SpainReal Decreto 193/2023, accessibility of information, customer service, consumer dispute resolution, private education materials, websites, applications, financial and postal services for privately owned goods and services contracted or supplied by the administrations
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding private bodies.
What it requires
- If you supply privately owned goods and services that the public administrations contract or supply, observe the basic accessibility and non-discrimination conditions for goods and services available to the public, make reasonable and proportionate adjustments, and give persons with disabilities access to your premises, procedures and services (Real Decreto 193/2023, Arts. 3, 5(2) and 6).
- Give users and customers with disabilities information on your goods and services in accessible formats suited to their needs, whatever the channel, and pay special attention to food information and information on dangerous products (Art. 14(1)).
- If you own a website or mobile application not funded from public money whose content concerns goods or services available to the public, build it to the accessibility criteria of Real Decreto 1112/2018 and, in particular, to the priority A and AA requirements of standard UNE 139803 (Art. 14(2)).
- If you are a company that provides services to the public in general of special economic importance (Art. 14(4), by Ley 56/2007, Art. 2(2): more than 100 workers or an annual volume of operations above EUR 6,010,121.04, in electronic communications, financial services, water, gas or electricity supply, travel agency services, passenger transport or retail), make your publicly open websites universally accessible, state the degree of accessibility of your goods, services, premises and procedures, and state whether you run any line of action or attention aimed at persons with disabilities (Art. 14(3)).
- Guarantee persons with disabilities accessible access to the information on the processing of their personal data and to the exercise of their data protection rights (Art. 14(5)).
- Give persons with disabilities, in accessible format, the information on their consumer rights, including the right to complain, and where applicable the commercial offer, the contract and the invoice, where you are obliged to give them; keep customer service and information services accessible; keep repair and maintenance services in accessible format for at least ten years from the end of manufacture of the good or for as long as the service lasts (Art. 16(1), (2) and (4)).
- If you make vending machines, build them to universal design or adapt machines already in use that are not at the end of their life (Art. 17(1)); if you run a shop of more than 150 square metres of usable exhibition and sales area that makes electronic or technological equipment available to customers, make it accessible where no real impossibility exists and the adaptation is a proportionate reasonable adjustment, including in itinerant sales where the nature of the activity allows it (Art. 17(4) and (5)).
- If you are a financial, banking or credit institution, insurer or insurance intermediary, make your cash machines and other service terminals meet the accessibility requirements of the law transposing Directive (EU) 2019/882, and make telephone and electronic customer service accessible under the applicable technical standard (Art. 18(2) and (3)).
- If you are a postal operator, guarantee accessibility and reasonable adjustments in collection, admission, distribution and delivery and in information, customer attention and complaints, in person or at a distance, including interactive self-service terminals and mobile applications (Art. 28).
- Make your specific customer services accessible, give customers with disabilities personal guidance and help where they ask and need it to use the service, and train the staff of those services in attending persons with disabilities and in using the support products available (Art. 11(2) and (3)).
- If you are an accredited consumer alternative dispute resolution entity, make your procedures, offices and information and attention services universally accessible (Art. 16(3)); if you run a private education center or non-formal education, make your training offer, materials and supports accessible to persons with disabilities (Art. 21(5)).
- Goods and services with a specific regulation that sufficiently guarantees non-discrimination and universal accessibility, as public, public-utility or general-interest services, are outside these conditions (Art. 4); the transport modes stay under Real Decreto 1544/2007 and the European passenger rights regulations (additional provision 5).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Penalty structure
Fines run from a minimum of EUR 301 to a maximum of EUR 1,000,000 (Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2013, Article 83(1)). A minor infringement is fined up to EUR 30,000 and a serious infringement up to EUR 90,000 (Article 83(2) and (3)). For conduct within the competence of the central State administration, Article 96 sets minor infringements at EUR 301 to 6,000 (minimum degree), 6,001 to 18,000 (medium) and 18,001 to 30,000 (maximum), serious infringements at EUR 30,001 to 60,000, 60,001 to 78,000 and 78,001 to 90,000, and very serious infringements at EUR 90,001 to 300,000, 300,001 to 600,000 and 600,001 to 1,000,000. Beside the fine, a serious or very serious infringement brings a proposed ban of up to one or two years on applying for official aid in the sector, and a very serious one the proposed withdrawal or suspension of aid already granted (Article 85(1) and (2)); the authority may publish a final sanction for a serious or very serious infringement with the infringer's name (Article 92); and a final sanction for a serious infringement in equal opportunities and non-discrimination of persons with disabilities bars the person from contracting with public sector entities, with the scope and duration the resolution or a separate procedure sets (Ley 9/2017, Articles 71(1)(b) and 72(2)). Article 15 of Real Decreto 193/2023 sanctions breaches under Title III of Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2013.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Minimum
- 301
- Currency
- EUR
- Fixed cap
- 1,000,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The autonomous community authorities under their own infringement regimes, and the central State administration where the conduct extends beyond one autonomous community, as the infringement and sanction regime of Title III of Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2013 allocates them (Articles 78 and 94)
What it reaches
Instrument type
a regulation made under an act
Applicability criteria
- As of
- Combinator
- Any of
- Criteria
- a natural or legal person that supplies privately owned goods or services available to the public that the public administrations contract or supply
- for Article 14(3), a company that employs more than 100 workers or whose annual volume of operations exceeds EUR 6,010,121.04 and that operates in a sector listed in Article 2(2) of Ley 56/2007
- for Article 17(4), a shop with more than 150 square metres of usable exhibition and sales area
What this law does
Real Decreto 193/2023 regulates the basic accessibility and non-discrimination conditions for access to and use of goods and services available to the public. Article 3 applies it to relations between natural or legal persons, public or private, whose object is the provision of goods or the supply or provision of services available to the public.
Article 3 applies it in any case to goods and services that consumer law treats as of common, ordinary and general use or consumption and as durable goods. Article 4 excludes goods and services that, as public, public-utility or general-interest services, have a specific regulation that sufficiently guarantees non-discrimination and universal accessibility. The fifth additional provision keeps Real Decreto 1544/2007 and the European passenger rights regulations applicable to transport modes.
Article 14(1) requires suppliers of goods and services available to the public to give users and customers with disabilities information on their goods and services in accessible formats suited to their needs, whatever the channel.
Article 14(2) requires the owners of websites and mobile applications not funded from public money whose content concerns goods and services available to the public to incorporate the accessibility criteria of Real Decreto 1112/2018, and in particular priority A and AA requirements of standard UNE 139803.
Article 14(3) requires companies that provide services to the public in general of special economic importance and have publicly open websites to guarantee universal accessibility and to state the degree of accessibility of their goods and services. Article 14(4) defines those companies by reference to Article 2(2) of Ley 56/2007.
Article 14(5) guarantees persons with disabilities accessible access to information on the processing of their personal data and on the exercise of their data protection rights. Article 16(4) requires customer service and information services to be accessible to persons with disabilities.
Article 16(1) requires suppliers to offer persons with disabilities, in accessible format, the information on their consumer rights, including the right to complain, and where applicable the commercial offer, the contract and the invoice. Article 17(1) requires manufacturers of vending machines to facilitate accessibility, by universal design or by adapting machines already in use that are not at the end of their life.
Article 17(4) requires shops above a size threshold that offer electronic or technological equipment to customers to guarantee its accessibility, where no real impossibility exists and the adaptation is a proportionate reasonable adjustment. Article 18(2) requires the cash machines and other service terminals of financial and credit institutions to meet the accessibility requirements of the law transposing Directive (EU) 2019/882.
Article 18(3) requires the telephone and electronic customer service of financial, banking and credit institutions, insurers and insurance intermediaries to be accessible to persons with disabilities. Article 28 requires postal operators to guarantee accessibility and reasonable adjustments in collection, admission, distribution and delivery and in information, customer attention and complaints, including interactive self-service terminals and mobile applications.
Article 6 makes the accessibility obligations enforceable for goods and services that already exist, and requires reasonable adjustments where compliance is not possible. The sixth final provision makes the conditions enforceable on for new privately owned goods and services that the public administrations contract or supply. For existing goods and services of that kind that can be made subject to reasonable adjustments, the adjustments are due before .
Article 15 sanctions breaches in accordance with Title III of Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2013. Article 11(2) requires specific customer services to be accessible and staff to give personal guidance and help on request, and Article 11(3) requires that staff to be trained in attending persons with disabilities. Article 16(3) requires accredited consumer alternative dispute resolution entities to make their procedures and information and attention services universally accessible.
Article 21(5) requires private education centers and providers of non-formal education to make their training offer, materials and supports accessible to persons with disabilities.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app ships a consumer interface, ships a mobile app or provides financial services.
Back to the example · Lint your app
Page updated .