SwedenLag (2023:254) om vissa produkters och tjänsters tillgänglighet (Act on the accessibility of certain products and services), fundamental alteration, disproportionate burden and the assessment duties of economic operators
Tillgänglighetslagen (2023:254), undantag, 7 §, 8 §, 10 § och 33 §
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
- Instrument type
- an act of a legislature
What it requires
- If you rely on a fundamental alteration of the product or service or on a disproportionate burden to set an accessibility requirement aside, document and keep your assessment with the reasons, and notify the market surveillance authority or supervisory authority that you invoke the exemption (Act, ss. 7 and 8; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 14(2) and (3)).
- Base a disproportionate-burden assessment on the net costs of compliance in relation to your total costs and net turnover, and on the estimated costs and benefits in relation to the estimated benefit for persons with disabilities, applying the cost items of PTSFS 2024:7 (Ordinance, s. 8).
- If you provide a service and rely on a disproportionate burden, renew the assessment within five years of the last one, and sooner when the service is altered or a supervisory authority asks (Ordinance, s. 10; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 14(5)).
- Keep the documentation of the assessment for at least five years from the last time a product was made available or a service provided, and give a copy to the authority on request (Act, s. 8; Ordinance, s. 11).
- You cannot rely on a disproportionate burden if you received external funds to make the product or service more accessible and an exemption reasonably should not apply (Act, s. 7, second paragraph; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 14(6)).
- If you are a microenterprise that deals with products and invoke an exemption, you need not document the assessment or notify the authority, but must give the market surveillance authority the facts relevant to the assessment if it asks (Act, s. 10; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 14(4)).
- If the authority finds shortcomings in your assessment, remedy them within the time it sets, or make a new assessment within the time it orders (Act, s. 33).
- A manufacturer that relies on the exemption states in the EU declaration of conformity which requirements it covers; an importer ensures the manufacturer has completed the assessment, declaration and marking steps, and a distributor checks the CE marking and information text before the product is made available (Act, ss. 12, 15 and 16).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Penalty structure
Section 39 of the Act sets the sanction fee (sanktionsavgift) at not less than SEK 10,000 and not more than SEK 10,000,000, determined by the seriousness and extent of the breach and the circumstances, reducible wholly or partly for special reasons, and payable to the State. The same range applies to a natural or a legal person, and the Act sets no turnover-based ceiling. No fee is decided in a minor case or where the breach underlies an application to impose a vite (sections 37 and 38). An order under sections 32 to 34 may also carry a vite (section 35), which the Vite Act (1985:206) sets at an amount likely to make the addressee comply, with no statutory ceiling.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Minimum
- 10,000
- Currency
- SEK
- Fixed cap
- 10,000,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) as market surveillance authority for products and the supervisory authorities named in sections 28 to 31 of the Ordinance for services
What this law does
Section 7 of the Act provides that an accessibility requirement does not apply if it would involve a fundamental alteration of the basic character of a product or service, or impose a disproportionate burden on the economic operator concerned. Section 7 provides that the requirement applies despite a disproportionate burden if the economic operator has received external funds to make the product or service more accessible and an exemption therefore should reasonably not apply.
Section 8 requires an economic operator that judges a requirement not to apply under section 7 to document and keep its assessment with a statement of reasons. Section 8 requires the economic operator to notify the market surveillance authority or supervisory authority that an exemption under section 7 is invoked, and to give the authority a copy of the assessment if it asks.
Section 8 of the Ordinance requires the operator to base the assessment of a disproportionate burden on the ratio of the net costs of compliance to total costs and to net turnover, and on the estimated costs and benefits for the operators in relation to the estimated benefit for persons with disabilities.
Section 10 of the Ordinance requires a service provider that invokes a disproportionate burden to make a new assessment within five years of the latest one, and also when the service is altered or a supervisory authority asks. Section 11 of the Ordinance requires the operator to keep the documentation of the assessment for at least five years from the last time a product was made available or a service provided.
Section 10 of the Act relieves a microenterprise that deals with products of documenting its assessment under section 7 and of notifying the market surveillance authority that an exemption is invoked. Section 10 requires such a microenterprise to give the market surveillance authority, if it asks, the information relevant to whether the conditions for an exemption are met.
Section 33 of the Act requires the authority that finds shortcomings in an assessment under section 7 to call on the operator to remedy them within a set time, and lets it order a new assessment within a set time if they are not remedied.
Section 37 of the Act allows a market surveillance authority or a supervisory authority to order an economic operator to pay a sanction fee for breach of sections 6, 8, 11 to 13, 15 to 17 or 19 to 26, section 28 second paragraph point 6, or rules made under them.
Article 14(5) of the Directive requires a service provider relying on disproportionate burden to renew the assessment for each category or type of service when the service is altered, when the authorities ask, and in any event at least every five years.
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.
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