BelgiumElectronic Communications Act, Article 38/1, and the Royal Decree of 13 September 2023 amending the Royal Decree of 25 March 2016, accessibility requirements for consumer computing, self-service and terminal radio equipment (Law of 20 July 2023)
Loi du 13 juin 2005 relative aux communications électroniques article 38/1, inséré par la loi du 20 juillet 2023, et Koninklijk besluit van 13 september 2023 houdende wijziging van het koninklijk besluit van 25 maart 2016 betreffende het op de markt aanbieden van radioapparatuur
archived copy
Read from a public archive copy, not the publisher directly. The publisher does not serve this page to automated readers, so a direct fetch was not an option here; how we access sources. Archived 2025. Publisher's page: https://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/eli/loi/2005/06/13/2005011238/justelIn force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
- Instrument type
- an act of a legislature
What it requires
- If you hold, market, import or own radio equipment that is general-purpose consumer computer hardware and its operating systems, a self-service payment terminal, bank machine, ticketing machine or check-in machine, an interactive information terminal, consumer terminal equipment for electronic communications services or for access to audiovisual media services, or an e-reader, the accessibility requirements that the Royal Decree of inserts into the Royal Decree of apply to it from (Article 38/1(1) of the Law and Article 25 of the decree).
- Design and produce the radio equipment so as to maximise its foreseeable use by persons with disabilities, and accompany it, where possible in or on the equipment, with accessible information on how it works and on its accessibility features (Article 3/1 of the Royal Decree of ).
- The requirements apply only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change resulting in a fundamental alteration of the nature of the equipment and does not impose a disproportionate burden on manufacturers, authorised representatives, importers and distributors under the criteria the King fixes (Article 38/1(1)).
- Assess whether compliance has one of those effects, support the assessment with evidence, keep all relevant results for five years from the last placing of the equipment on the market, and give the Institute a copy on request (Article 38/1(1)).
- An enterprise with fewer than ten employees and an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total of at most EUR 2,000,000 that is active in radio equipment is exempt from supporting its assessment with evidence, but gives the Institute the relevant facts if it asks (Article 38/1(1)).
- You cannot rely on the disproportionate burden exception if you receive public or private funding, other than your own resources, to improve accessibility (Article 38/1(2)).
- If the Institute finds that the equipment does not meet the accessibility requirements, take the corrective measures it orders within the period it sets, or withdraw the equipment from the market within the further period it sets if you do not (Article 26(1/1) of the Royal Decree of ).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Penalty structure
Under Article 21(5) of the Law of the Council of the Institute may impose an administrative fine of up to EUR 5,000 on a natural person and of up to 5% of the offender's consolidated turnover, before tax and excluding VAT, in the electronic communications or postal sector in Belgium in the most recent full financial year, or up to EUR 1,000,000 on a legal person with no turnover; the base is Belgian sector turnover, not worldwide turnover. It may add a periodic penalty payment of up to EUR 500 a day (natural person) or 5% of daily turnover a day (legal person), with no total cap stated. Where those measures do not remedy the breach, Article 21(6) doubles the maximum amounts and percentages, and Article 21(7) lets the Council, for a serious or repeated breach, also suspend the provision of the service or product concerned.
- Rule
- Turnover pct only
- As of
- Turnover percentage cap
- 5
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications (BIPT/IBPT), the Institute to which Article 38/1(1) gives the copy of the assessment and which Article 26(1/1) of the Royal Decree of empowers to order corrective measures and withdrawal
What this law does
Article 4(1) of the Directive requires Member States to ensure that economic operators only place on the market products that comply with the accessibility requirements in its Annex I. Article 38/1(1) subjects the radio equipment it lists to accessibility requirements fixed by the King, for holding, marketing, importing or owning it.
Article 38/1(1) lists general-purpose consumer computer hardware and its operating systems, self-service payment terminals, bank machines, ticketing machines, check-in machines, interactive information terminals, consumer terminal equipment for electronic communications services and for access to audiovisual media services, and e-readers.
Article 38/1(1) applies the requirements only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change that fundamentally alters the nature of the equipment and does not impose a disproportionate burden on manufacturers, authorised representatives, importers and distributors. Article 38/1(1) requires those operators to assess the effect of compliance, support the assessment with evidence and keep the results for five years from the last placing on the market of the equipment.
Article 38/1(1) lets the Institute require a copy of the assessment. Article 38/1(1) exonerates a micro-enterprise active in radio equipment from the duty to support its assessment with evidence, unless the Institute asks for the relevant facts. Article 38/1(2) bars a manufacturer, authorised representative, importer or distributor that receives public or private funding for accessibility from relying on the disproportionate burden defence.
The Royal Decree of amending the Royal Decree of on making radio equipment available on the market requires the radio equipment covered by Article 38/1 to meet the accessibility requirements that it sets. That amending decree enters into force on .
Article 3/1(1), which that decree inserts, requires radio equipment to be designed and produced so as to maximise its foreseeable use by persons with disabilities, and to be accompanied, where possible in or on the equipment, by accessible information on how it works and on its accessibility features.
Article 26(1/1), which that decree inserts, requires the Institute, where it finds that radio equipment does not meet the accessibility requirements, to order the operator to take corrective measures within a reasonable period, and to require withdrawal from the market only where the operator fails to take them. The Justel consolidation records that Article 38/1 was inserted by the Law of and applies from .
A royal decree amending the Royal Decree of on making radio equipment available on the market is among the measures that Belgium notified for Directive 2019/882. Article 14(1), point 3, of the Law of on the status of the regulator of the Belgian postal and telecommunications sectors charges the Institute with checking compliance with the Law of and its implementing decrees.
Article 21(5) of the Law of lets the Institute's Council, on finding a breach, order it to end, prescribe how it is to be remedied, and impose an administrative fine of up to EUR 5,000 on a natural person and of up to 5% of the offender's consolidated turnover in the electronic communications or postal sector in Belgium, or up to EUR 1,000,000 for a legal person with no turnover.
Article 21(5) of the Law of also lets the Council impose a periodic penalty payment of up to EUR 500 a day of delay on a natural person and of up to 5% of daily turnover a day of delay on a legal person. Article 21(6) of the Law of doubles those maximum amounts and percentages where the measures taken have not remedied the breach.
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