Ships a consumer interface, in Ireland

Equal Status Act 2000 (No. 8 of 2000), ss. 2, 4, 5(1), 21 and 27 · Read the law's page

• The Act names no technical standard for a website or app: the duty is the ban in section 5(1) on discriminating in providing a service, with section 4(1) treating as discrimination a failure to do all that is reasonable to accommodate the needs of a person with a disability.
• If you provide a service to the public generally or a section of the public, whether for payment or not, do not discriminate on the ground of disability in providing it (s. 5(1)).
• Do all that is reasonable to accommodate the needs of a person with a disability by providing special treatment or facilities, where without them it would be impossible or unduly difficult for the person to avail of your service (s. 4(1)).
• A refusal or failure to provide the special treatment or facilities is not deemed reasonable unless providing them would give rise to a cost to you other than a nominal cost (s. 4(2)).
• If a person claims you discriminated against them, the case can be referred to the Director of the Workplace Relations Commission, who may order compensation of up to the maximum the District Court could award in civil cases in contract, or an order that you take a specified course of action (ss. 21(1) and 27).

S.I. No. 284 of 2016, European Union (Award of Public Authority Contracts) Regulations 2016, Reg. 42(4) and (5) · Read the law's page

• If you sell goods, services or works that a contracting authority procures for use by natural persons, whether the general public or its own staff, expect its technical specifications to take into account accessibility criteria for persons with disabilities or design for all users, except in duly justified cases (S.I. 284/2016, Reg. 42(4)); the paragraph names no technical standard.
• Where mandatory accessibility requirements are adopted by a legal act of the European Union, the technical specifications you tender against are defined by reference to them (Reg. 42(5)).

S.I. No. 286 of 2016, European Union (Award of Contracts by Utility Undertakings) Regulations 2016, Reg. 67(4) and (5) · Read the law's page

• If you sell goods, services or works that a contracting entity procures for use by natural persons, whether the general public or its own staff, expect its technical specifications to take into account accessibility criteria for persons with disabilities or design for all users, except in duly justified cases (S.I. 286/2016, Reg. 67(4)); the paragraph names no technical standard.
• Where mandatory accessibility requirements are adopted by a legal act of the European Union, the technical specifications you tender against are defined by reference to them (Reg. 67(5)).

Access Rules for Television Broadcasting Services, Coimisiún na Meán, November 2024, made under the Broadcasting Act 2009, s. 46O, Rules 7, 12 and 13 · Read the law's page

• If you are a television broadcaster under the jurisdiction of the State, meet the subtitling, Irish Sign Language and audio description targets the Rules set for each of your services as a percentage of output for 2025, 2026 and 2027 (Rules 12.2, 12.5, 12.6, 12.8, 12.11 and 12.13).
• Comply, so far as practicable, with the quality standards in Appendix 2, and monitor your content at the point of transmission to check they are met (Rules 13.1 and 13.2).
• Make emergency information, including public announcements in natural disaster situations, accessible to persons with disabilities through subtitling, preferably open, and audio; in a national emergency take all practicable steps to include Irish Sign Language (Rules 13.4 and 13.5).
• Indicate in the listings you publish, in print, broadcast or online, which programmes have access provision and of what type, keep the listings accurate, and use the standard symbol in promotions of those programmes and at their beginning (Rule 13.6).
• Consult groups representing access users at least once a year about their viewing preferences and your performance against the Rules (Rule 13.7).
• Agree an annual accessibility action plan with the Commission, publish it on your website in an accessible format, give the Commission a copy, and report to it each year on your performance against the plan and the Rules as a whole (Rules 13.8, 13.11 and 13.12).
• Nominate an Access Liaison Officer to deal with audience queries on the Rules, and make their contact details public in an accessible manner (Rule 13.13).
• Keep systems and controls that demonstrate your compliance with the Rules (Rule 7.2).

Media Service Code and Media Service Rules, Audiovisual On-demand Media Service Providers, Coimisiún na Meán, November 2024, made under the Broadcasting Act 2009, ss. 46N and 46O, Rules 7, 10 and 16 · Read the law's page

• If you provide an audiovisual on-demand media service under the jurisdiction of the State, take proportionate measures to make the programmes on your service continuously and progressively more accessible to persons with disabilities through subtitling, captioning, sign language and audio description (Rules 10 and 16.1).
• Develop an accessibility action plan, agree it with Coimisiún na Meán, give it the first plan within six months of the Rules' publication and a plan annually after that, in an accessible format suitable for publication (Rules 16.2, 16.3 and 16.5).
• Adhere, so far as practicable, to the quality standards for access services that the Commission applies (Rule 16.7).
• Where your service carries emergency information, including public announcements in natural disaster situations, provide it in a manner accessible to persons with disabilities (Rule 16.8).
• Report to the Commission on the implementation of each agreed plan, and keep systems and controls that demonstrate your compliance with the Rules (Rules 16.9 and 7.2).

S.I. No. 636 of 2023, European Union (Accessibility Requirements of Products and Services) Regulations 2023, Regs. 3(2) and (4), 5(1), (3) and (4), 6, 14, 16 and 38 · Read the law's page

• If you provide to consumers on or after 28 June 2025 an electronic communications service, a service providing access to audiovisual media services, the specified elements of an air, bus, rail or waterborne passenger transport service, consumer banking services, e-books and dedicated software, or an e-commerce service, make the service comply with the accessibility requirements of Parts 3 and 4 of Schedule 1, or of Part 4 only for urban, suburban and regional transport services (Regs. 3(2), 5(1) and 5(3)); a publisher or other economic operator involved in distributing e-books and dedicated software is a service provider for them (Reg. 2(4)).
• Make websites, including the related online applications, and mobile device-based services, including mobile applications, accessible in a consistent and adequate way by making them perceivable, operable, understandable and robust (Schedule 1, Part 3, paragraph (c)).
• Make the products you use to provide the service accessible under Part 1 and, where applicable, Part 2 of Schedule 1, and give information on how the service works, including its link to those products and their accessibility characteristics and interoperability with assistive devices, through more than one sensory channel, in an understandable and perceivable way, in text formats that can generate alternative assistive formats, in fonts of adequate size and suitable shape with sufficient contrast and adjustable spacing, with non-textual content supplemented by an alternative presentation (Schedule 1, Part 3, paragraphs (a) and (b)).
• Where you offer support services such as help desks, call centres, technical support, relay services or training, provide information on the accessibility of the service and its compatibility with assistive technologies in accessible modes of communication (Schedule 1, Part 3, paragraph (d)).
• For e-commerce services, provide the information on the accessibility of the products and services being sold when you are the responsible economic operator and it is provided, and make the identification, security and payment functionality, identification methods, electronic signatures and payment services perceivable, operable, understandable and robust (Schedule 1, Part 4, paragraph (g)).
• For consumer banking services, provide identification methods, electronic signatures, security and payment services that are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, and keep information understandable without exceeding level B2 (upper intermediate) of the Council of Europe's Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Schedule 1, Part 4, paragraph (e)).
• For e-books, provide synchronised text and audio where an e-book contains audio, do not prevent assistive technology from operating properly, ensure access to the content, navigation and layout, allow alternative renditions interoperable with assistive technologies, make e-books discoverable through accessibility metadata, and do not let digital rights management block accessibility features (Schedule 1, Part 4, paragraph (f)).
• For electronic communications services, provide real time text in addition to voice communication, total conversation where video is provided in addition to voice, and synchronised emergency communications by voice, text and, where video is provided, total conversation, transmitted to the most appropriate public safety answering point (Schedule 1, Part 4, paragraph (a)).
• For services providing access to audiovisual media services, provide electronic programme guides that are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust and show the availability of accessibility, and transmit subtitles, audio description, spoken subtitles and sign language interpretation with adequate quality, synchronised with sound and video and under user control (Schedule 1, Part 4, paragraph (b)).
• For air, bus, rail and waterborne passenger transport services other than urban, suburban and regional transport services, provide information on the accessibility of vehicles, the surrounding infrastructure and the built environment and on assistance for persons with disabilities, and about smart ticketing, real-time travel information and additional service information; for urban, suburban and regional transport services, make the self-service terminals you use accessible under Part 1 of Schedule 1 (Schedule 1, Part 4, paragraphs (c) and (d)).
• Where the requirements of Parts 1 to 6 of Schedule 1 do not address a function of the service, make that function accessible by meeting the functional performance criteria of Part 7 of Schedule 1, such as at least one mode of operation that does not require vision, hearing, vocal input, perception of colour or fine motor control (Schedule 1, Part 7).
• Design and provide the service in accordance with the applicable accessibility requirements (Reg. 14(1)).
• Before providing the service, prepare the information Schedule 3 sets out on how the service meets the applicable accessibility requirements, include it in the general terms and conditions or an equivalent document, make it available to the public in writing and in oral format, including in a manner accessible to persons with disabilities, and keep it for as long as the service is in operation (Reg. 14(2) and Schedule 3).
• Keep procedures in place so that the service stays in conformity with the applicable accessibility requirements, and take into account changes in the characteristics of the service, in the requirements, and in the harmonised standards or technical specifications by which the service is declared to meet them (Reg. 14(3)).
• If the service is not in conformity, take the corrective measures needed and immediately inform the competent national authorities of the Member States where the service is provided, with details of the non-compliance and the corrective measures; on a reasoned notice from the relevant compliance authority, give it all the information needed to show the service conforms, and cooperate with it; the authority may direct you to provide the information if you do not (Reg. 14(4) and (5)).
• Regulation 14 and the service requirements of Regulation 5(3) do not apply to a service provided by a microenterprise, an enterprise which employs fewer than 10 persons and which has an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 2 million or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 2 million (Regs. 2(1) and 5(4)).
• Until 28 June 2030 you may keep providing your services using products which were lawfully used by you to provide similar services before 28 June 2030; service contracts agreed before 28 June 2025 may continue without alteration until they expire but no longer than 5 years from that date; and self-service terminals lawfully used before 28 June 2025 may stay in use until the end of their economically useful life, but no longer than 20 years after their entry into use (Reg. 38).

S.I. No. 636 of 2023, Regs. 15, 20(2) and 24(2) and Schedule 4, fundamental alteration and disproportionate burden under the European Union (Accessibility Requirements of Products and Services) Regulations 2023 · Read the law's page

• If you want to rely on the fundamental-alteration or disproportionate-burden limit on the accessibility requirements, carry out an assessment first; the requirements apply to your product or service only to the extent that compliance would not fundamentally alter its basic nature or impose a disproportionate burden on you (Reg. 15(1) and (2)).
• Base the disproportionate-burden assessment on the criteria in Schedule 4, including the ratio of the net costs of compliance to the overall costs of manufacturing, distributing, importing or providing the product or service, the estimated costs and benefits against the benefit for persons with disabilities, and the ratio of the net costs of compliance to your net turnover (Reg. 15(3) and Schedule 4).
• Document the assessment, keep a written record of its relevant results for 5 years after the product was last made available or the service was last provided, and give a copy to the market surveillance authority for a product or the relevant compliance authority for a service on request (Reg. 15(4)).
• If you are a microenterprise (an enterprise which employs fewer than 10 persons and which has an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 2 million or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 2 million) that deals with products and relies on the limit, you need not keep the record under Regulation 15(4) but must give the market surveillance authority the facts relevant to the assessment if it asks (Reg. 15(5) and (6)).
• If you provide a service and rely on the disproportionate-burden limit, renew the assessment for each category or type of service when the service you offer is altered or the relevant compliance authority asks, and in any event at least every 5 years (Reg. 15(7)).
• Do not rely on the disproportionate-burden limit if you receive funding, public or private, from sources other than your own resources that is provided for the purpose of improving accessibility (Reg. 15(8)).
• If you place a product on the market or provide a service in the State and rely on the limit, inform the market surveillance authority for a product or the relevant compliance authority for a service that you do; this duty does not apply to a microenterprise (Reg. 15(9) and (10)).
• If a relevant authority asks for a copy of the assessment or for the facts relevant to it and you do not provide it in time, the authority may direct you to provide the information or documentation concerned (Reg. 15(11)).

S.I. No. 636 of 2023, Regs. 20 to 24, 27 to 36 and 41, enforcement under the European Union (Accessibility Requirements of Products and Services) Regulations 2023 · Read the law's page

• If a relevant authority gives you a direction under the Regulations, comply with it within the period it specifies and tell the authority in writing, no later than 7 days after that period ends, that you have complied (Reg. 27(6) and (7)).
• If the market surveillance authority directs you to take corrective action on a product, or a relevant compliance authority directs you to take corrective action on a service, take it within the period specified; if the market surveillance authority then directs you to withdraw the product from the market, withdraw it (Regs. 21(3) and (4), 23(1) and 24(4)).
• Cooperate fully with the market surveillance authority when it evaluates a product (Reg. 21(2)) and with the relevant compliance authority when it checks a service (Reg. 24(3)).
• If the market surveillance authority directs you to take corrective action on a product, make sure all appropriate corrective action is taken for every such product you have made available on the market throughout the Union (Reg. 21(6)).
• Do not obstruct or interfere with an authorised officer, do not fail without reasonable excuse to comply with the officer's request, and do not make a statement to the officer that you know is false or misleading (Reg. 31(13)).
• Do not give a relevant authority information, in purported compliance with a requirement under the Regulations, that you know or ought reasonably to know is false or misleading in a material respect (Reg. 32(5)).
• Comply with an order of the Circuit Court under Regulation 29 or 30 unless you have a reasonable excuse (Reg. 32(3)(b)).