FranceAct of 11 February 2005, Article 48: accessibility of digital books and the software giving access to them (transposition of Directive (EU) 2019/882)
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
What it requires
- If you publish, distribute or sell digital books, or publish software specialised in access to, navigation in, reading and use of digital books (including services integrated on mobile devices and mobile applications), meet the accessibility requirements set by the Arrêté of (Loi n° 2005-102, Art. 48, I).
- As publisher of digital books, design book files that meet the accessibility requirements of the arrêté and fill in the metadata of the files in accordance with it (Décret 2023-778, Art. 2, I).
- As distributor or disseminator of digital books, receive, store and send the files to retailers without compromising their accessibility features or changing their metadata (Décret 2023-778, Art. 2, II).
- As retailer of digital books, store and supply the files to the consumer without compromising their accessibility features, and faithfully restore to the consumer the metadata on accessibility characteristics (Décret 2023-778, Art. 2, III).
- As publisher of software specialised in digital books, design and provide software that supports the accessibility of the book files (Décret 2023-778, Art. 2, IV).
- Make sure procedures are in place so that the provision of digital books or specialised software stays compliant, taking account of changes in them, in the requirements and in the harmonised standards or technical specifications against which conformity is declared (Décret 2023-778, Art. 2, V).
- Give the information of Annex V of Directive (EU) 2019/882 in written, oral and accessible form and keep it as long as your services are available (Loi n° 2005-102, Art. 48, III).
- Meet the requirements of the Arrêté of : accessible products used in the service, information on how the service works and on its accessibility features, support services that give accessibility information, and for digital books synchronised text and audio, no obstruction of assistive technologies, access to content and navigation, alternative renderings, accessibility metadata and digital rights management that does not block accessibility features (Arrêté of , Art. 1 and 2).
- On a reasoned request of Arcom supply all the information needed to show that the service conforms, and take any corrective measure it asks for when it reports a non-conformity; if you find a non-conformity, take the corrective measures needed and inform Arcom (Loi n° 2005-102, Art. 48, IV and V).
- 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 product or service and does not impose a disproportionate burden; if you receive funding from sources other than your own resources to improve accessibility you cannot rely on the disproportionate burden for the service (Loi n° 2005-102, Art. 48, II).
- If you rely on either defence, keep the evidence and results of the assessment for five years from the date of the last version of the book or software made available to the public, give Arcom a copy on request, renew the assessment when the book or software is modified, on Arcom's request and at least every five years, and inform the authorities of the Member State where the book or software is placed on the market (Décret 2023-778, Art. 3).
- If you employ fewer than ten persons and your annual turnover or balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 2 million, the accessibility requirements of Article 48 and the obligations tied to them do not apply to you (Loi n° 2005-102, Art. 48, I).
- Context: the decree and the arrêté apply to digital books and specialised software published from , and from to those published before (Décret 2023-778, Art. 7; Arrêté of , Art. 3).
- Context: digital books and specialised software that respect the harmonised standards published in the Official Journal of the European Union, or failing them the technical specifications adopted by the European Commission, are presumed to meet the requirements (Décret 2023-778, Art. 1).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Article 5 of Décret 2023-778 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 5 of Décret 2023-778, 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). 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
Arcom, the Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique (Article 48, VI to VIII of the Act of )
What it reaches
Instrument type
an act of a legislature
Applicability criteria
- As of
- Combinator
- All of
- Criteria
- an economic operator that provides digital books within the meaning of Article 1 of Loi n° 2011-590 of , or software giving access to them, navigation within them, reading and use of them, including services integrated on mobile devices and mobile applications (Article 48, I)
- 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 livres numériques ou des logiciels spécialisés", Article 48, I, last paragraph)
What this law does
Article 2(2) of Directive (EU) 2019/882 applies it to e-books and dedicated software provided to consumers after . Article 48 of the Act of requires digital books and the software giving access to them to meet the accessibility requirements set by a joint order of the ministers for culture and for persons with disabilities.
The accessibility of those products and services is ensured by the economic operators that provide them, including for digital books the publishers, the persons offering digital books and any other person involved in their distribution. Article 16 of the Act of applies Article 48 to products placed on the market and services provided after .
Article 7 of Décret 2023-778 applies the decree to digital books and specialised software published from , and from to those published before . Microenterprises that provide digital books or specialised software are subject neither to the accessibility requirements of Article 48 nor to 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 product or service, and does not impose a disproportionate burden on the economic operators concerned. An operator that receives public or private funding from sources other than its own resources to improve the accessibility of a product or service cannot rely on the disproportionate-burden defence for that service.
Economic operators give the information of Annex V of the Directive in written, oral and accessible form and keep it as long as their services are available. On a reasoned request of Arcom economic operators supply all the information needed to show that the service conforms, and take any corrective measure Arcom asks for when it reports a non-conformity. An operator that finds a non-conformity takes the corrective measures needed and informs Arcom.
Arcom checks the conformity of digital books and specialised software, follows up complaints and reports about non-conformity, and checks that the operator has taken the corrective measures needed.
Arcom's agents may investigate and record infringements of Article 48, with 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. Arcom makes its decisions public.
Digital book publishers design book files that meet the accessibility requirements of the arrêté and fill in the metadata of the files in accordance with it. Distributors and disseminators of digital books receive, store and send to retailers the files without compromising their accessibility features or changing their metadata.
Retailers of digital books store and supply the files to the consumer without compromising their accessibility features, and faithfully restore to the consumer the metadata on accessibility characteristics. Publishers of software specialised in access to digital books design and provide software that supports the accessibility of the book files.
Article 3 of the decree requires the operators to keep the evidence and results of their assessment for five years from the date of the last version made available to the public, to give Arcom a copy on request, and to renew the assessment when the book or software is modified, on Arcom's request and at least every five years.
Article 1 of the decree presumes digital books and specialised software to meet the requirements if they respect the harmonised standards published in the Official Journal of the European Union or, failing them, the technical specifications adopted by the European Commission.
The Arrêté of adds for digital books synchronised text and audio, no obstruction of assistive technologies, access to content and navigation, alternative renderings, discoverability through accessibility metadata, and digital rights management that does not block accessibility features.
Article 5 of the decree punishes with the fine for contraventions of the fifth class, among other acts, publishing a digital book file or specialised software that does not meet the accessibility requirements, and failing to fill in or restore the accessibility metadata. Article 5 of the decree provides that repeat offending is punished under Articles 132-11 and 132-15 of the Code pénal.
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
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