BelgiumLaw of 5 May 2017 on audiovisual media services in the bilingual Brussels-Capital region, Articles 3/2 to 3/5, 12(1) and 30/1, and the Royal Decree of 13 September 2023, accessibility of audiovisual media services
Wet van 5 mei 2017 betreffende de audiovisuele mediadiensten in het tweetalig gebied Brussel-Hoofdstad artikelen 3/2 tot 3/5, 12, § 1, en 30/1, ingevoegd ter gedeeltelijke omzetting van Richtlijn (EU) 2019/882, en Koninklijk besluit van 13 september 2023 tot vaststelling van de voorschriften en nadere bepalingen inzake toegankelijkheid voor personen met een visuele of auditieve handicap tot de audiovisuele mediadiensten in het tweetalig gebied Brussel-Hoofdstad
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
What it requires
- If you provide or distribute audiovisual media services under the Law of in the bilingual Brussels-Capital region, the accessibility provisions of that Law apply to you from (Article 10 of the amending Law).
- Make your audiovisual media services continuously and progressively more accessible, by proportionate measures, to persons with a visual or auditory impairment, and give emergency information, including public communications and announcements in natural disasters, in a way they can access (Article 3/2(1) and (2)).
- Providers of audiovisual media services develop the services in accordance with the accessibility requirements that the King lays down, and service distributors make audiovisual media services available at all times in accordance with them (Articles 12(1) and 30/1).
- Give information on how the service works and on its accessibility features through more than one sensory channel, make your websites and mobile device services, including mobile applications, perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, and provide accessible support (Article 3 of the Royal Decree of ).
- Provide electronic programme guides that are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust and give information on the accessibility of the services, and transmit in full the access components such as subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, audio description, spoken subtitles and sign language interpretation, synchronised with sound and video and adjustable by the user (Article 4 of the Royal Decree of ).
- Apply procedures that keep your service in line with the accessibility requirements, take corrective measures when it does not conform, inform the Institute at once with the nature of the non-conformity and the measures taken, and cooperate with the Institute on request (Article 3/3).
- Microenterprises, meaning enterprises with fewer than ten employees and an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total of at most EUR 2 million, are exempt from Articles 3/2, 3/3, 12(1) and 30/1 and from every obligation relating to compliance with them (Articles 3(46) and 3/4).
- The requirements apply only to the extent that they do not lead to a fundamental alteration of the service and you bear no disproportionate burden under the criteria the King sets; assess the impact in a reasoned written report, repeat the assessment when the service changes, at the Institute's request, and at least every five years, and tell the Institute when you rely on the exception for a specific service (Article 3/5(1) to (3) and (6)).
- You cannot rely on the disproportionate burden exception if you receive public or private funding, other than your own resources, to improve accessibility (Article 3/5(5)).
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. For a breach of Chapter 2 of the Law of the fine is at most 5% of the offender's consolidated turnover in the sector, capped at EUR 125,000; Articles 3/2 to 3/5 of that Law sit in its Chapter 1.
- 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), which checks compliance with the Law of (Article 14(1), point 3, of the Law of ) and whose Council imposes the measures and fines of Article 21 of that Law
What it reaches
Instrument type
an act of a legislature
Applicability criteria
Article 3/4 exempts micro-enterprises from Articles 3/2, 3/3, 12(1) and 30/1 and from every obligation relating to compliance with them.
- As of
- Combinator
- All of
- Criteria
- provides or distributes audiovisual media services under the Law of on audiovisual media services in the bilingual Brussels-Capital region
- is not a micro-enterprise, an enterprise with fewer than ten employees and an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total of at most EUR 2 million (Articles 3(46) and 3/4)
What this law does
Article 2 of the amending Law inserts into the Law of a statement that it partly transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882. Article 4(1) of the Directive requires Member States to ensure that economic operators only provide services that comply with the accessibility requirements in its Annex I. Article 3/2(1) requires audiovisual media services to be made continuously and progressively more accessible, by proportionate measures, to persons with a visual or auditory impairment.
Article 3/2(2) requires emergency information made available to the public through audiovisual media services, including public communications and announcements in natural disasters, to be provided in a way that persons with a visual or auditory impairment can access. Article 3/2(3) requires a single online contact point, easily accessible to the public including persons with a visual or auditory impairment, to provide information and receive complaints on accessibility questions.
Article 3/3(1) requires an audiovisual media service provider to apply procedures that keep its service in line with the accessibility requirements of Articles 12(1) and 30/1. Article 3/3(2) requires the provider to take corrective measures when the service does not conform. Article 3/3(2) also requires the provider to inform the Institute immediately, describing the non-conformity and the corrective measures taken.
Article 3/3(3) requires the provider to cooperate with the Institute on request in any measure taken to ensure conformity. Article 3/4 exempts micro-enterprises from the accessibility requirements of Articles 3/2, 3/3, 12(1) and 30/1 and from every obligation relating to compliance with them.
Article 3/5(1) applies those articles only to the extent that they do not lead to a fundamental alteration of the service and the provider bears no burden that is disproportionate under the criteria the King sets. Article 3/5(2) and (3) require providers to assess the impact of that defence in a reasoned written report and to repeat the assessment when the service changes, at the Institute's request, and at least every five years.
Article 3/5(5) bars a provider that receives public or private funding for accessibility from relying on the disproportionate burden defence. Article 3/5(6) requires a provider that relies on the defence for a specific service to inform the Institute. Article 12(1) as replaced requires providers of audiovisual media services to develop the services in accordance with the accessibility requirements, which the King lays down.
Article 30/1 requires service distributors to make audiovisual media services available at all times in accordance with the accessibility requirements. The Royal Decree of that lays down those accessibility requirements is made under Articles 3/2 to 3/4, 12 and 30/1 of the Law of , as inserted by the Law of . That decree enters into force on .
Article 3 of that decree requires the audiovisual media service provider to give information on how the service works and on its accessibility features through several sensory channels, to make websites and mobile device services, including mobile applications, perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, and to provide accessible support.
Article 4 of that decree requires electronic programme guides that are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust and that give information on the accessibility of the services. Article 4 of that decree also requires full transmission of the access components of audiovisual media services, such as subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, audio description, spoken subtitles and sign language interpretation, synchronised with sound and video and adjustable by the user.
Article 10 of the amending Law provides that the Law enters into force on . The Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications lists the Law of and the Royal Decree of among the media regulations applicable at the Belgian level.
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, with separate maximums for natural and for legal persons.
Article 21(5) of the Law of also lets the Council impose a periodic penalty payment for each day of delay in complying with its decisions. Article 21(6) of the Law of doubles those maximum amounts and percentages where the measures taken have not remedied the breach. Article 21(5) of the Law of sets a separate, lower cap of EUR 125,000 for a breach of Chapter 2 of the Law of . Article 4 of the amending Law inserts Article 3/2 into Chapter 1 of the Law of .
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When your app profile says your app ships a consumer interface or ships a mobile app.
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