Telekommunikationsgesetz 2021 (TKG 2021), equivalent access to emergency services for people with disabilities, two-way text-based emergency calls, and the provider's duty to ensure the mutual connection (Section 122(5))

Section 122(5) of the TKG 2021 requires operators of emergency services to give people with disabilities, in accordance with a Verordnung made under section 46(4), access to services that is equivalent to that of the majority of people without disabilities. Section 122(5) also requires that, in particular for text-based emergency calls, two-way communication be possible.

Section 122(5) also requires the provider under section 122(1) and the network operator to ensure the mutual connection for the fulfilment of that duty. Section 122(1) names the providers of publicly available number-based interpersonal communications services, the providers of public pay telephones and the network operators.

Section 4, item 25 of the TKG 2021 defines a network operator (Betreiber) as an enterprise that operates a public communications network or an associated facility or is authorised to operate one. Article 109(5) of Directive (EU) 2018/1972 is the source of the duty to give people with disabilities equivalent access to emergency services.

The Rundfunk und Telekom Regulierungs-GmbH made the Dienstequalitätsverordnung (DQV) on the basis of section 46(4) of the TKG 2021, and Part II of the Federal Law Gazette for 2026 issued it as number 138 on 15 June 2026. Section 188(5) of the TKG 2021 sets a fine of up to EUR 75,000 for the administrative offences it lists. Item 4 of section 188(5) lists a failure to give people with disabilities equivalent access in breach of section 122(5).

Section 217(5) of the TKG 2021 brings section 188(5), as amended by Federal Law Gazette I No 94/2025, into force on the first day of the month after nine months from that Act's promulgation. The consolidated text of section 188 in that version has been in force since 1 October 2026. Fines that the Fernmeldebüro imposes under the Act fall to the federal government.

Section 188(7) of the TKG 2021 requires the authority, in setting a fine, to consider whether the offence was committed commercially or repeatedly, and to weigh the unlawful advantage gained by a commercial offence. Section 188(9) of the TKG 2021 excludes an administrative offence under section 188 where the act is a criminal offence within the jurisdiction of the courts or carries a stricter penalty under other administrative penal provisions.

Section 189 of the TKG 2021 lets the penalty decision for an offence under section 188(5) or (6) order its publication in one or more periodicals at the offender's cost, where the offender has already been punished twice for offences based on the same harmful tendency and further offences under the Act are to be feared.

Under section 9(1) of the Verwaltungsstrafgesetz 1991 (VStG), the person called to represent a legal person externally answers for its compliance with administrative provisions, unless a responsible officer has been appointed. Section 9(7) of the VStG makes the legal person jointly and severally liable for the fines imposed on that person or on a responsible officer, and for the costs of the proceedings.

Under section 184(1) of the TKG 2021, a regulator that has indications that an undertaking breaches the Act or a Verordnung made under it informs the undertaking and gives it the opportunity to comment or to remedy the defects within a reasonable time. If the defects have not been remedied when that time runs out, section 184(2) requires the regulator to establish them by decision and to order the appropriate measures that secure compliance, with a time limit.

Where those measures fail, section 184(3) lets the regulator suspend the right of an undertaking that has seriously or repeatedly breached its obligations to provide communications networks or services until the defects are remedied, or prohibit it from continuing to provide them. Item 17 of section 198 of the TKG 2021 assigns the decision under section 184(3) to the Telekom-Control-Kommission.

Section 190(1) of the TKG 2021 lets the regulator apply to the Cartel Court to fix and skim off the economic advantage that an undertaking gained by an unlawful act against the Act or a Verordnung adopted on the basis of it. The Cartel Court may set the amount at as much as 10% of the undertaking's previous-year turnover. Item 18 of section 198 of the TKG 2021 assigns the finding and the application provided for in section 190 to the Telekom-Control-Kommission.

Section 5(1) of the Verwaltungsvollstreckungsgesetz 1991 (VVG) enforces a duty to tolerate, to refrain or to act that a third party cannot carry out by coercive fines that hold the obligated party to its duty. Section 5(3) of the VVG caps each coercive fine at EUR 726. Section 5(4) of the VVG allows coercive fines against legal persons, other than public-law bodies, and against registered partnerships.