Is an insurer, in Bulgaria
Accessibility Requirements for Products and Services Act, services covered, accessibility requirements, duties of service providers and transitional rulessince 17 lines
DV br. 31/2025, chl. 2 al. 2 i 3, chl. 46 do 53, § 4 i prilozhenie 2 razdeli III, IV i VI i prilozhenie 5 ot Zakon za iziskvaniyata za dostapnost na produkti i uslugi (Закон за изискванията за достъпност на продукти и услуги) · Read the law's page
- If you offer a service listed in Article 2(2) (electronic communications services other than machine-to-machine transmission; services giving access to audiovisual media services; the websites, mobile services and applications, electronic tickets, travel information and interactive self-service terminals of air, bus, rail and waterborne passenger transport; consumer banking services; e-books and dedicated software; e-commerce services), provide it in line with the accessibility requirements of Annex 2, sections III and IV and the functional performance criteria of section VI (Arts. 2(2) and 46(1); implements Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 2(2) and Art. 4(1) and (3)).
- For urban, suburban and regional transport services, meet only section IV of Annex 2, which for them concerns the accessibility of the self-service terminals used to provide the services (Art. 46(2); Annex 2, section IV, urban, suburban and regional transport services).
- Make accessible the products you use to provide the service, give information on how the service works and, where products are used, on their accessibility features and compatibility with assistive devices, through more than one sensory channel and in text formats usable to create alternative assistive formats, with a non-text alternative, and make websites, related online applications and mobile applications perceivable, operable, understandable and robust; where you offer support services, give accessibility information in accessible modes of communication (Annex 2, section III).
- For electronic communications services, including emergency calls, provide real-time text beside voice, a total conversation with video beside voice, and make emergency calls using voice and text synchronised, and video where provided, and sent to the most appropriate emergency call centre (Annex 2, section IV, electronic communications services).
- For services giving access to audiovisual media services, provide electronic programme guides that are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust and show the available accessibility, and pass on the access services (subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, audio description, spoken subtitles and Bulgarian sign language translation) in full, with adequate quality, synchronised with sound and video and under user control (Annex 2, section IV, services giving access to audiovisual media services).
- For air, bus, rail and waterborne passenger transport services, give information on the accessibility of vehicles, infrastructure and the built environment and on assistance to people with disabilities, and information for smart ticketing, real-time travel information and additional service information (Annex 2, section IV, passenger transport services).
- 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 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Annex 2, section IV, consumer banking services).
- For e-books and dedicated software, provide synchronised text and audio where the e-book has audio, do not let the digital files obstruct assistive technologies, give access to content, navigation and layout, allow alternative content delivery and interoperability with assistive technologies, make e-books findable through accessibility metadata, and do not let digital rights management block accessibility features (Annex 2, section IV, e-books and dedicated software).
- For e-commerce services, give information on the accessibility of the products and services on sale where you provide it, make identification, security and payment functionality supplied as part of the service accessible, and provide identification methods, electronic signatures and payment services that are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust (Annex 2, section IV, e-commerce services).
- Prepare the information required by Annex 5 explaining how the service meets the applicable requirements, include it in the general terms or an equivalent document with a general description of the service in accessible formats, make it available to the public in written and oral form including in ways accessible to people with disabilities, and keep it for as long as the service is provided (Art. 50(2) and (3); Annex 5; implements Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 13(2)).
- Apply procedures that keep the service in conformity throughout its provision, taking account of changes in how it is provided, in the applicable requirements and in the harmonised standards or technical specifications relied on (Art. 51).
- If the service does not conform, take the corrective measures needed and inform at once the competent authority under Article 54(1) and the competent authorities of the Member States where the service is provided, with details of the non-conformity and the measures taken (Art. 52; implements Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 13(4)).
- On a reasoned request, give the competent authority all information needed to show conformity, on paper or electronically, in Bulgarian, within the time it sets, and cooperate on action to bring the service into conformity (Art. 53; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 13(5)).
- A service that meets the accessible-information requirements of the air, rail, maritime and bus passenger rights regulations or of the Railway Transport Act provisions on rail interoperability is treated as meeting the corresponding requirements of Article 46, and any additional requirement of the Act applies in full (Art. 49).
- The accessibility requirements of Article 46(1) and (2), and every obligation connected with meeting them, do not apply to a microenterprise that offers services (a microenterprise employs fewer than 10 persons and has an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total not above EUR 2,000,000 or the equivalent in leva, paragraph 1(1) point 15 of the additional provisions), and the Act does not apply to pre-recorded time-based media and office file formats published before , online maps and mapping services meant for navigation where essential information is provided in an accessible digital manner, content of third parties that you did not fund, develop or control, or archive content not updated or edited after (Arts. 2(3) and 46(3); implements Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 2(4) and Art. 4(5)).
- You may keep using until products you lawfully used for similar services before that date, let service contracts concluded before run unchanged until they expire and for no more than five years after that date, and keep self-service terminals lawfully in use before in service until the end of their economically useful life and for no more than 20 years after they entered use (paragraph 4(1) to (3) of the final provisions; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 32).
- Until the emergency-call obligations of Annex 2, section IV, letter (a) for electronic communications services may also be met through a relay service provider, including applications built into the operating system of terminal devices or other applications of the economic operator or of a third party (paragraph 4(4) of the final provisions; a national rule, which recital 45 of Directive (EU) 2019/882 allows for: a third-party relay service provider as an alternative for answering emergency communications).
Accessibility Requirements for Products and Services Act, fundamental alteration and disproportionate burden, assessment and notification dutiessince 7 lines
DV br. 31/2025, chl. 3 i prilozhenie 1 ot Zakon za iziskvaniyata za dostapnost na produkti i uslugi (Закон за изискванията за достъпност на продукти и услуги) · Read the law's page
- If you rely on the exception, assess whether compliance with the accessibility requirements would require a significant change that fundamentally alters the nature of the product or service, or impose a disproportionate burden, using the criteria of Annex 1 (net compliance costs against total operating and capital costs and against net turnover, one-off organisational costs and ongoing production and development costs, and expected costs and benefits against the benefit to people with disabilities given the number and frequency of use) and any delegated acts of the European Commission (Art. 3(1) and (2); Annex 1; implements Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 14(1) and (2)).
- Document the assessment and keep all relevant results for five years from the last making available of the product or the last provision of the service, and give a copy to the market surveillance authority or the authority checking compliance of services on request (Art. 3(3); Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 14(3)).
- If you are a service provider relying on the disproportionate-burden exception, renew the assessment for each category or type of service when the service changes, when the authority asks, and in any event at least every five years (Art. 3(5); Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 14(5)).
- Unless you are a microenterprise, send information that you rely on the exception for a specific product or service to the market surveillance authority or the authority checking services of the Member State where the product is placed on the market or the service is provided (Art. 3(6); Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 14(8)).
- A microenterprise that deals with products and relies on the exception is exempt from documenting the assessment but must give the market surveillance authority the facts relevant to the assessment on request (Art. 3(4)).
- You may not rely on the disproportionate-burden exception where you receive funding, public or private and other than your own resources, provided to improve the accessibility of the product or service (Art. 3(7); Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 14(6)).
- Where the exception is applied, state in the EU declaration of conformity which accessibility requirements are the subject of the exception (Art. 8(2)).
Accessibility Requirements for Products and Services Act, control of compliance of services, orders and finessince 4 lines
DV br. 31/2025, chl. 54 do 58, 86 do 89 i 91 ot Zakon za iziskvaniyata za dostapnost na produkti i uslugi (Закон за изискванията за достъпност на продукти и услуги) · Read the law's page
- If an authority named in Article 54(1) inspects your service, give it free access to the premises and other sites used to provide the services, provide the Annex 5 information and, where you rely on Article 3, the assessment, hand over on request original accounting, commercial and other books and documents, and assist it in its duties (Art. 55(1) and (2)).
- Where the authority finds that a service does not meet the Act, take the corrective action it requires within the period it sets, and bring the service into conformity when it orders so (Arts. 57(1) and 58(3)).
- Cooperate with the authority's assessment of whether the service meets all the requirements of the Act (Art. 58(2); Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 23(1)).
- On a reasoned request, give the information needed to show conformity in Bulgarian within the time the authority sets (Art. 53(1)).
Accessibility Requirements for Products and Services Act, collective protection, actions by organisations of and for people with disabilitiessince 4 lines
DV br. 31/2025, chl. 67 do 72 ot Zakon za iziskvaniyata za dostapnost na produkti i uslugi (Закон за изискванията за достъпност на продукти и услуги) · Read the law's page
- If an organisation of or for people with disabilities, or the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, sues over an act or commercial practice that breaches the Act, the court may order you to stop or refrain from it (Arts. 67 and 68 point 2; implements Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 29(2)).
- If the court finds a breach, it may order you, as manufacturer, importer, distributor or service provider, to publish the judgment or part of it at your own expense in an appropriate way, or to make a public corrective statement to remove the effect of the breach, and to order other appropriate measures to stop the breach (Art. 68 points 1 and 3).
- Expect an organisation of or for people with disabilities to be able to claim damages for harm to the collective interests of people with disabilities, which may be spent only on protecting those interests, and to sue on behalf of two or more identifiable consumers who suffered individual damage from you and gave it written authority (Arts. 69 and 70).
- These actions are not available in procedures for awarding public contracts under the Public Procurement Act (Art. 72; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 29(3)).