Czech RepublicElectronic Communications Act, sections 38 and 43, Decree 161/2005 and Government Regulation 500/2021, universal service access, specially equipped terminal equipment, special tariff and special prices for persons with disabilities
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
What it requires
- If the Office has imposed on you the universal service duty under section 38(2)(c), give persons with disabilities access to the internet access and voice communications sub-services, not only at a fixed location, that is affordable for them and equivalent to the access of other consumers, including access to the emergency services through emergency communications and, where necessary, total conversation and conversion services (ss. 38(2)(c) and 43(1); Directive (EU) 2018/1972, Art. 85(4)).
- On request, rent or sell to a person with a disability one specially equipped telecommunications terminal equipment suited to the disability at the price of standard terminal equipment, with the characteristics the annex to Decree 161/2005 describes, standard equipment fitted with a purpose-built add-on device that as a whole meets them, or equipment that enables total conversation and conversion services through a software application (s. 43(2)(a) and (3); Decree 161/2005, annex, as replaced by Decree 37/2022 from ).
- Offer a special tariff suited to the needs of persons with disabilities according to the kind of disability, which a special price granted under section 38(3) satisfies from (s. 43(2)(b)).
- If the Office has imposed on you, after a selection procedure or by decision under section 39(14), the duty to let persons with special social needs, which include persons with disabilities within section 43(4), choose prices or price plans that differ from those under normal commercial conditions, give them those special prices and do not limit their use of the services of other providers (ss. 38(3) and (4) and 39(14); Directive (EU) 2018/1972, Art. 85(2)).
- If you were given the special price duty or provide the special tariff, keep the list of the persons to whom you granted the special price or special tariff and pass the Office the data for its list (s. 38(5)).
- If you provide special prices or the special tariff, grant them to a person with a disability who presents the documents section 1(2) of Government Regulation 500/2021 lists, set the price advantage so that your loss on each person is at most 200 koruna including value added tax a calendar month, keep the list with the particulars section 3 sets for as long as you provide the special price or tariff and 5 years after the last billing period for claiming the loss, and pass the data and their changes to the Office no later than the day you start providing the special price or tariff or the day you learn of the change (Government Regulation 500/2021, ss. 1(2), 2, 3, 3c and 3d).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Penalty structure
An offence under section 118(10)(m) (a universal service provider failing to give persons with disabilities access to the voice communications service under section 43(1)) and under section 118(10)(n) (failing to pass the Office the data for the list under section 38(5)) carries the middle tier of section 118(26)(b). The ceiling for a legal person or a natural person doing business is 15,000,000 koruna or 5 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. Section 118(10) names no separate offence for the section 43(2) terminal equipment and special tariff duties. Section 122(4) lets the Office enforce a duty imposed under section 38(2) or 38(3) by coercive fines of up to 10,000,000 koruna in total. The section 38(5) data duty and the section 118(10)(n) offence apply from (Act 202/2023).
- Rule
- Higher of
- As of
- Currency
- CZK
- Fixed cap
- 15,000,000
- Turnover percentage cap
- 5
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
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
- All of
- Criteria
- an undertaking on which the Office has imposed the universal service duty under section 38(2)(c) (section 43(1)), or, for section 38(3) and Government Regulation 500/2021, an undertaking on which the Office has imposed the duty to offer special prices after a selection procedure or by decision under section 39(14)
- not a microenterprise providing number-independent interpersonal communications services only (section 63e(1) lists sections 38 and 43)
What this law does
Article 85(4) of Directive (EU) 2018/1972 requires Member States to ensure that support is provided, as appropriate, to consumers with disabilities and that other specific measures are taken so that related terminal equipment and specific equipment and services that enhance equivalent access, including where necessary total conversation services and relay services, are available and affordable.
Section 38(2)(c) of the Electronic Communications Act (127/2005) lets the Office impose, within the universal service, the duty to give persons with disabilities access to the internet access and voice communications sub-services equivalent to the access of other consumers, in particular through specially equipped terminal equipment and not only at a fixed location.
Section 43(1) requires a universal service provider on which the duty pursuant to section 38(2)(c) has been imposed to give persons with disabilities access to a publicly available electronic communications service that is affordable for them and equivalent to the access of other consumers, including access to the emergency services and, where necessary, total conversation and conversion services.
Section 43(2) requires that provider, on request, to rent or sell one specially equipped telecommunications terminal equipment suited to the disability at the price of standard terminal equipment and to offer a special tariff suited to their needs according to the kind of disability. Section 43(2)(b) deems the grant of the special price pursuant to section 38(3) to satisfy the price advantage within the conditions of the special tariff.
Section 43(4) defines persons with disabilities for the Act, beginning with holders of a ZTP card because of total or practical deafness and holders of a ZTP/P card. The annex to Decree 161/2005 describes specially equipped terminal equipment as terminal equipment that, where necessary, supports total conversation and conversion services and meets one or more of seven listed characteristics, from amplification of the received voice signal to a voice output in Czech.
Paragraph (2) of the annex also counts standard terminal equipment fitted with a purpose-built add-on device where the whole meets one or more of the listed characteristics. Paragraph (3) of the annex also counts terminal equipment that, where necessary, enables total conversation and conversion services through a software application. Decree 37/2022 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade replaced the annex to Decree 161/2005. Decree 37/2022 took effect on .
Decree 161/2005 is made pursuant to section 150(2) of the Act to carry out section 43(3). Decree 161/2005 is dated . Decree 161/2005 took effect on . Section 38(3) provides for the Office to impose on an undertaking that has applied and met the conditions of a selection procedure the duty to let persons with special social needs choose prices or price plans that differ from those in normal commercial conditions.
Section 38(4) counts among persons with special social needs a consumer who is a person with a disability pursuant to section 43(4). Section 38(5) requires an undertaking that was given the special price duty to pass the Office the data for the list of persons to whom the special price or special tariff is granted.
Article 85(2) of the Directive lets Member States require providers to offer consumers with a low income or special social needs tariff options or packages different from those provided under normal commercial conditions. Section 39(14) requires the Office, where imposing the section 38(3) duty would not meet the needs of persons with special social needs, to cancel the selection procedure and impose the special price duty by decision on one or more undertakings.
Government Regulation 500/2021 on the conditions for providing special prices for voice communications and internet access services to persons with special social needs is made under section 38(8) of the Act. Section 1(2) of the Regulation lists the documents that a person with a disability presents to the universal service provider to prove the conditions of section 38(4).
Section 2 of the Regulation sets the price advantage for a person with special social needs so that the universal service provider's loss on that person is at most 200 koruna including value added tax a calendar month. Section 3(1) of the Regulation lists what the provider's list of persons to whom it granted a special price or the special tariff must contain.
Section 3c(1) of the Regulation requires the provider to pass the data and their changes to the Office's application no later than the day it starts providing the special price or special tariff to the person or the day it learns of the change. Section 3d(1) of the Regulation requires the provider to keep the data in its list for as long as it provides the special price or special tariff and for 5 years from the end of the last billing period for claiming compensation of the loss.
Government Regulation 500/2021 took effect on . Government Regulation 203/2023 amended Government Regulation 500/2021 with effect from . Act 202/2023 inserted into section 43(2)(b) the sentence that deems the grant of a special price pursuant to section 38(3) to satisfy the price advantage of the special tariff.
Act 202/2023 rewrote section 38(5) so that an undertaking given the special price or special tariff duty must pass the Office the data for the list the Office keeps. Act 202/2023 added the offence in section 118(10)(n). Act 202/2023 took effect on . A press release of the Czech Telecommunication Office states that, under a decision of the Office, O2 Czech Republic a.s. is obliged from to provide the specially equipped terminal equipment service.
Section 118(10)(m) makes it an offence for a universal service provider not to give persons with disabilities access to the voice communications service pursuant to section 43(1). Section 118(10)(n) makes it an offence for a universal service provider not to pass the Office the data for the list of persons pursuant to section 38(5).
Section 118(26)(b) allows a fine of at most 15,000,000 koruna or 5 percent of the offender's net turnover for the last completed accounting period, whichever is higher, for an offence pursuant to section 118(10)(j) to (n). Section 122(4) lets the Office enforce a duty imposed pursuant to the sections it lists, among them sections 38(2), 38(3), 69b and 71(1), by coercive fines of up to 10,000,000 koruna in total.
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.
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When your app profile says your app provides telecom services.
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