Telekommunikationsgesetz 2021 (TKG 2021), publication of the measures that give end-users with disabilities equivalent access to internet access and interpersonal communications services, and the regulator's power to prescribe them (Section 46)

Section 46(1) of the TKG 2021 requires providers of internet access services and of publicly available interpersonal communications services to publish information for end-users on the quality of their services and on the measures taken to ensure equivalence for people with disabilities. Article 104(1) of Directive (EU) 2018/1972 is the source of that duty. Section 46(3) requires the provider to notify the regulator of the information and the measures before it publishes them.

Section 46(4) lets the regulator prescribe by Verordnung measures that enable people with disabilities to use telecommunications services, and to reach contract content and pre-contractual information, to the same extent as people without disabilities. Article 111(1) of Directive (EU) 2018/1972 is the source of that power.

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 46(5) entitles the regulator to carry out independent checks of service quality, or have them carried out, to verify the accuracy and comparability of the information and measures provided, and to publish them and the results.

Section 188(4) of the TKG 2021 sets a fine of up to EUR 50,000 for the administrative offences it lists. Item 6 of section 188(4) lists a failure to give the information under section 46(1) or (2) or to notify it under section 46(3). Section 4, item 36 of the TKG 2021 defines a provider (Anbieter) as an enterprise that offers a communications service to the public. The Rundfunk und Telekom Regulierungs-GmbH performs the tasks that the Act and the Verordnungen under it assign to the regulator.

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. 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.