Medienstaatsvertrag (MStV), sections 99a to 99e, accessibility of services providing access to audiovisual media services

Section 99a(1) of the Medienstaatsvertrag requires providers of services that give access to audiovisual media services to ensure accessible access, to design the selection of offers accessibly and to support accessible use, unless that would burden them disproportionately under Annex VI of Directive (EU) 2019/882. Section 99a(1) also releases them where compliance would require a significant change to the service that fundamentally alters its basic nature.

Section 99a(1) provides that ensuring accessibility covers the requirements of Annex I, Section III and Section IV, point (b), of the Directive. Section 99a(1) bars a provider that receives public or private funds, other than its own, to improve accessibility from relying on a disproportionate burden.

Section 2(2), item 31 defines such a service as a telemedium used to identify, select, receive information on and view television programmes and television-like telemedia, and the functions provided to make them accessible, including electronic programme guides. Section 99a(2) requires the provider to assess whether compliance would bring a fundamental alteration or a disproportionate burden.

Section 99a(3) requires the provider to document that assessment, to keep all relevant results for five years after it last provided the service, and to send the competent Landesmedienanstalt a copy on request. Section 99a(4) requires a provider that relies on a disproportionate burden to repeat the assessment when the service changes or the Landesmedienanstalt asks, and at least every five years.

Section 99a(5) disapplies subsections (1) to (4) to microenterprises within the meaning of Article 3(23) of the Directive. Section 99b(1) presumes that a service meets the requirements where it conforms to harmonized standards whose references are published in the Official Journal of the European Union, or to technical specifications under Article 15(3) of the Directive.

Section 99b(2) requires a provider whose service does not conform to take the corrective measures needed and to inform the competent Landesmedienanstalt and the authorities of the Member States where the service is provided without delay. Section 99b(3) requires a provider that relies on a disproportionate burden or a fundamental alteration to send information on it to the authorities of the Member State where the service is provided.

Section 99b(4) requires the provider to give the competent Landesmedienanstalt, on request, all the information needed to show that the service conforms. Section 99c(1) requires the provider to state, in accessible form for the public, in its general terms and conditions or in another clearly perceivable way, how it meets the requirements.

Section 99c(2) requires that statement to include a general description of the service, the explanations needed to use it and the competent Landesmedienanstalt, and requires the provider to keep the information for as long as it offers the service. Section 99d(1) lets a consumer who cannot use such a service, or can use it only in a restricted way, because of a breach of section 99a or 99c apply to the competent Landesmedienanstalt for measures, which it decides by administrative decision.

Section 99d(2) lets the person concerned challenge that decision, or a failure to act, in the administrative courts. Section 99d(3) lets that person instruct a disability association recognized by the Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz, or a qualified entity within the meaning of the Unterlassungsklagengesetz, to act in their name or in their place.

Section 104(1) makes the Landesmedienanstalten the authorities responsible for services within sections 99a to 99e, in the sense of Article 23(2) of the Directive. Section 105(1), item 11a gives the Commission on Licensing and Supervision (ZAK) of the Landesmedienanstalten the supervision of nationwide services of this kind. Section 104(1) leaves the services of the ARD broadcasters, ZDF and Deutschlandradio outside that supervision.

Section 30(8) applies to such services of the ARD broadcasters, ZDF and Deutschlandradio only section 99a(1) sentences 1 and 2, (2) and (3) sentence 1 and section 99c(1). Section 115(1), second sentence, items 47a to 47d make it an administrative offence to fail to ensure accessible access, selection or use where no disproportionate burden or fundamental alteration applies, to fail to carry out or document the assessment or keep its results, or to fail to state how the requirements are met.

Section 115(2) sets a fine of up to EUR 500,000 for those offences. Section 115(3) makes the competent Landesmedienanstalt the authority that imposes the fine. Section 121a(1) applies sections 99a to 99d to services offered or provided to consumers after 27 June 2025.

Section 121a(2) lets providers go on providing these services until 27 June 2030 with products they lawfully used for them before 28 June 2025, and lets contracts concluded before 28 June 2025 continue unchanged until they expire, but no longer than five years from that date. The Länder inserted sections 99a to 99e into the Medienstaatsvertrag by the Zweiter Medienänderungsstaatsvertrag, which they concluded also to implement Directive (EU) 2019/882.

Article 2(2)(b) of Directive (EU) 2019/882 is the source: it covers services providing access to audiovisual media services, which the Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz does not list.