Act on the Provision of Digital Services, chapter 3a, accessibility requirements for certain consumer digital services, with Government Decree 179/2023

Government bill HE 41/2022 states that the proposed new Act and the changes to other laws would implement the Directive on the accessibility requirements of products and services nationally. Government bill HE 41/2022 states that the new services are also required to meet the obligations of the Act on the Provision of Digital Services.

The bill treats the accessibility feedback rules of the Act as corresponding in part to the support-services requirement of Annex I, Section III(d) of the Directive, and the accessibility statement as the channel for the Annex V information. Section 10 a applies chapter 3a only to the services of passenger transport, e-books and online shops.

Section 10 a applies chapter 3a to consumer credit, specified investment services and ancillary services, payment services, basic payment accounts and electronic money, in so far as the service is given in digital form to consumers. Section 10 a applies chapter 3a to services that provide access to audiovisual content services and to communications services, in so far as they are digital services offered to consumers.

Section 2 defines an online shop service as a digital service in which distance contracts within chapter 6, section 7 of the Consumer Protection Act (38/1978) can be made. Section 2 defines an e-book as a publication in text or graphic form that is offered to a consumer as a file or a set of files.

Section 2 defines a passenger transport service as the digital services offered to a consumer as part of the transport services under the EU passenger rights regulations named in section 2, paragraph 12 of the Transport Services Act (320/2017). Section 10 b excludes from chapter 3a the digital services produced by microenterprises within section 4, paragraph 2 of the Act on the Accessibility Requirements of Certain Products.

Section 3 excludes from the Act the digital services of public service broadcasters, other than services that provide access to audiovisual content services.

Section 3 also excludes from the Act live time-based media that is not stored for republication, online maps and map services (although the essential guidance content of a navigation map must be offered in another accessible digital form), content the provider did not itself produce, finance or control, and heritage collection items that cannot be made accessible.

Article 4(3) of the Directive requires all services except urban, suburban and regional transport services to comply with Section III of Annex I, and all services to comply with Section IV of Annex I. Article 4(5) of the Directive exempts microenterprises providing services from the accessibility requirements of Article 4(3) and from any obligations relating to compliance with them.

Section 10 c requires a provider, in addition to section 7, to ensure that its digital services meet the additional requirements of that section. Section 10 c treats additional requirements that conform to the harmonized standards under Article 15 of Directive (EU) 2019/882, or to the technical specifications in Commission implementing acts, as meeting the requirements those standards or specifications cover.

Section 10 c requires a provider to give information on the operation of the digital service. Section 10 c requires the information on consumer credit, investment, payment and banking services to meet level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Section 10 c requires digital services offered as e-books to be accessible so that they can be processed, read, used and navigated.

Section 10 c does not require a service to meet those requirements if at least one alternative and equally accessible way of using it is offered in line with the functional performance requirements. For communications services and for services that provide access to audiovisual content services, section 10 c applies the additional requirements in sections 194 c and 194 d of the Act on Electronic Communications Services. Government Decree 179/2023 was made at Helsinki on 16 February 2023.

Section 2 of the Decree requires a provider whose digital service needs a particular product to work to state in the accessibility statement how the product relates to the service, what accessibility features it has and how it works with assistive devices.

Section 3 of the Decree requires a provider of consumer credit, investment, payment and banking services to make the information on providing those services understandable, at no more than level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Section 4 of the Decree requires a provider of e-books to ensure synchronized text and audio, that the digital files do not stop assistive technology from working, that access and navigation follow the user's choices, alternative presentations and interoperability with assistive technologies, discoverability through metadata on accessibility features, and that digital rights management does not block the accessibility features.

Section 5 of the Decree requires an online shop to give information on the accessibility of the products and services in it, if the economic operator responsible for them has supplied that information to the provider. Section 6 of the Decree lists ten functional performance requirements that apply where a digital service meets those instead of the accessibility requirements. The Decree entered into force on 20 February 2023 and applies from 28 June 2025.

Section 7 of the Decree lets service contracts concluded before 28 June 2025 continue unchanged until they expire, but for no longer than five years from that date. Section 10 d lets a provider depart from the accessibility requirements if an accessibility assessment shows that compliance would impose the disproportionate burden of section 8 or a change that would fundamentally alter the basic nature of the service.

Section 10 d assesses the burden by the costs of compliance in relation to operating and capital costs, the net costs of compliance in relation to net turnover, and a cost-benefit assessment that takes particular account of the needs of disabled people. Section 10 d bars a provider from relying on the disproportionate burden if it receives funding from public or private sources outside its own funds that is granted for improving accessibility.

Section 10 e requires a provider that departs from the requirements to notify the supervisory authority, to document the assessment, to submit it on request and to keep it for five years from when it last offered the digital service. Section 10 e requires the burden assessment to be made again when the content of the digital service changes, at the request of the supervisory authority, and at least every five years.

Section 10 f requires a provider to publish in the accessibility statement a general description of the digital service and an account of how it meets the additional requirements of the Directive. Section 10 g requires a provider whose digital service does not meet the accessibility requirements to notify the supervisory authority of the shortcomings and the corrective measures.

Article 13(4) of the Directive requires a service provider whose service is not compliant to inform the competent national authorities immediately, giving details of the non-compliance and of any corrective measures taken.

Section 11 gives everyone the right to make an accessibility complaint to the supervisory authority about a provider that has not complied with chapter 3 or chapter 3a. Section 12 designates the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) as the supervisory authority for chapters 3 and 3a. Section 12 of Act 104/2023, as made, designated the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland as the supervisory authority for chapters 3 and 3a. Act 606/2024 amended section 12 with effect from 1 January 2025, before chapter 3a began to apply, and transferred the matters under section 12 then pending at the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland to Traficom.

Section 12 lets the supervisory authority order a provider to bring a digital service into line with chapters 3 and 3a within a reasonable time. Section 13 gives the supervisory authority the right to obtain the necessary information free of charge notwithstanding secrecy provisions and to order an inspection on the provider's premises other than premises used for permanent residence.

Section 14 lets the supervisory authority back an order under section 12(3), and the exercise of its rights to information and inspection, with a conditional fine. Section 8 of the Conditional Fines Act (1113/1990) requires the amount of a conditional fine to take account of the nature and extent of the principal obligation and the ability to pay of the person obliged.

Section 7 of the Conditional Fines Act directs a conditional fine against an entity or its governing body members or managing director. Section 10 of the Conditional Fines Act lets the additional instalments of a running conditional fine be ordered paid at one time up to three times the base amount. The transitional provision of Act 104/2023 applies chapter 3a from 28 June 2025.

Service contracts within chapter 3a concluded before 28 June 2025 may continue unchanged until they expire, but for no longer than five years from that date. Chapter 3a does not apply to website and mobile application content archived before 28 June 2025. Chapter 3a does not apply to pre-recorded time-based media published before 28 June 2025. Chapter 3a does not apply to office-software files in websites and mobile applications published before 28 June 2025.