Act on the Provision of Digital Services, accessibility requirements, statement, feedback and supervision for private-sector providers

Section 2 provides that a digital service means a website or a mobile application and the functionalities related to them. Section 2 provides that a provider means an authority, a public-law body, and an enterprise, foundation, association or other entity to whose digital services the Act applies. Section 3 applies the Act to the digital services of four kinds of private-sector provider, which the applicability criteria list.

Section 3 excludes workplace intranets and extranets, certain teaching sites and applications, public broadcasters' services other than audiovisual access services, live time-based media, maps and map services, content the provider did not produce, finance or control, and cultural heritage items that cannot be made accessible.

Section 7 requires a provider to ensure the perceivability and understandability of the content of its digital services and the operability and robustness of its interfaces and navigation, in accordance with the accessibility requirements. Section 7 provides that the accessibility requirements are defined in the references to harmonised standards, or parts of them, that the European Commission publishes in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The accessibility requirements website that the supervisory authority operates states that the Act obliges compliance with the Level A and Level AA criteria of WCAG 2.1. Section 7 requires the content of a digital service to meet the accessibility requirements when it is available to the users of the service. Section 7 requires pre-recorded time-based media published in a digital service intended for the public to meet the requirements within 14 days of its first or repeated publication.

Section 7 requires a provider to take account of the accessibility requirements in its procurement, as the procurement acts provide, where procurement law applies to its activity. Section 8 lets a provider depart from the accessibility requirements only if a prior accessibility assessment shows that meeting them would impose a disproportionate burden on its activities.

In assessing the burden, section 8 requires account to be taken of the needs of disabled people and of the provider's size, financial position, and the nature and scale of its operations.

Section 9 requires a provider to maintain an accessibility statement with at least an account of the content that does not meet the requirements and the reasons for departing, instructions for getting the information in an alternative way, an electronic contact for accessibility feedback, and a link to the supervisory authority's website for an accessibility complaint or request for clarification.

Section 9 requires the statement to be kept in the format set by the European Commission's implementing act under Article 7(2) of Directive (EU) 2016/2102. Section 9 requires the provider to keep the statement easily available on its website in an accessible form. Section 9 requires the statement of a mobile application to be in an accessible form and available on the provider's website or when the application is downloaded.

Section 10 gives everyone the right to send feedback to the provider's electronic contact about departures from the accessibility requirements, or to ask for clarification of the disproportionate-burden grounds. Section 10 gives a user who needs inaccessible content to establish or exercise interests, rights or obligations the right, for a justified reason in an individual case, to get it in an accessible form or in another accessible way.

Section 10 requires the provider to send an electronic acknowledgement of receipt of feedback and to answer feedback and requests without delay and within two weeks of the contact. Section 10 lets the provider extend the response time by up to two weeks where a request for content in an accessible form concerns a wide range of content, and requires the requester to be told.

Section 10 requires the provider that does not give the requested content in an accessible form to draw up a written reasoned certificate for the requester.

Section 11 gives everyone the right to make an accessibility complaint to the supervisory authority about a provider that has not complied with the requirements and duties of chapter 3 or 3a. Section 12 designates the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) as the supervisory authority for chapters 3 and 3a. 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, free of charge and notwithstanding secrecy provisions, the information and explanations it needs, 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 15 allows rectification of an order made under section 12(3) to be demanded. Section 17 applies chapter 3 from 23 September 2019 to websites published on or after 23 September 2018. Section 17 applies chapter 3 from 23 September 2020 to websites published before 23 September 2018. Section 17 applies chapter 3 to mobile applications from 23 June 2021. Section 17 applies the Act to pre-recorded time-based media from 23 September 2020.

Section 17 applies the Act from 1 January 2021 to the digital services in section 3(1), paragraphs 5 and 6. Section 17 excludes website and mobile application content archived before 23 September 2019, unless an authority needs it to deal with a pending matter. Section 17 applies chapter 3 to office-software file formats in digital services that were published on or after 23 September 2018.

Section 17 applies chapter 3 to office-software file formats published before 23 September 2018 only where they are needed to establish or exercise a party's interests, rights or obligations. Chapter 3a applies its additional requirements to the services it lists on top of what section 7 provides.