Czech RepublicElectronic Communications Act, section 33, accessible emergency communications for end-users with disabilities
§ 33 odst. 1, 6, 15 a 18 zákona č. 127/2005 Sb., o elektronických komunikacích
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
What it requires
- If you provide a publicly available number-based interpersonal communications service that lets end-users call numbers in the national or international numbering plan, give all your end-users, including persons with disabilities and users of public pay telephones, access to the emergency services through emergency communications to the emergency numbers 112, 150, 155 and 158 and any other number the numbering plan sets, free of charge and without any means of payment (s. 33(1); Directive (EU) 2018/1972, Art. 109(1) and (2)).
- Ensure that persons with disabilities have access to the emergency services that is equivalent to the access available to other users (s. 33(1); Directive (EU) 2018/1972, Art. 109(5)).
- Inform the public about the existence and conditions of use of the emergency numbers and about their accessibility features, and give that information remotely and in a format that is accessible to persons with disabilities, with regard to the different kinds of disability (s. 33(6); Directive (EU) 2018/1972, Art. 109(7)).
- Cooperate with the Ministry of the Interior, in concert with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Office, on developing further forms and ways of emergency communication, including equivalent access for persons with disabilities to the emergency services, and take the guidelines of BEREC into account (s. 33(15)).
- If you give access to the emergency services through emergency communications without being a provider named in section 33(1), including through an internet access service, meet the duties of sections 33(2), 33(5) to 33(7), 33(10) and 33(13) to 33(15) as they apply by analogy (the accessible public information of section 33(6) and the cooperation of section 33(15) among them), and, from , do not charge for that access through an internet access service or count its data traffic against a data limit (s. 33(18)).
- If you give access to the emergency services in a further form of emergency communication that the Ministry of the Interior has listed, meet the section 33(18) duties for that form from the fifteenth day after the form is published in the list (s. 33(20), in force since ).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Penalty structure
An offence under section 118(22)(a) to (c) (breaching the duty to allow free access to the emergency services under section 33(1), including equivalent access for persons with disabilities, or failing to inform the public under section 33(6)) and under section 118(12)(s) (failing to give free access under section 33(18)) carries the highest tier of section 118(26)(c). The ceiling for a legal person or a natural person doing business is 50,000,000 koruna or 10 percent of the net turnover for the last completed accounting period, whichever is higher (Electronic Communications Act, s. 118(26)). Neither the Act nor the Act on liability for offences (250/2016) multiplies the ceiling for a legal person, and the figure is a ceiling, not a floor. Section 41(2) of Act 250/2016 lets the ceiling of the most severely punished offence be raised by up to half where two or more offences are heard together, up to the sum of the ceilings. Section 120(3) doubles the rate of a fine where the same offence is committed again within 2 years of the day the earlier fine became final. Section 118(27) allows the decision to be published where the offence affects the rights of end-users. The Czech Telecommunication Office hears the offence and collects the fine (s. 120(1) and (2)). Section 120(4) sets a limitation period of 5 years, and liability ends no later than 8 years after the offence where the period is interrupted. The offence in section 118(12)(s) and the second sentence of section 33(18) apply from (Act 23/2025).
- Rule
- Higher of
- As of
- Currency
- CZK
- Fixed cap
- 50,000,000
- Turnover percentage cap
- 10
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The Czech Telecommunication Office (Český telekomunikační úřad), which hears the offences under the Electronic Communications Act and collects and enforces the fines (s. 120(1) and (2))
What it reaches
Instrument type
an act of a legislature
Obligation class
Disclosure
Applicability criteria
Section 63e(1) takes the listed sections out of the Act for a microenterprise that provides number-independent interpersonal communications services unless it also provides other electronic communications services, and section 63e(2) requires such a microenterprise to tell end-users so before the contract is concluded. Section 63e does not define the term; footnote 77 to section 63(4) names Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC on the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
- As of
- Combinator
- Any of
- Criteria
- a publicly available number-based interpersonal communications service that lets end-users call numbers in the national or international numbering plan (section 33(1))
- an undertaking not named in section 33(1) that provides access to the emergency services through emergency communications (section 33(18), which applies sections 33(2), 33(5) to 33(7), 33(10) and 33(13) to 33(15) by analogy)
What this law does
Article 109(5) of Directive (EU) 2018/1972 requires Member States to ensure that access for end-users with disabilities to emergency services is available through emergency communications and is equivalent to that enjoyed by other end-users.
Section 33(1) of the Electronic Communications Act (127/2005) requires a provider of a publicly available number-based interpersonal communications service that lets end-users call numbers in the national or international numbering plan to give all its end-users, including persons with disabilities, free access to the emergency services through emergency communications.
The second sentence of section 33(1) requires the same provider to ensure access for persons with disabilities to the emergency services that is equivalent to the access available to other users. Act 374/2021 rewrote section 33 so that it states the duty to ensure that users with disabilities have access to the emergency services equivalent to the access available to other users.
Emergency communication pursuant to section 33(14) includes calls, SMS messages and further forms of communication pursuant to section 33(15) that achieve the purpose of emergency communication. Section 33(6) requires the provider to inform the public of the emergency numbers and their accessibility features, and to give that information remotely and in a format that makes it accessible to persons with disabilities, with regard to the different kinds of disability.
Article 109(7) of the Directive requires end-users to be adequately informed of the single European emergency number and its accessibility features, in accessible formats addressing different types of disabilities.
Section 33(15) requires the providers named in section 33(1) to cooperate with the Ministry of the Interior, in concert with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Office, on developing further forms of emergency communication, including equivalent access for persons with disabilities. Section 5(1) of the Act names the Ministry of Industry and Trade as the Ministry.
Section 33(18) applies sections 33(2), 33(5) to 33(7), 33(10) and 33(13) to 33(15) to an undertaking not named in section 33(1) that provides access to the emergency services through emergency communications, and makes that access through an internet access service free of charge with its data traffic outside any data limit.
Section 33(20) requires a provider that gives access to the emergency services in a further form listed by the Ministry of the Interior to meet the section 33(18) duties for that form from the fifteenth day after the form is published in the list. Act 23/2025 added the second sentence of section 33(18), which makes access to the emergency services through an internet access service free of charge with its data traffic outside any data limit. Act 23/2025 added section 33(20).
Act 23/2025 took effect on , except for points 71 and 76 of its Article I and its Part nine, which took effect on . Act 23/2025 is dated .
Section 118(22) of the Act makes it an offence for a provider of a number-based interpersonal communications service to breach the duty to allow free access to the emergency services pursuant to section 33(1), including equivalent access for persons with disabilities, or to fail to inform the public pursuant to section 33(6).
Section 118(12)(s) makes it an offence for a provider of a publicly available electronic communications service to fail to give free access to the emergency services pursuant to section 33(18). Act 23/2025 added the offence in section 118(12)(s). Section 118(26)(c) allows a fine of at most 50,000,000 koruna or 10 percent of the offender's net turnover for the last completed accounting period, whichever is higher, for an offence pursuant to section 118(22) or section 118(12)(s).
Section 120(3) doubles the rate of a fine where the same offence is committed again within 2 years of the day the earlier fine became final. Section 118(27) allows the decision on the offence to be published where the offence affects the rights of end-users. Section 120(4) sets a limitation period of 5 years for an offence against the Act, and where the period is interrupted liability ends no later than 8 years after the offence.
Section 41(2) of the Act on liability for offences (250/2016) lets the authority raise the ceiling of the most severely punished offence by up to half where two or more offences are heard together, up to the sum of the ceilings for those offences.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app provides telecom services.
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