Accessibility Act (Tilgængelighedsloven), accessibility requirements for services and the obligations of service providers

Section 1(2) applies the Act to electronic communications services other than machine-to-machine transmission services, services that give access to audiovisual media services, elements of air, bus, rail and ship passenger transport, consumer banking services, e-books and dedicated software, and e-commerce services, when they are supplied to consumers.

For passenger transport, section 1(2), item 3 covers websites, services for mobile devices, electronic tickets and ticketing services, travel information including real-time information (on information screens, only interactive screens in the European Union), and interactive self-service terminals in the European Union, and for urban, suburban and regional transport only the self-service terminals. The Act implements parts of Directive (EU) 2019/882, the European Accessibility Act.

Section 59(1) of the Act applies it to products and services placed on the market or supplied from 28 June 2025. Section 4 of the Act allows a service to be supplied only if it meets the relevant accessibility requirements in Annex 1. Section 6(1) requires services to meet the requirements in parts 3 and 4 of Annex 1. Section 6(2) requires urban, suburban and regional transport services to meet only the requirements in part 4 of Annex 1.

For electronic communications, part 4 of Annex 1 requires real-time text in addition to voice communication, total conversation where video is provided in addition to voice, and emergency communications that are synchronised and sent by the providers of electronic communications services to the most appropriate alarm centre, including the emergency communications referred to in Article 109(2) of Directive (EU) 2018/1972.

Section 6(3) exempts microenterprises that provide services from the requirements in parts 3 and 4 of Annex 1 and from every obligation connected with them. Article 4(5) of the Directive exempts microenterprises providing services from the accessibility requirements for services and from any obligation relating to compliance with them.

Act 637 of 11 June 2024 added section 13 a, which obliges the business, climate-energy-utilities and transport ministers to prepare guidelines and tools for microenterprises.

Section 2 excludes from the Act pre-recorded time-based media and document formats published before 28 June 2025, online maps and mapping services where essential navigation information is given in an accessible digital manner, third-party content the trader neither finances, develops nor controls, and archive content not updated or edited after 28 June 2025.

Section 7 deems a service that meets the accessible-information requirements of the EU passenger rights regulations and of the acts adopted under Directives 2008/57/EC and (EU) 2016/797 to meet the corresponding requirements of the Act, and applies the Act’s additional requirements in full.

Section 8(1) disapplies the accessibility requirements for services to the extent that compliance would need a significant change that fundamentally alters the basic nature of the service, or would impose a disproportionate burden on the trader. Section 8(2) denies the disproportionate-burden defence to a trader that does not use only its own funds to improve accessibility.

Sections 9(1) and 9(2) require the trader to assess the defence against the criteria in Annex 5 and to document the assessment. Section 9(3) requires the documentation to be kept for at least 5 years after the service was last supplied. Section 11 requires a service provider that relies on the disproportionate-burden defence to renew the assessment for each category or type of service when the service changes or the authority asks, and in any event at least every five years.

Section 12(1) requires a trader that relies on section 8 for a service to send that information to the relevant control authority. Section 12(2) exempts microenterprises from that duty. Section 14 presumes a service that conforms to harmonised standards, or parts of them, whose references are published in the Official Journal of the European Union to meet the accessibility requirements the standards cover.

Section 34 requires a service provider to ensure that the services it designs and supplies conform to the Act. Section 35(1) requires a service provider, before supplying a service, to prepare the information required by Annex 4 and to explain how the service meets the accessibility requirements. Section 35(2) and (3) require the information to be published in writing and orally, including in a way accessible to persons with disabilities, and kept for as long as the service is offered.

Section 37(2) requires a service provider to inform the relevant control authority in every Member State where the service is supplied of any non-conformity and the measures taken. Section 59(2) lets a service provider keep supplying similar services with products lawfully used for services before 28 June 2025 until 28 June 2030. Section 59(3) lets service agreements concluded before 28 June 2025 continue unchanged until they expire and at the latest until 28 June 2030.

Section 59(4) lets payment terminals and self-service terminals within section 1(1), items 2 and 3, lawfully used to provide services before 28 June 2025 keep providing similar services until the end of their economic life and at most 20 years after they were put into use. Article 32(1) of the Directive requires the Member States to provide for a transitional period ending on 28 June 2030 for services provided with products lawfully used before that date.

Article 32(2) of the Directive allows the Member States to let such self-service terminals stay in use until the end of their economically useful life and for no longer than 20 years. Section 45(2) makes the Danish Safety Technology Authority (Sikkerhedsstyrelsen) the control authority for services that give access to audiovisual media services, consumer banking services, e-books and dedicated software, and e-commerce services.

Section 45(3) makes the Danish Energy Agency (Energistyrelsen) the control authority for electronic communications services. Section 45(4) makes the Danish Transport Authority (Trafikstyrelsen) the control authority for the elements of air, bus and rail passenger transport and for the self-service terminals of ship passenger transport. Section 45(5) makes the Danish Maritime Authority (Søfartsstyrelsen) the control authority for the other elements of ship passenger transport.

Section 47(1) gives the control authority access to business premises and means of transport at any time, on proper identification and without a court order. Section 49(1) lets the control authority order a trader to put a non-conforming service right within a set time. Section 49 then lets it order the trader to stop offering the service within a set time. Section 55(1) lets a consumer bring a matter before the relevant control authority.

Section 55(2) lets public bodies, private associations, organisations and other legal entities with a legitimate interest take part in any judicial or administrative proceeding before the courts or the control authority, on behalf of or in support of the complainant. Section 55(4) lets the business minister set rules for a complaints board for consumer complaints pursuant to the Act. Section 56 bars an appeal against the control authorities’ decisions to any other administrative authority.

Section 57(1) punishes with a fine anyone who breaches section 4, section 6(1) or (2), 9(2) and 9(3), 11 or 12(1), fails to give the authority information under sections 9(4) or 46, fails to fulfil the service provider obligations in sections 34 to 37, obstructs the authority’s access under section 47(1), or disregards its decisions or evades or attempts to evade its control, unless a higher penalty is incurred under other legislation.

Section 57(3) allows companies and other legal persons to be held criminally liable in accordance with chapter 5 of the Penal Code. Section 57 states no amount for the fine. The remarks to bill L 131 of the 2021-22 session, which became the Act, leave the size of the fine to the courts’ assessment of all the circumstances of each case. The same remarks state that the Ministry found no basis for imprisonment for breaches of the Act.

Article 30(1) and (2) of the Directive require EU countries to lay down penalties for infringements of the national provisions that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive. The remarks to bill L 8 of the 2026-27 session state that Sikkerhedsstyrelsen merged with the Danish Business Authority (Erhvervsstyrelsen) on 1 January 2026 and is now part of it.

The same remarks state that the Danish Agency for Digital Government (Digitaliseringsstyrelsen) has taken over responsibility for electronic communications services following a royal resolution of August 2024. Bill L 8, as presented on 7 October 2026, would write Erhvervsstyrelsen in place of Sikkerhedsstyrelsen in section 45(2) of the Act and Digitaliseringsstyrelsen in place of Energistyrelsen in section 45(3).

The bill would also add a section 2(2) under which the Act does not apply to matters covered by the Copyright Act or by Regulation (EU) 2017/1563. It would add a section 2 a under which products and services that meet the Act may not be prevented from being made available or supplied in Denmark for reasons related to accessibility requirements. Section 4 of the bill sets 1 January 2027 for its entry into force.

Act 637 of 11 June 2024 also added section 51 a, which requires the control authority to give consumers on request, in an accessible format, its own information on traders’ compliance with the accessibility requirements and on their exemption assessments. Section 5(2) of Act 637 brought its section 4, which amended the Accessibility Act, into force on 12 June 2024, the day after its publication in Lovtidende on 11 June 2024.