NetherlandsBesluit toegankelijkheid van het openbaar vervoer Chapter 4a, accessibility requirements for bus and rail passenger transport services
Besluit van 3 juni 2024 Stb. 2024, 179 (wijziging van het Besluit toegankelijkheid van het openbaar vervoer, hoofdstuk 4a, art. 10a-10h), op grond van art. 8, tweede lid, en art. 5c Wet gelijke behandeling op grond van handicap of chronische ziekte
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
What it requires
- If you provide bus passenger transport services within Article 2(1) and (2) of Regulation (EU) No 181/2011, or rail passenger services within Article 2(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1371/2007, in the Netherlands, design and provide your websites, mobile-device-based services, electronic tickets and ticketing services, transport information and interactive self-service terminals (other than terminals built into vehicles or rolling stock) in accordance with the accessibility requirements in Annex I, Sections III and IV, to Directive (EU) 2019/882 (Besluit toegankelijkheid van het openbaar vervoer Arts. 10b(1), 10c(1) and 10e(1)).
- If you provide urban, suburban or regional transport services, your interactive self-service terminals must meet the requirements in Annex I, Section IV (Arts. 10b(2) and 10c(2)).
- Draw up the information Annex V requires, keep it while the service operates, and apply procedures that keep the service in conformity (Art. 10e(2) and (3)).
- If a service does not conform, take corrective measures at once and notify the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management at once, describing the non-conformity and every measure taken (Art. 10e(4)).
- If you are a microenterprise (fewer than ten employees and an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total of at most EUR 2 million, Art. 1), the requirements in Article 10c(1) and every obligation relating to compliance with them do not apply to you; the exemption does not reach the terminal requirements of Article 10c(2) for urban, suburban and regional services (Art. 10c(3)).
- Assess whether meeting the accessibility requirements would fundamentally alter the service or impose a disproportionate burden, against the criteria in Annex VI to the Directive; document the assessment, keep the results for five years after the service was last provided on the Dutch market or offered to consumers in the Netherlands, and give the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management a copy on request (Art. 10f(2) and (3)).
- If you rely on a disproportionate burden, renew the assessment for each category or kind of service when the service changes, when the Minister asks and in any event every five years; unless you are a microenterprise, give the Minister information about your reliance on the limit for a specific service (Art. 10f(4) and (6)).
- The Chapter does not apply to pre-recorded time-based media and office file formats published before , to online maps and mapping services where essential information is given in an accessible digital way for navigational maps, to third-party content you neither fund, develop nor control, or to archive content not updated after (Art. 10b(3)).
- Service contracts concluded before may run unchanged until they expire, and at the latest until five years after that date; you may keep providing your services until using products you lawfully used before to provide similar services (Implementatiewet toegankelijkheidsvoorschriften producten en diensten, Art. VIII(1) and (2)). Self-service terminals lawfully used to provide services before may stay in use until the end of their economic life, and for no more than 20 years after they entered use (Art. VIII(3)).
- Services that meet the rules on accessible information and information on accessibility of Regulations (EC) No 1371/2007 and (EU) No 181/2011, and of the acts adopted under Directive 2008/57/EC, thereby meet the corresponding requirements of Directive (EU) 2019/882 (Art. 10d).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureNo
Criminal exposure note
Article 1 of the Wet op de economische delicten, which lists the provisions whose breach is an economic offence, does not list the Wet handhaving consumentenbescherming or the Wet gelijke behandeling op grond van handicap of chronische ziekte.
Penalty structure
The administrative fine is at most the amount fixed for the fifth category in Article 23 of the Wetboek van Strafrecht; the article prints EUR 67,000, which is indexed: the category stood at EUR 103,000 from , when these rules took effect on , and stands at EUR 110,000 from .
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- EUR
- Fixed cap
- 110,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport, which Part h of the annex to the Wet handhaving consumentenbescherming names for enforcing the rules made under Articles 5c(1) and 8(2) of the Wet gelijke behandeling op grond van handicap of chronische ziekte for bus and rail passenger transport services, with the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management imposing the administrative fine or order subject to a penalty payment under Article 8a.3 of that Act
What it reaches
Instrument type
a regulation made under an act
Applicability criteria
- As of
- Combinator
- Any of
- Criteria
- a provider of bus passenger transport services within Article 2(1) and (2) of Regulation (EU) No 181/2011 or of rail passenger services within Article 2(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1371/2007 that is not a micro-enterprise, meaning an enterprise with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total of at most EUR 2,000,000 (Arts. 10a and 10c(3))
- a provider of urban, suburban or regional transport services by train, bus, coach, metro, tram or trolleybus, as to its interactive self-service terminals on Dutch territory, whatever its size (Arts. 10b(2), 10c(2) and 10c(3))
What this law does
Article 10b(1) applies Chapter 4a to bus and rail passenger transport services as to their websites, services based on mobile devices, electronic tickets and ticketing services, information on transport services, and interactive self-service terminals on Dutch territory, other than terminals installed as integrated parts of the vehicles or rolling stock used to provide the services.
Article 10b(2) also applies the Chapter to urban, suburban and regional transport services, but only as to interactive self-service terminals. Article 10c(1) requires bus and rail services to meet the accessibility requirements in Annex I, Sections III and IV, to Directive (EU) 2019/882. Article 10c(2) requires urban, suburban and regional services to meet the requirements in Annex I, Section IV.
Article 10c(3) exempts microenterprises from the obligations in Article 10c(1) and from every obligation relating to compliance with those requirements; it does not exempt them from Article 10c(2). Article 10e(1) requires providers to design and provide the services in accordance with Article 10c(1) and (2). Article 10e(4) requires providers to take corrective measures at once where a service does not conform.
Article 10e(4) also requires providers to notify the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management of the non-conformity at once. Article 10f(1) limits the requirements to the extent that compliance neither requires a fundamental alteration of the nature of a service nor imposes a disproportionate burden on the provider.
Article 10f(5) provides that a provider that receives funding from sources other than its own resources to improve accessibility cannot rely on the disproportionate-burden limit. Article II enters the decree into force on . The fifth category in Article 23(4) of the Wetboek van Strafrecht stood at EUR 103,000 from and stands at EUR 110,000 from .
Article 10b(3) excludes from the Chapter pre-recorded time-based media and office file formats published before , online maps and mapping services in the cases it states, third-party content the provider neither funds, develops nor controls, and archive content not updated after .
Article 10f(3) requires providers to document the assessment, keep the results for five years after the service was last provided on the Dutch market or offered to consumers in the Netherlands, and give the Minister a copy on request. Article 10f(4) requires a provider that relies on a disproportionate burden to renew its assessment for each category or kind of service when the service changes, when the Minister asks and in any event every five years.
Article 10g(1) presumes services that meet the harmonized standards or parts of them to meet the accessibility requirements. Article 10a defines bus passenger transport services as the services within Article 2(1) and (2) of Regulation (EU) No 181/2011, and rail passenger transport services as the rail passenger services within Article 2(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1371/2007 other than those in its Article 2(2).
Article 10d provides that services meeting the rules on accessible information and information on accessibility of Regulations (EC) No 1371/2007 and (EU) No 181/2011, and of the acts adopted under Directive 2008/57/EC, thereby meet the corresponding requirements of Directive (EU) 2019/882.
Under Article VIII of the Implementatiewet, service contracts concluded before may run unchanged until they expire, and at the latest until five years after that date, and service providers may keep providing their services until using products they lawfully used before to provide similar services.
Self-service terminals lawfully used to provide services before may stay in use until the end of their economic life, and for no more than 20 years after they entered use (Article VIII(3)).
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