LatviaCabinet Regulation 128 "Accessibility requirements for goods and services"
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
- Instrument type
- a regulation made under an act
What it requires
- If you place goods covered by the Law on the market, design and make them so that persons with disabilities can use them as far as possible, with information available through more than one sensory channel and a user interface that can be perceived, used, understood and operated (Reg. 128, points 2 to 4).
- If you make self-service terminals, provide text-to-speech technology and allow personal headsets, and if you make e-readers, provide text-to-speech technology (points 4.15.1 and 4.15.2).
- If you make consumer terminal equipment for electronic communications services, support real-time text, total conversation and wireless connection to hearing technologies without interference with assistive devices (point 4.15.3).
- If you make consumer terminal equipment for access to audiovisual media services, give access to the accessibility components the media service provider offers (point 4.15.4).
- Provide accessible packaging (except for self-service terminals) and accessible installation, maintenance, storage and disposal instructions, and draw up the declaration of conformity on the model in the annex (points 6 to 8).
- If you provide a service, give information about it through more than one sensory channel, make its website and related online applications and mobile services, mobile apps included, perceivable, usable, understandable and clear, and make support services accessible (points 9 to 13).
- If you provide an electronic communications service, offer real-time text alongside voice and total conversation where video is offered, and synchronise emergency communications in voice and text (or voice, text and video as total conversation) and transmit them to the most appropriate emergency call centre (point 15).
- If you provide access to audiovisual media services, offer electronic programme guides that are perceivable, usable, understandable and clear and give accessibility information, and transmit the accessibility components (subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons, audio description, spoken subtitles and sign-language interpretation) in a quality fit for accurate display, synchronised with sound and video and with user control over their display (point 16).
- If you provide an air, bus, rail or waterborne passenger transport service other than an urban or regional one, give information on the accessibility of vehicles, infrastructure and the built environment and on assistance, and information on e-ticketing and real-time travel information; for urban and regional transport, make the self-service terminals meet the goods requirements (points 17 and 18).
- If you provide a consumer financial service, offer identification methods, electronic signatures, security and payment services that are perceivable, usable, understandable and clear, and write its information so a person without legal or financial expertise can understand it (point 19).
- If you provide e-books, synchronise text and audio, keep the files compatible with assistive technology, allow navigation and alternative renderings, give accessibility metadata, and make sure digital rights management does not block accessibility features (point 20).
- If you provide an e-commerce service, give the accessibility information on the goods and services sold that the responsible economic operator supplies, and make identification, security and payment functions perceivable, usable, understandable and clear (point 21).
- Where the specific technical requirements do not cover a function, make it accessible according to the functional performance criteria (points 26 and 27).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Penalty structure
For goods: Article 19(9) of the Law on Conformity Assessment sets 14 to 140 fine units (EUR 70 to 700) for a natural person and 40 to 1,400 fine units (EUR 200 to 7,000) for a legal person. Article 19(10) sets 14 to 140 fine units (EUR 70 to 700) for a natural person and 56 to 2,800 fine units (EUR 280 to 14,000) for a legal person. Article 19(11) sets 40 to 400 fine units (EUR 200 to 2,000) for a natural person and 140 to 4,000 fine units (EUR 700 to 20,000) for a legal person. Paragraphs 9 to 11 apply from (law of ); from to the tier was Article 19(2), 14 to 140 fine units (EUR 70 to 700) for a natural person and 140 to 1,420 fine units (EUR 700 to 7,100) for a legal person. One fine unit is EUR 5 under Article 16(2) of the Administrative Liability Law, and the Consumer Rights Protection Centre conducts the proceedings under Article 20(1). For services: The Law on the accessibility of goods and services sets no fine of its own for a service provider. A competent authority's decision under Article 23(3) is an administrative act enforced under Article 368 of the Administrative Procedure Law, which allows a coercive fine: EUR 50 to 5,000 for a natural person and EUR 100 to 10,000 for a legal person (Article 370(3)), which may be imposed again no sooner than seven days after the previous one until the decision is complied with (Article 370(2)); no total cap is stated.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- EUR
- Fixed cap
- 20,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
the Consumer Rights Protection Centre (Patērētāju tiesību aizsardzības centrs), the market surveillance authority for goods under Article 18(1), which conducts the administrative offence proceedings for the fines under Article 20(1) of the Law on Conformity Assessment; for services the competent authorities in Article 22 of the Law
What this law does
Cabinet Regulation 128 is issued under Article 4(2) and Article 16(5) of the Law on the accessibility of goods and services. Article 4(2) of that Law has the Cabinet set the accessibility requirements for goods, packaging and instructions, services, the number 112, and the features, elements and functions of goods and services, and the functional performance criteria.
Point 1 of the Regulation sets the accessibility requirements for goods, their packaging and instructions, services, the number 112, and the features, elements and functions of goods and services, and the functional performance criteria. Point 2 requires goods to be designed and made so that persons with disabilities can use them as far as possible. Point 3 requires the information on how to use goods, shown on the goods, to be available through more than one sensory channel.
Point 4 requires the functionality, elements and options of goods, including their user interface, to let persons with disabilities access, perceive, use, understand and operate them. Point 4.15.1 requires self-service terminals to provide text-to-speech technology and to allow the use of personal headsets. Point 4.15.2 requires e-readers to provide text-to-speech technology.
Point 4.15.3 sets requirements for consumer terminal equipment with interactive computing capability used for electronic communications services, among them real-time text, total conversation and wireless connection to hearing technologies. Point 4.15.4 requires consumer terminal equipment used to access audiovisual media services to give access to the accessibility components that the media service provider offers.
Point 5 requires support services to give information on the accessibility of goods and their compatibility with assistive technologies through accessible means of communication. Point 6 requires the economic operator to prepare the declaration of conformity on the model in the annex to the Regulation. Point 7 requires accessible packaging and accessible information on packaging for goods other than self-service terminals.
Point 11 requires information on how a service works and on its accessibility features to be available through more than one sensory channel. Point 12 requires the website of a service, and related online applications and mobile services including mobile apps, to be accessible in a consistent and adequate way, so that the service is perceivable, usable, understandable and clear.
Point 13 requires support services to use accessible means of communication and to give information on the accessibility of the service and its compatibility with assistive technologies. Point 15 sets additional requirements for electronic communications services, among them real-time text alongside voice. Point 16 sets additional requirements for services giving access to audiovisual media services, among them electronic programme guides.
Point 17 sets additional requirements for air, bus, rail and waterborne passenger transport services other than urban and regional services. Point 18 requires the self-service terminals of urban and regional transport services to meet the requirements for goods. Point 19 sets additional requirements for consumer financial services, among them accessible identification methods, electronic signatures, security and payment services.
Point 20 sets additional requirements for e-books, among them synchronisation of text and audio. Point 21 sets additional requirements for e-commerce services, among them information on the accessibility of the goods and services sold. Point 24 provides that a good or service whose features, elements or functions meet the points listed there is presumed to meet the accessibility requirements of other directly applicable European Union acts and national acts implementing them.
Point 25 provides that a good or service that meets the harmonised standards and technical specifications referred to in Article 15 of the Law is presumed to conform to point 24 so far as those standards meet the requirements of the Regulation. Point 26 requires functions not covered by the other chapters to be made accessible according to the functional performance criteria.
Point 27 lets the functional performance criteria replace a technical requirement only where the requirement names them and the result is equal or greater accessibility. Point 22 in chapter VI makes the emergency call centre responsible for answering the number 112 in a way persons with disabilities can use, which is the government half and is covered on law.ungovr.org in the public-sector accessibility entry for Latvia.
Point 28 provides that chapter VI of the Regulation enters into force on . Point 29 provides that the Regulation enters into force on . The Regulation was adopted on . Article 1(8) of the Administrative Procedure Law defines a private person as a natural person, a legal person governed by private law or an association of such persons.
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) lets the coercive fine be imposed again, no sooner than seven days after the previous one, until the addressee complies.
Article 4(2) of the Law on Conformity Assessment applies chapter III.1 of that Law to non-food goods for which requirements are set in legal acts, including European Union acts on goods accessibility requirements. Article 19(9) of that Law sets the fine for failing to ensure that goods meet the requirements of an act referred to in Article 4(2), or for breaching the rules on the circulation of goods, at 14 to 140 fine units for a natural person and 40 to 1,400 fine units for a legal person.
Article 19(10) sets the fine for placing on the market, offering or selling goods that do not meet the safety or essential requirements or technical parameters of such an act at 14 to 140 fine units for a natural person and 56 to 2,800 fine units for a legal person. Article 19(11) sets the fine for failing to maintain internal control processes that cause systematic non-conformity at 40 to 400 fine units for a natural person and 140 to 4,000 fine units for a legal person.
Article 16(2) of the Administrative Liability Law sets one fine unit at EUR 5. Article 20(1) of the Law on Conformity Assessment makes the Consumer Rights Protection Centre the authority that conducts the administrative offence proceedings for the fines in Article 19(1), (3), (7), (8), (9), (10) and (11). The law of , in force from , deleted Article 19(2) of the Law on Conformity Assessment and added paragraphs 6 to 11, among them the fines in paragraphs 9 to 11.
Point 15.3 requires electronic communications service providers to synchronise emergency communications that use voice and text, including real-time text, or voice, text and video as total conversation, and to transmit them to the most appropriate emergency call centre. Point 7 requires accessible packaging, and accessible information on opening, closing, use and disposal, for goods other than self-service terminals.
Point 10 requires goods used to provide a service to meet the goods requirements of chapters II and III. Point 19.2 requires the information of a consumer financial service to be understandable to persons without specialist legal or financial knowledge, avoiding specialist terms, complex sentences and long paragraphs. Point 20.6 requires that digital rights management measures do not block the accessibility features of an e-book.
Point 21.1 requires an e-commerce service to give information on the accessibility of the goods and services sold where the responsible economic operator has provided it. The Regulation was published in Latvijas Vēstnesis No. 42 on .
In the version in force from to , Article 19(2) set a fine of 14 to 140 fine units for a natural person and 140 to 1,420 fine units for a legal person for placing on the market, offering or selling goods that do not meet the essential requirements or technical parameters set in normative acts.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app ships a consumer interface, ships a mobile app, provides telecom services, provides financial services or distributes a software product.
Back to the example · Lint your app
Page updated .