bis).
• If you edit a digital terrestrial television service whose annual average audience exceeds 2.5% of the total television audience, agree in the convention the proportions of programmes accessible to blind or partially sighted people by suitable means, in particular at peak hours (Art. 28, 5° ter).
• If you edit a radio or television service broadcast on a network that does not use frequencies assigned by Arcom, conclude a convention with Arcom that covers the proportions of programmes rendered accessible to deaf or hard-of-hearing people, with the same extension to all programmes for services above the 2.5% audience share (Art. 33-1, I).
• If you edit an on-demand audiovisual media service, conclude a convention with Arcom that determines the proportions of programmes accessible, by suitable means, to deaf or hard-of-hearing people and to blind or partially sighted people (Art. 33-3, I, 4°).
• If you distribute services, make available to the public, free of charge, the services for deaf or hard-of-hearing and blind or partially sighted people that go with the television programmes you offer, the technical provisions being at your charge (Art. 34-2, III).
• As service publisher, report to Arcom each year on the accessibility of your programmes and of the online services you publish; as distributor, report on the accessibility of the means of access to the services you distribute; draw up action plans for continuous improvement in line with Arcom's guidelines and recommendations (Art. 20-6).
• Context: Arcom makes sure that the programmes of a television service that are accessible to deaf or hard-of-hearing or blind or partially sighted people are also made accessible when offered through a catch-up television service (Art. 20-6).