FranceBanking, payment and investment services: accessibility duties of lenders, payment service providers, electronic money issuers and investment firms (transposition of Directive (EU) 2019/882)
Code de la consommation art. L. 312-95 et L. 314-32; Code monétaire et financier, art. L. 133-44 (V), L. 311-14, L. 315-8-1, L. 323-1 et L. 323-2
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
What it requires
- If you provide consumer banking contracts or services after (the pre-contractual information sheets and credit contracts, investment services, payment services and the operations of a payment account, the services linked to payment accounts, and the management of electronic money), make them meet the accessibility requirements of Article L. 412-13 of the Code de la consommation and of the Arrêté of (Code de la consommation, Art. D. 412-50, I, 4°).
- As lender, make sure that the contracts of section 11 of chapter II of title I of book III of the Code de la consommation, and the information sheets, offers and credit contracts you provide to your customers, meet those requirements (Art. L. 312-95 and L. 314-32).
- As payment service provider, make sure the authentication methods you provide to your customers meet those requirements (Code monétaire et financier, Art. L. 133-44, V).
- As a professional providing the payment-account and payment services of the Code monétaire et financier, make sure the operations and services you provide to your customers are accessible in accordance with Article L. 412-13 (Art. L. 311-14).
- As electronic money issuer, make sure all the operations needed to manage electronic money meet those requirements (Art. L. 315-8-1).
- As investment services provider, entity providing investment services that is not subject to the authorisation procedure of Article L. 531-2, or investment adviser, make sure the investment services of Articles L. 321-1 and L. 321-2 you provide, and all the operations needed to carry out, manage and terminate them, meet those requirements (Art. L. 323-1 and L. 323-2).
- Provide identification methods, electronic signatures and security and payment services that are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, and make sure the information is understandable and does not exceed level B2 (advanced) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Arrêté of , Art. 9, 4°).
- Meet the same obligations as other service providers on information about the service, corrective measures and cooperation with the authorities (Code de la consommation, Art. D. 412-57).
- The requirements apply only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change amounting to a fundamental alteration of the nature of the service and does not impose a disproportionate burden; if you receive funding from sources other than your own resources to improve the accessibility of a service, you cannot rely on the disproportionate burden for it (Code de la consommation, Art. L. 412-13, II).
- Context: the accessibility requirements for services and all the obligations tied to them do not apply to an enterprise that employs fewer than ten persons and whose annual turnover or balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 2 million (Code de la consommation, Art. L. 412-13, I).
- Context: contracts concluded before may run unmodified until they end and at the latest until ; you may keep using until products you lawfully used before to provide similar services; self-service terminals lawfully used before may stay in use for similar services until the end of their economically useful life, up to fifteen years from entry into service (Loi n° 2023-171, Art. 16, VIII, B to D).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Article R. 451-4 punishes the acts it lists with the fine for contraventions of the fifth class. Article 131-13 of the Code pénal sets that fine at EUR 1,500 at most, raised to EUR 3,000 for a repeat offence where the regulation so provides. Article 131-41 makes the maximum for a legal person five times the natural-person rate, which is EUR 7,500, and Article 132-15 makes it ten times for a legal person that repeats the same contravention within a year, which is EUR 15,000.
Penalty structure
Tiers under Article R. 451-4, a fifth-class contravention with no daily amount: a natural person up to EUR 1,500, and up to EUR 3,000 on repeat (Code pénal, Art. 131-13 and 132-11); a legal person up to EUR 7,500 (Art. 131-41), and up to EUR 15,000 on repeat within a year (Art. 132-15). Beside the fine, Article L. 521-1 of the Code de la consommation lets the agents enjoin compliance with a daily periodic penalty of at most EUR 3,000 and a liquidated total of at most EUR 300,000. Article 132-7 of the Code pénal makes fines for contraventions accumulate with each other, so several contraventions found together are each fined.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- EUR
- Fixed cap
- 7,500
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
For banking services, the agents of the ACPR and the AMF, as to the understandability and complexity of the information given to the consumer, and the agents of the Banque de France, as to identification methods, electronic signatures and security and payment services (Article L. 511-25-1 of the Code de la consommation), with the agents of competition, consumer affairs and fraud control (the DGCCRF)
What it reaches
Instrument type
an act of a legislature
Applicability criteria
- As of
- Combinator
- All of
- Criteria
- a provider of the consumer banking contracts and services listed in Article D. 412-50, I, 4° of the Code de la consommation (pre-contractual information sheets and credit contracts, investment services, payment services and payment-account operations, services linked to payment accounts, and electronic money operations)
- not an enterprise of fewer than ten persons whose annual turnover does not exceed EUR 2 million or whose balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 2 million ("Les entreprises employant moins de dix personnes qui fournissent des services et dont le chiffre d'affaires annuel n'excède pas deux millions d'euros ou dont le total du bilan n'excède pas deux millions d'euros", Article L. 412-13, I)
What this law does
Article 2(2) of Directive (EU) 2019/882 applies it to consumer banking services, e-books and dedicated software, and e-commerce services provided to consumers after . Article 16 of the Act of , which holds these provisions, applies to products placed on the market and services provided after .
Article D412-50 lists the consumer banking contracts and services covered: the pre-contractual information sheets and credit contracts, investment services, payment services and the operations of a payment account, the services linked to payment accounts, and the operations for managing electronic money. A lender ensures that the contracts covered by the section in which Article L312-95 sits meet the accessibility requirements of Article L412-13.
A lender ensures that the information sheets and the credit offers and contracts it provides to its customers meet the same requirements. A payment service provider ensures that the authentication methods it provides to its customers meet the accessibility requirements of Article L412-13.
A professional ensures the accessibility of the operations and services it provides to its customers under the listed provisions of the Code monétaire et financier (section 1 of chapter II of title I of book III, Articles L131-2, L132-1 and L132-2, paragraph II and point 1° of paragraph III of Article L314-1, and the opening, management and closing of a payment account), in accordance with Article L412-13.
An electronic money issuer ensures that all the operations needed to manage electronic money meet the accessibility requirements of Article L412-13. An investment services provider, an entity providing investment services that is not subject to the authorisation procedure of Article L531-2, and an investment adviser ensure that the services listed in points 1, 2, 4 and 5 of Articles L321-1 and L321-2 that they provide to customers meet the accessibility requirements of Article L412-13.
The same persons ensure that all the operations needed to carry out, manage and terminate the services defined in Articles L321-1 and L321-2 meet the same requirements. For consumer banking services Article 9 of the Arrêté of requires accessible identification methods, electronic signatures and security and payment services, and information whose complexity does not exceed level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
The last paragraph of Article L412-13, I exempts the microenterprises that provide services from the accessibility requirements and from all the obligations tied to them. The requirements apply only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change amounting to a fundamental alteration of the nature of the service, and does not impose a disproportionate burden on the economic operators concerned.
Service contracts concluded before may continue unmodified until they end, and at the latest until . Service providers may continue to provide their services, until , using products they lawfully used to provide similar services before that date. Self-service terminals lawfully used before may stay in use for similar services until the end of their economically useful life, within a limit of fifteen years from entry into service.
For banking services Article L511-25-1 gives the agents of the ACPR and the AMF the power to investigate and record infringements, as to the clarity of the information given to the consumer and its level of complexity, and the agents of the Banque de France the same power, as to the perceivability, usability, comprehensibility and robustness of identification methods, electronic signatures and security and payment services.
Those agents have the powers of section 1 and subsections 1 to 5 of section 2 of chapter II of title I of book V of the Code de la consommation, and may apply the measures of Article L521-1 and of subsection 2 of section 2 of chapter I of title II of that book. After adversarial proceedings the agents may enjoin a professional to comply within a reasonable period and attach a daily periodic penalty of at most EUR 3,000, the total liquidated being at most EUR 300,000.
Article R451-4 punishes with the fine for contraventions of the fifth class a service provider that designs or provides services whose accessibility obligations are not met. The fine for contraventions of the fifth class is at most EUR 1,500, a ceiling that Article 131-13 of the Code pénal raises to EUR 3,000 for a repeat offence where the regulation so provides.
For a legal person already finally convicted of the same fifth-class contravention within a year, the maximum rate is ten times the natural-person rate, which gives EUR 15,000.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app ships a consumer interface, ships a mobile app or provides financial services.
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