Act on accessibility requirements of certain products and services, duties of providers of services to consumers (electronic communications, audiovisual media access, financial, e-commerce, e-book and passenger transport services)

Act 424/2023 transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882. Article 2(2) of the Directive applies it to the services it lists that are provided to consumers after 28 June 2025.

Section 2(2) of the Act applies it to the services it lists that are provided to consumers, namely electronic communications services, services providing access to audiovisual media services, financial services, e-commerce services, the sale of e-books and e-book software, commercial air, public regular bus, rail and water passenger transport as to the items it lists, and urban and regional transport as to self-service terminals.

Section 3(1)(i) defines e-commerce services as services provided at a distance through websites or mobile devices, by electronic means and at the individual request of a consumer, with a view to concluding a consumer contract.

Section 3(1)(g) defines financial services as consumer credit within section 2 of the Consumer Credit Act with the exceptions it names, certain investment and ancillary investment services under the Capital Market Undertakings Act, payment services, services linked to a payment account, and the issue and redemption of electronic money.

Section 3(1)(b) defines services providing access to audiovisual media services to include the electronic programme guide and elements such as open or hidden subtitles, audio description and Czech Sign Language interpretation. Article 4(5) of the Directive exempts microenterprises providing services from the accessibility requirements of paragraph 3 of that Article and any obligations relating to compliance with them.

Section 2(3)(a) of the Act excludes services provided by a service provider that is a microenterprise. Section 3(1)(p) defines a microenterprise by reference to Article 2(3) of Annex I to Commission Regulation (EU) 651/2014. Section 27(1) converts the Czech currency to euros at the Czech National Bank exchange rate for the balance sheet day to decide whether a person is a microenterprise.

Section 2(3)(b) to (e) also excludes machine-to-machine transmission services, the content of an online map where basic navigation information is provided in an accessible digital form, website and app content that does not belong to the provider unless the provider finances, creates or can influence it, and self-service terminals installed as an integral part of a means of transport. Section 4(2) sets the accessibility requirements of the services as those in sections III and IV of Annex 1.

Section III of Annex 1 sets general accessibility requirements for services other than urban and regional transport services. Section 4(3) sets the requirements of Annex 5 for features or functions of products and services that the requirements of Annex 1 do not cover. Article 13(1) of the Directive requires service providers to ensure that they design and provide services in accordance with the accessibility requirements of the Directive.

Section 13(1) of the Act requires a service provider to ensure that the service it provides meets the accessibility requirements. Section 13(1) also requires the provider to keep the service within the requirements for the whole time it is provided, including when the service, the requirement or the harmonised standard or technical specification it relies on changes.

Section 13(2) requires a provider that finds a service does not meet the requirements to take measures without undue delay to bring it into line and to inform the supervisory authority of the district where it provides the service of the non-compliance, its nature and causes, and the measures taken.

Article 13(2) of the Directive requires the information on how a service meets the requirements to be made available to the public in written and oral format, including in a manner accessible to persons with disabilities.

Section 14(1) requires the provider to publish in its general terms and conditions or a similar document how the service meets the requirements, including a description of each requirement, and to give this information in audio form on request and in commonly accessible formats when it is published on a website. Section 14(2) requires the provider to publish also a general description of the service and the explanations needed to understand how it works.

Section 14(3) lets the provider, when publishing the information, refer to the accessibility requirements met in the harmonised standard or technical specification the service conforms to. Section 14(4) requires the provider to publish this information for the whole time it provides the service, in a way that is also accessible to persons with disabilities.

Article 14(1) of the Directive applies the accessibility requirements only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change resulting in the fundamental alteration of the basic nature of the product or service and does not impose a disproportionate burden on the economic operators concerned.

Section 15(1) of the Act relieves a service provider of the requirements to the extent that compliance would require a fundamental alteration of the service or a disproportionate burden judged on the criteria in Annex 4. Section 15(2) allows the provider to rely on this only after preparing an assessment, and the disproportionate-burden limb does not apply to a provider that receives a subsidy, gift or similar payment to secure compliance.

Section 15(3) requires the provider to keep the assessment and its supporting documents for 5 years from the day the service was last provided. Section 15(4) requires a provider relying on the disproportionate-burden limb to prepare a new assessment for each service when the service changes and in any case within 5 years of the last assessment, and also on the supervisory authority's call within the reasonable period it sets where it has a well-founded doubt about the burden.

Section 15(5) requires the provider to inform the supervisory authority before it starts providing the service that the service will not meet the requirements, stating the service, the ground, the requirements not met and the date of the assessment. Section 15(6) requires a provider relying on the disproportionate-burden limb to attach a sworn statement that it received no subsidy, gift or similar payment to secure accessibility.

Article 15(1) of the Directive presumes products and services in conformity with harmonised standards whose references are published in the Official Journal to be in conformity with the accessibility requirements so far as those standards cover them. Section 16(1) of the Act treats compliance with a harmonised standard or part of it as compliance with the accessibility requirements to the extent the standard covers them.

Section 16(2) treats compliance with a technical specification or part of it the same way where no reference to a harmonised standard has been published. Section 17(2) treats a service as meeting the accessibility requirements when it meets the accessible-information requirements of the EU passenger rights regulations and the rail interoperability implementing rules, and an additional requirement of the Act still applies.

Section 18 allows a specific technical requirement of Annex 1 to be met in the way set out in Annex 5 where equivalent accessibility is secured. Section III, point 3 of Annex 1 requires websites, related online applications and mobile services including mobile applications to be made perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.

Section III, point 4 of Annex 1 requires support services such as helpdesks, call centres, technical support, relay services and training to give information on the accessibility of the service and its compatibility with assistive technologies through means of communication accessible to persons with disabilities.

Section IV, point 1 of Annex 1 requires electronic communications services including emergency communications to provide real-time text alongside voice, total conversation where video is provided, and synchronised emergency communications carried to the most suitable emergency communication centre.

Section IV, point 2 of Annex 1 requires the electronic programme guide of a service providing access to audiovisual media services to be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, and requires the accessibility elements to be fully transmitted with adequate quality and synchronised with sound and video.

Section IV, point 3 of Annex 1 requires passenger transport services other than urban and regional transport to give information on the accessibility of vehicles, infrastructure and assistance, on electronic ticket sales and on real-time travel information. Section IV, point 4 of Annex 1 requires the self-service terminals used in urban and regional transport services to be accessible.

Section IV, point 5 of Annex 1 requires the identification, electronic signature, security and payment methods of financial services to be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, and the information to be understandable without increased effort by the consumer.

Section IV, point 6 of Annex 1 sets requirements for e-books, including synchronised text and sound, files that do not hinder assistive technologies, navigation, searchability by accessibility metadata and digital rights management that does not block accessibility features.

Section IV, point 7 of Annex 1 requires e-commerce services to give information on the accessibility of the products and services sold where the seller provides it, and to make identification, security, payment and electronic signature functions perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.

Section 19(2) names the supervisory authority for services as the Czech Trade Inspection, except for electronic communications services (the Czech Telecommunication Office), services giving access to audiovisual media services (the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting), public regular bus transport outside urban bus transport (the regional office), rail passenger transport (the Railway Authority), air passenger transport (the Civil Aviation Authority), water passenger transport (the State Navigation Administration) and urban bus and special-track, tram, trolleybus and cable transport (the Prague Magistrate and the municipal office of a municipality with extended powers).

Section 19(3) makes the competent supervisory authority the one for the place where the service is provided. Section 24 requires the supervisory authority to call on a provider whose service does not meet the requirements to take measures within a reasonable period and to publish on its website a list of the services that do not meet them.

Section 25(7) makes it an offence for a service provider to fail to meet the requirements, to fail to correct a non-compliant service, to repeatedly fail to inform the authority, to fail to publish the section 14 information, to fail to make or keep the assessment or notify the authority, to omit the sworn statement, or to fail to act within the time set under section 24(1).

Section 25(8) sets the maximum fine for a service-provider offence at 10,000,000 koruna for offences under section 25(7)(a), (b) and (l), at 5,000,000 koruna for section 25(7)(g), at 2,000,000 koruna for section 25(7)(h), (i), (j) and (k), and at 1,000,000 koruna for section 25(7)(c), (d), (e) and (f).

Section 26 gives the offence proceedings to the authority that supervises the duty breached, lets the Czech Trade Inspection and the Czech Telecommunication Office collect the fines they impose, and makes the Czech Telecommunication Office enforce the fine it imposed. Section 30 of the Act on liability for offences (250/2016) sets a limitation period of 3 years for an offence whose maximum fine reaches 100,000 koruna, which covers every offence in section 25.

Article 30 of the Directive requires Member States to lay down rules on penalties for infringements of the national provisions adopted under it, and the penalties are to be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. Article 31(2) of the Directive requires Member States to apply the transposing measures from 28 June 2025. Section 29 brought the Act into effect on 28 June 2025. Section 28(2) applies the duties of a service provider to services provided after 28 June 2025.

Article 32(2) of the Directive lets Member States allow self-service terminals lawfully used before 28 June 2025 to stay in use until the end of their economically useful life, but no longer than 20 years after their entry into use. Section 28(3) lets a self-service payment terminal or self-service terminal that does not meet the requirements, and was used lawfully before the Act took effect, stay in use for similar services for up to 20 years from its first being put into operation.

Article 32(1) of the Directive requires a transitional period ending on 28 June 2030 for services provided with products lawfully used before that date, and lets service contracts agreed before 28 June 2025 continue without alteration until they expire, but for no longer than five years from that date.

Section 28(4) lets a provider keep providing services until 28 June 2030 using products that do not meet the requirements, if it lawfully used them for similar services before and they were placed on the market by 28 June 2025. Section 28(5) lets a provider continue unchanged a service that does not meet the requirements under a contract concluded before the Act took effect until the obligation under the contract ends, and no later than 28 June 2030.

Section 28(6) takes out of the requirements pre-recorded time-based media and office-application file formats published on websites or in mobile applications no later than before the Act took effect. Section 28(7) takes out of the requirements websites and mobile applications that contain only content not updated or modified after the Act took effect.

Act 130/2025 replaced the words for international and domestic regular bus transport with public regular bus transport in sections 2(2)(f) and 3(2)(d) of the Act and point 3 of section IV of Annex 1, and repealed letter (c) of section 19(2) and relettered the letters after it. Article XVIII of Act 130/2025 brings that Act into effect on 1 July 2025, apart from the provisions it lists, none of which is Article XVI. Act 218/2025 replaced section 26(2) of the Act and added section 26(3).

Article CXL of Act 218/2025 brings that Act into effect on 1 July 2025, apart from the provisions it lists, none of which is Article CXXXVII.