Electronic Communications Law, Articles 37(2) and 36(3), contract information made available to an end-user with a disability on request, and the contract summary's features for end-users with disabilities

Article 37(2) of the Electronic Communications Law requires the merchant to give a consumer the information included in the service contract and the contract summary clearly and comprehensibly on a durable medium. Where the merchant cannot give that information on a durable medium, Article 37(2) requires it to ensure the information is available in another way as an easily downloadable document.

Article 37(2) requires the merchant to make that information available to an end-user with a disability on that end-user's request. Article 37(2) does not apply to contracts for an interpersonal communications service without numbering or for a machine-to-machine service. Article 36(3) makes the contract summary an integral part of the electronic communications service contract and requires it to follow Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2243, which sets the contract summary template.

Part B of the Annex to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2243 requires the contract summary section headed Features for end-users with disabilities to include information on the main products and services for end-users with disabilities. That section may include, where available, real-time text, total conversation, relay services, accessible emergency communications, specialised equipment, special tariffs and accessible information.

Article 36(10) excludes contracts for an interpersonal communications service without numbering or for a machine-to-machine service from Article 36(3). Article 35(2) extends the consumer rights in Chapter VI, other than those linked to an interpersonal communications service without numbering, to a microenterprise, a small enterprise, a foundation and an association unless it has expressly waived them.

Article 37(1) makes the Regulator the body that determines the information to include in an electronic communications service contract. The Regulator's decision of 22 September 2022 numbered 1/30, the Electronic Communications Service Contract Rules, is issued under Article 37(1) of the Law and sets the information a contract must include.

Transitional provision 8 applies the requirements of Article 37 on the information to include in a contract only to contracts concluded after the rules referred to in Article 37(1) entered into force. Decision 1/30 entered into force on 1 October 2022. Article 37 is in the version amended by the law of 19 December 2024, which entered into force on 21 January 2025.

Article 1(1) point 22 defines an end-user as a natural or legal person, or an association of such persons, that requests or uses electronic communications services without providing electronic communications services or networks to others or reselling services.

Article 102(1) of Directive (EU) 2018/1972 requires the contract information to be provided, upon request, in an accessible format for end-users with disabilities in accordance with Union law harmonising accessibility requirements for products and services. 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. Article 37(2), with its sentence on an end-user with a disability, 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.

The heading of Article 118 excludes a violation of the general authorisation conditions from it. Article 20(2) makes the Regulator's rules on the information to include in an electronic communications service contract part of the general authorisation. Article 120 sets a warning or a fine of 56 to 2,800 fine units for a legal person for violating the general authorisation conditions.

Article 21 lets the Regulator, for a violation of the rules referred to in Article 20, inform the merchant and set a time limit to remedy it. Article 21(5) lets the Regulator exclude a merchant from the list of electronic communications merchants for up to five years where it has committed a material violation, or a repeated violation within a year, and its remedial measures were not effective. 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, visit premises and equipment used for providing electronic communications services after advance warning, and demand documents proving rights to them.

Article 44(1) requires a complaint about the provision of an electronic communications service to be submitted first to the merchant, which examines it in the manner the Law on Regulators of Public Utilities sets. Article 44(2) lets a complainant who is dissatisfied with the merchant's answer go 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. A coercive fine under Article 370(3) of that Law is 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.