Executive Order on universal service services, sections 1 to 3, 14(2), 16, 17 and 24, the web-based text telephone service for entitled recipients of disability services

Executive Order 1194 of 23 August 2022 on universal service services implements parts of Directive (EU) 2018/1972, the European Electronic Communications Code, and of Directive 2002/58/EC. The Order is made under sections 14(2), items 3 and 4, 14(3) to (6), 15(1), 17(1), 18(2) and 81(3) of the Telecommunications Act. Section 14(2), item 3, of the Act lets the Minister for Digital Government make rules on special universal service services for defined groups of persons with disabilities.

Under section 15(2) and (3) of the Act, Digitaliseringsstyrelsen designates one or more undertakings as universal service providers and sets the terms on which they carry out the universal service. Section 3(1) of the Order makes the universal service include a web-based text telephone service for entitled recipients of disability services.

Section 2, item 2, defines entitled recipients of disability services as deaf, deafened and deafblind persons and groups of speech- and hearing-impaired persons who can be compensated substantially for their disability through the service. Section 3(2) requires the relay centre attached to the text telephone service to be open around the clock.

Section 4 lets the authority, at a universal service provider’s request, set up an assessment scheme to check whether individuals are entitled to the disability services, where there is a likely risk of misuse on a scale that makes such a scheme economically justified, and require the provider to bear all or part of its cost.

Section 14(2) has the authority set the conditions for the disability services after negotiation with the provider and consultation of the disability organisations, and lets the conditions require more functions and facilities than section 3 lists. Section 16 limits what a universal service provider may charge for calls through the relay centre attached to the text telephone service.

Section 17 requires the web-based text telephone service to be available free of charge to the end-user, whichever provider of electronic communications networks or services the end-user subscribes to. Nuuday A/S is the universal service provider of the text telephone service from 1 January 2024 to the end of 2029.

Section 16(1) of the Act requires a designated universal service provider to supply the universal service to anyone who asks for it, unless that person has repeatedly and grossly misused the service and there is a significant risk of further misuse, and section 16(2) lets the provider’s refusal be appealed to Digitaliseringsstyrelsen.

The Order still names the Agency for Data Supply and Infrastructure (Styrelsen for Dataforsyning og Infrastruktur) as the authority, and a royal resolution of 29 August 2024 moved responsibility for the Act, apart from the tasks under its chapters 11 to 14 and 16 to 18, to the Ministry of Digital Government. Section 20(1) of the Act has Digitaliseringsstyrelsen supervise compliance with sections 3 to 6 and 14 to 19 of the Act and the rules and conditions issued under them.

Section 24(1) punishes with a fine anyone who repeatedly or grossly breaches the conditions set under section 15(1) and (3) of the Order or obstructs the independent audit under section 15(5). Section 24(2) allows companies and other legal persons to be held criminally liable under chapter 5 of the Penal Code.

Section 81(1), item 5, of the Act also punishes with a fine a universal service provider that, in special circumstances, fails to comply with the rules, conditions and obligations referred to in section 16 of the Act or with maximum prices set under section 17(1) and (2), and section 81(4) allows companies and other legal persons to be held criminally liable under chapter 5 of the Penal Code.

Section 25 of the Penal Code lets a legal person be punished with a fine where a law or rules made under a law so provide. Neither the Act nor the Order states the amount of a fine. Section 79(2) of the Act lets Digitaliseringsstyrelsen revoke the designation of a universal service provider that disregards its decision or leaves a coercive fine unpaid.

Section 81(3) of the Act lets rules made under sections 14 and 15 set a fine for a universal service provider that repeatedly or more seriously breaches the rules, conditions and obligations in the rules. Section 18(1) of the Act gives a designated universal service provider a right to have its documented net costs covered, and for services covered by the Directive only to the extent Digitaliseringsstyrelsen finds the obligation an unreasonable burden for the provider.

Section 18(1) of the Order treats the text telephone service as the universal service covered by the Directive’s obligations, whose net costs are covered by sector financing. Section 21(1) of the Order calculates the sector’s contributions from the providers of voice telephony services that hold numbers in the Danish numbering plan, and section 22(1) requires them to pay within 4 weeks after the authority has announced the amounts. Section 25(1) brought the Order into force on 1 October 2022.

Section 25(2) repealed Executive Order 482 of 20 May 2016 on the same subject. Section 25(3) keeps the rules of Executive Order 482 of 2016 for applications filed before the Order entered into force.

Article 85(4) of the Directive requires Member States, in light of national conditions, to ensure that support is provided, as appropriate, to consumers with disabilities and that other specific measures are taken, where appropriate, with a view to ensuring that specific services that enhance equivalent access, including where necessary total conversation services and relay services, are available and affordable.