Electronic Communications Law, Article 19(2) point 18, additional functions for persons with disabilities: real-time text, total conversation and synchronised emergency communications

Article 19(2) point 18 of the Electronic Communications Law requires an electronic communications merchant to provide, in the operation of its electronic communications service, additional functions that meet the needs of persons with disabilities and give interoperability with assistive technologies. Point 18(a) requires real-time text alongside voice communication. Point 18(b) requires the total conversation service where video is provided alongside voice communication.

Point 18(c) requires emergency communication that uses voice and text, including real-time text, to be synchronised, to be synchronised as total conversation where video is used, and to be passed to the emergency call centre.

Article 1(1) point 15 defines an electronic communications service as an internet access service, an interpersonal communications service, or another service that consists wholly or mainly of the conveyance of signals, including machine-to-machine services and services for broadcasting. Article 1(1) point 52 defines real-time text as a text communication service between two or more terminal devices that transmits characters as they are typed.

Article 1(1) point 66 defines the total conversation service as a multimedia real-time communication service that transmits video, text and voice in both directions between end-users at two or more locations. Article 1(1) point 5 defines emergency communication as communication between an end-user and an emergency call centre by interpersonal communications services, including real-time text, total conversation and text relay services, to request and receive help from the emergency services.

Section IV of Annex I to Directive (EU) 2019/882 requires electronic communications services to provide real time text in addition to voice communication, and total conversation where video is provided in addition to voice communication. Section IV of Annex I also requires emergency communications using voice and text, including real time text, to be synchronised and transmitted by the electronic communications service providers to the most appropriate PSAP.

Article 4(3) of the Directive, without prejudice to its paragraph 5, requires all services to comply with the accessibility requirements of Section IV of Annex I. Article 4(5) of the Directive exempts microenterprises providing services from the accessibility requirements referred to in Article 4(3). Article 19(2) point 18 of the Electronic Communications Law contains no exemption for microenterprises, so it binds a merchant that the Directive's microenterprise exemption would leave out.

Article 2(2) of the Directive applies it to electronic communications services provided to consumers after 28 June 2025, other than transmission services used for the provision of machine-to-machine services. Article 109(5) of Directive (EU) 2018/1972 requires Member States to ensure that access for end-users with disabilities to emergency services is available through emergency communications and is equivalent to that enjoyed by other end-users.

Point 15 of Cabinet Regulation 128 applies accessibility requirements to electronic communications services, including emergency communications, that cover real-time text alongside voice, total conversation where video is provided, and synchronised emergency communications passed to the most appropriate emergency call centre. The Law was adopted by the Saeima on 14 July 2022 and promulgated by the President in Riga on 28 July 2022. The Law enters into force on the day after its promulgation.

The legal act passport gives 29 July 2022 as the day the Law entered into force. Point 18 is in the text of the Law as it stood on 29 July 2022. Article 1(1) point 13 names the Public Utilities Commission as the Regulator. Article 1(1) point 12 defines an electronic communications merchant as a merchant that has the right to provide an electronic communications network and to provide an electronic communications service.

The Law lists Directive (EU) 2018/1972 and Directive (EU) 2019/882 among the directives it includes provisions from. Article 125(2) makes the Regulator the authority that conducts the administrative offence proceedings for the violations in Articles 116 to 120 and 122 to 124. Article 118 sets a warning or a fine of 56 to 2,800 fine units for a legal person for violating end-user rights in providing electronic communications services.

Article 16(2) of the Administrative Liability Law sets one fine unit at EUR 5. Article 16(4) of that Law sets the general maximum fine for a legal person at 4,000 fine units. Article 10 lets the Regulator demand information from persons active in the sector and, after advance warning, visit premises and equipment used for providing electronic communications services and demand documents proving rights over them.

Article 44(1) requires an end-user to submit a complaint about the provision of an electronic communications service to the merchant, which examines it under the Law on Regulators of Public Utilities. Article 44(2) lets an end-user who is dissatisfied with the merchant's answer complain to the Regulator where the complaint concerns a regulated electronic communications service, and the Regulator may decide to order the merchant to remedy the deficiencies found.

Article 368(1) of the Administrative Procedure Law has an administrative act that obliges its addressee to perform an action enforced by substitute performance, a coercive fine or direct force. Article 370(3) of that Law sets the coercive fine at EUR 50 to 5,000 for a natural person and EUR 100 to 10,000 for a legal person. Article 370(2) of that Law lets the coercive fine be imposed again, no sooner than seven days after the previous one, until the addressee complies.