Accessibility Measures (European Accessibility Act) Regulations, services: scope, accessibility requirements, microenterprise exemption and obligations of service providers

Regulation 3(2) applies the Regulations to electronic communications services, except transmission services used for machine-to-machine services, and to services providing access to audiovisual media services, provided to consumers after 28 June 2025.

It covers the websites, mobile device-based services including mobile applications, electronic tickets and ticketing services, transport service information and interactive self-service terminals of air, bus, rail and waterborne passenger transport services, and for urban, suburban and regional transport services only the interactive self-service terminals, together with consumer banking services. It also covers e-books and dedicated software and e-commerce services.

Regulation 2 defines e-commerce services as services provided at a distance, through websites and mobile device-based services by electronic means and at the individual request of a consumer with a view to concluding a consumer contract. Regulation 2 defines consumer banking services to include credit agreements covered by the Credit Agreements for Consumers Relating to Residential Immovable Property Regulations or the Consumer Credit Regulations.

The definition of consumer banking services also lists the services in points 1, 2, 4 and 5 of Sections A and B of Annex I to MiFID, as defined in the Financial Markets Act, payment services as defined in the Banking Act, services linked to the payment account as defined in the Credit Institutions and Financial Institutions (Payment Accounts) Regulations, and electronic money as defined in the Financial Institutions Act.

Regulation 3(4) takes out of the Regulations pre-recorded time-based media and office file formats published before 28 June 2025, online maps and mapping services if essential information is provided in an accessible digital manner for maps intended for navigational use, third-party content that the economic operator neither funds, develops nor controls, and archive content not updated or edited after 28 June 2025.

Regulation 3(5) makes the Regulations without prejudice to the Permitted Use of Certain Works and Other Subject Matter Protected by Copyright and Related Rights for the Benefit of Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print-Disabled Order and to Regulation (EU) 2017/1563.

Regulation 4(3) requires all services to meet Section IV of Annex I, and all services other than urban and suburban transport services and regional transport services to meet Section III of Annex I. Regulation 4(6) tasks the market surveillance authority with developing guidelines and tools for microenterprises in consultation with relevant stakeholders.

Regulation 1(3) lets service providers keep using products they lawfully used before 28 June 2025 to provide similar services until 28 June 2030, lets service contracts agreed before 28 June 2025 continue without alteration until they expire and for no longer than five years from that date, and lets self-service terminals lawfully used before that date stay in use until the end of their economically useful life and for no longer than twenty years after their entry into use.

Regulation 5 deems a service that complies with the accessible-information requirements laid down in the EU passenger rights regulations it lists to comply with the corresponding requirements of the Regulations, and the additional requirements of the Regulations apply in full. The proviso to regulation 5 makes that obligation without prejudice to similar obligations contained in any other legislation.

Regulation 13 requires service providers to design and provide services in accordance with the accessibility requirements of the Regulations. A service provider must prepare the information required by Annex V on how the service meets the accessibility requirements, make it available to the public in written and oral format, including in a manner accessible to persons with disabilities, and keep it for as long as the service is in operation.

Annex V requires the information to be included in the general terms and conditions or an equivalent document and to contain a general description of the service in accessible formats, explanations needed to understand its operation and a description of how the Annex I requirements are met. Annex V asks for that information in addition to the consumer information requirements of the Consumer Rights Regulations.

Point 3 of Annex V requires the service provider to provide information demonstrating that the service delivery process and its monitoring ensure compliance of the service with point 1 of that Annex and with the applicable requirements of the Regulations.

A service provider must keep procedures in place so that the service stays in conformity, and must take account of changes in the characteristics of the service, in the applicable accessibility requirements and in the harmonised standards or technical specifications by reference to which the service is declared to meet them.

In the case of non-conformity a service provider must take the corrective measures necessary and immediately inform the competent national authorities of the Member States where the service is provided, giving details of the non-compliance and of any corrective measures taken.

On a reasoned request from a competent national authority, a service provider must give it all the information necessary to demonstrate conformity of the service and cooperate on action to bring the service into compliance.

A service provider that relies on the disproportionate burden ground must renew its assessment for each category or type of service when the service is altered, when the authorities responsible for checking compliance of services so request, and in any event at least every five years.

Regulation 14(7) requires a service provider that relies on regulation 14(1) for a specific service to send information to that effect to the market surveillance authority or the relevant competent authorities, and ends with the proviso that sub-regulation (1) shall not apply to microenterprises. Article 14(8) of Directive (EU) 2019/882 exempts microenterprises only from its first subparagraph, the duty to send information that an economic operator relies on Article 14(1).

Regulation 15(1) presumes services in conformity with harmonised standards whose references have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union to conform to the accessibility requirements in so far as those standards cover them.

Section III of Annex I requires websites, including the related online applications, and mobile device-based services, including mobile applications, to be made accessible in a consistent and adequate way by making them perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. Section III also requires the products used in the provision of the service to be accessible in accordance with Section I of Annex I and, where applicable, Section II of that Annex.

Section III further requires, where support services such as help desks, call centres, technical support, relay services and training services are available, that they provide information on the accessibility of the service and its compatibility with assistive technologies in accessible modes of communication.

Section IV of Annex I requires electronic communications services to provide real time text in addition to voice and total conversation where video is provided, and to transmit emergency communications by voice and text, synchronised, to the most appropriate public safety answering point.

For services providing access to audiovisual media services it requires accessible electronic programme guides and the full, synchronised and user-controllable transmission of subtitles, audio descriptions, spoken subtitles and sign language interpretation.

For consumer banking services it requires perceivable, operable, understandable and robust identification methods, electronic signatures, security and payment services, and information that does not exceed level B2 of the Council of Europe Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

For e-commerce services it requires information on the accessibility of the products and services sold when the responsible economic operator provides it, and perceivable, operable, understandable and robust identification, security, payment and electronic signature functions.

For e-books it requires synchronised text and audio, no obstruction of assistive technology, accessible navigation and layout, alternative renditions, accessibility metadata and digital rights management that does not block accessibility features.

For air, bus, rail and waterborne passenger transport services other than urban, suburban and regional transport services it requires information on the accessibility of vehicles, infrastructure and the built environment, on assistance, and on smart ticketing and real-time travel information, and for urban, suburban and regional transport services it requires accessible self-service terminals.

Section VII of Annex I requires a function that the other sections of the Annex do not address to be made accessible by meeting the related functional performance criteria. Regulation 4(8) requires the most appropriate public safety answering point to answer emergency communications to the single European emergency number 112 in line with Section V of Annex I. The Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability is the market surveillance authority under the Regulations.