PortugalPublic Contracts Code, Article 49(5) and (6), accessibility in the technical specifications of public tenders
In force since .
A procurement conditions rule binding public and private bodies.
- Instrument type
- an act of a legislature
What it requires
- If you sell works, goods or services that a contracting entity procures for use by natural persons, the general public or its own staff, expect its technical specifications to take account of the accessibility criteria for persons with disabilities or of design for all users, except in duly justified cases (Public Contracts Code, Art. 49(5)).
- If European Union legislation sets mandatory accessibility standards for what you sell, expect the technical specifications to be defined by reference to them (Art. 49(6)); for the products and services of Decreto-Lei 82/2022 the accessibility requirements of that Decree-Law are mandatory accessibility requirements for procurement (Decreto-Lei 82/2022, Art. 26(1)).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
What this law does
Article 49(5) of the Public Contracts Code requires the technical specifications of every contract whose object is intended for use by natural persons, whether the general public or the contracting entity's staff, to take account, save in duly justified cases, of the accessibility criteria for persons with disabilities or of design for all users.
Article 49(6) requires the technical specifications to be defined by reference to mandatory accessibility standards adopted by a legislative act of the European Union, as to the accessibility criteria for persons with disabilities or design for all users. Decreto-Lei 111-B/2017 introduced the wording of Article 49(5) and (6).
Decreto-Lei 111-B/2017 transposed into the Code, in one act, Directive 2014/23/EU on concession contracts, Directive 2014/24/EU on public procurement and Directive 2014/25/EU on procurement in the special sectors. Decreto-Lei 111-B/2017 has applied since . Decreto-Lei 111-B/2017 applies to the procedures for the formation of public contracts started after its entry into force and to the contracts that result from them.
Article 26(1) of Decreto-Lei 82/2022 makes the accessibility requirements of that Decree-Law, for the products and services in its Article 2, mandatory accessibility requirements within the meaning of the public procurement provisions it cites, as Article 24(1) of the Directive provides for Article 42(1) of Directive 2014/24/EU. Article 35 of Decreto-Lei 82/2022 excludes from its sanctions chapter the award procedures covered by Decreto-Lei 111-B/2017, to which that regime applies instead.
Decreto-Lei 177/2026 republishes the Code with paragraphs 5 and 6 of Article 49 unchanged. Decreto-Lei 177/2026 takes effect on .
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