Belgium

A controller must notify the GBA/APD without undue delay, and within 72 hours where feasible, after becoming aware of a personal-data breach, unless the breach is unlikely to result in a risk to people's rights and freedoms, and must notify the affected individual without undue delay where the breach is likely to result in a high risk.

A related but distinct power, Act of 3 December 2017 Article 100, 7, lets the Litigation Chamber order that a data subject be informed of a security problem, a corrective power over an Article 34 failure rather than a separate notification duty.

Belgium gives the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) domestic effect through the Act of 30 July 2018, published in the Moniteur belge on 5 September 2018. Article 6 states Title 1 executes the Regulation; the Act sets the digital-consent age at 13 (Art. 7), designates public-interest processing categories under GDPR Article 9(2)(g) (Art. 8), and adds criminal-conviction-data grounds (Art. 10). The supervisory structure sits in a separate statute, the Act of 3 December 2017. The Act has been amended seven times on the Justel record, most recently in 2024.

A transfer of personal data outside the EEA requires an adequacy decision, Standard Contractual Clauses, Binding Corporate Rules, or a narrow Article 49 derogation, backed by the Article 83(5) top fine tier. Belgium adds a criminal offense for the same conduct: Article 222, 4, fines a controller, processor, employee, agent, or competent authority 250 to 15,000 EUR for a Chapter V breach carried out by gross negligence or malicious intent. The Act of 3 December 2017 Article 100, 14 lets the Litigation Chamber order the suspension of cross-border data flows.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Article 22 gives a person in Belgium the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, that produces legal effects or similarly significantly affects them, unless the decision is necessary for a contract with them, authorised by a law that safeguards their rights, or based on their explicit consent.

Where it rests on a contract or consent, the controller must at least let the person obtain human intervention, express their point of view and contest the decision.

Under Article 22(4), such a decision may not rest on the special categories of personal data in Article 9(1) unless the person gave explicit consent or the processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest on the basis of proportionate Union or Member State law, with suitable safeguards in place.

Articles 13(2)(f), 14(2)(g) and 15(1)(h) require the controller to tell the person that such decision-making takes place, with meaningful information about the logic involved and its significance and envisaged consequences for them, at collection, within the Article 14(3) period where the data came from another source, and on an access request.

The Loi du 30 juillet 2018 adds no rule of its own on automated decisions by a private controller.

Under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Articles 12 to 21, a person in Belgium can ask a controller for access to their personal data and for its rectification, erasure, restriction or portability, or object to its processing, and the controller must answer within one month, a period it may extend by two further months for complex or numerous requests.

The Loi du 30 juillet 2018 adds a court route: on an action en cessation brought by the data subject or the supervisory authority, the president of the court of first instance, sitting as in summary proceedings, can find that processing breaches data-protection law and order it to stop, and can order rectification or erasure or ban the use of inaccurate, incomplete or unlawfully kept data (Arts. 209 to 211). Article 220 lets a person mandate a non-profit body to lodge a complaint and bring those actions on their behalf.

The Act of 3 December 2017, enacted 3 December 2017 and in force 25 May 2018, creates the Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit / Autorite de Protection des Donnees (GBA/APD) and its Chambre Contentieuse / Geschillenkamer (Litigation Chamber, Art. 32). Article 100 lists sixteen measures the Chamber may take, from dismissing a complaint to imposing administrative fines, suspending cross-border data flows, and transferring a file to the public prosecutor. Appeal lies to the Marktenhof.

Title 6, Chapter II is Belgium's criminal chapter for data-protection violations, distinct from the Act of 3 December 2017's supervisory structure: Article 222 fines a controller, processor, employee, agent, or competent authority 250 to 15,000 EUR on fourteen enumerated grounds including processing without a legal basis and obstructing the supervisory authority; Article 224 fines a member or staffer of the supervisory authority 200 to 10,000 EUR for breaching confidentiality; Article 227 fines 100 to 20,000 EUR on five grounds including using assault, violence, or threats to compel a person's processing authorization; and Article 229 governs the overlap between administrative and criminal routes.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Article 82 arms an individual data subject to claim damages directly.

Belgium separately added the GDPR to the Code of Economic Law's collective redress action, Book XVII, Title 2: Article 43(a) of the Act of 30 July 2018 on various economic provisions inserted point 10 degrees/1 naming Regulation (EU) 2016/679 into Article XVII.37's list of instruments whose breach can found a collective redress action, and Article 104 of the same act gives that insertion retroactive effect from 25 May 2018.

Article 10/1 permits recording an electronic communication and its traffic data in lawful commercial transactions as proof, on condition the parties are informed of the recording, its precise purposes, and the storage period before the recording, with data erased at the latest when the transaction can no longer be challenged in court.

Paragraph 2 separately permits listening to and recording calls solely to monitor service quality in call centres, on prior information to staff, with a maximum retention of one month. This is the Belgian provision most likely to bind a voice-recording product, distinct from the biometric rules above.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Article 9(1) lists biometric data processed for unique identification as a special category. Article 9 of the Act requires every controller processing genetic, biometric, or health data to designate the categories of staff with access, keep that list available to the supervisory authority, and bind those staff to confidentiality.

Article 8, paragraph 1's final subparagraph outright prohibits genetic and biometric processing for unique identification by the specific associations and foundations it authorizes under Article 9(2)(g), absent particular legal provisions. Article 10, paragraph 1, point 6 makes processing of criminal-conviction data manifestly made public by the data subject a lawful-basis ground, not a scope exclusion.

The Act of 19 June 2022, transposing Directive (EU) 2019/790, added a text-and-data-mining exception to Article XI.190 of the Code of Economic Law. Point 20° permits reproducing a work that has been made accessible in a lawful manner for the purposes of text and data mining, provided the rightsholder has not expressly reserved that use in an appropriate manner. For content made available online, a reservation counts as appropriate only if it is carried out by machine-readable means.

A reproduction made under the exception may be kept for as long as the text-and-data-mining purpose requires. The same 2022 Act also amended the neighbouring point 19° of Article XI.190.

Title 7 of Book XI of the Code of Economic Law protects the producers of databases and transposes Directive 96/9/EC. The producer's authorization is required to extract or reuse a database's content, and Article XI.310 lists the cases where it is not required.

Under Article XI.310, paragraph 3, 2°, the producer's authorization is not required to extract the content of a lawfully accessible database for text and data mining, unless the producers have expressly reserved that use in an appropriate manner. For content made available to the public online, a reservation counts as appropriate only if it is made by machine-readable means.

Research organisations, publicly accessible libraries and museums, archives and film or sound heritage institutions may extract the content of databases to which they have lawful access for text and data mining for scientific research without that authorization (Article XI.310, paragraph 3, 1°).

The Law of 17 February 2022, published in the Moniteur belge on 11 March 2022, replaces Article 105 of the Law of 13 June 2005 on electronic communications with a security-authorization regime for 5G networks. Under Article 105, paragraph 1, a mobile network operator must obtain an authorization granted jointly by the ministers concerned (the Prime Minister and the ministers for telecommunications, defense, justice, the interior and foreign affairs) before it uses an element of its 5G network.

The King may extend the authorization duty to categories of mobile virtual network operators, to the public company ASTRID, and to private-network operators designated as critical-infrastructure or essential-service operators (Article 105, paragraph 2). An element or service already in use when the royal decree under paragraph 4 takes effect needs a regularization authorization, applied for within two months of that date.

The applicant files with the Institute (BIPT), the ministers concerned take a single joint decision, and a failure to decide within the period the King sets counts as a refusal (Article 105, paragraphs 3 and 6). A person who receives the list of sensitive zones may pass it only to people who need to know it for deploying and operating the 5G network (Article 105, paragraph 7).

A person who discloses information about that list to anyone else faces a criminal fine of EUR 1,000 to 100,000 (Article 105, paragraph 7). A mobile network operator offering services in Belgium over a 5G network must keep that network's infrastructure on the territory of the Member States of the European Union (Article 105, paragraph 8). The royal decree that brings the first three subparagraphs of paragraph 8 into force is to be dated no earlier than 1 January 2026 (Article 8). The Law took effect on 21 March 2022.

The Law of 25 March 2025 on the digital operational resilience of the financial sector and containing miscellaneous provisions (Chamber bill 56 0569) gives effect in Belgium to Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 (DORA) and partly transposes Directive (EU) 2022/2556. The Chamber's record gives 25 March 2025 as the date of the Law and 28 April 2025 as its publication in the Moniteur belge.

New Article 37undecies of the Law of 2 August 2002 makes the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) the competent authority under DORA Article 46 for portfolio-management and investment-advice companies, trading venues and their operators, alternative investment fund managers it has approved, UCITS management companies and self-managed investment companies, insurance intermediaries, occupational pension institutions and crowdfunding service providers.

Article 5 of the Law makes the National Bank of Belgium the relevant competent authority designated under DORA Articles 19(1) and 32(5). Article 5 also requires the Bank to forward to the national computer security incident response team (CSIRT), without delay, the notifications and reports under DORA Article 19(4) that it receives from entities covered by the NIS2 law of 26 April 2024. The Law extends the existing supervision and sanction regimes of the Bank and the FSMA to infringements of Regulation (EU) 2022/2554.

The adopted text contains no commencement article, so the general rule applies and the Law took effect on the tenth day after publication, 8 May 2025.

Article 30 requires an essential entity or an important entity to take appropriate and proportionate technical, operational and organisational measures to manage the risks threatening the security of the network and information systems it uses for its activities or to provide its services, on an all-hazards approach covering at minimum eleven points: risk-analysis and information-system-security policy, incident handling, business continuity (backup management, disaster recovery and crisis management), supply-chain security, security in the acquisition, development and maintenance of network and information systems including vulnerability handling and disclosure, policies to assess the effectiveness of the risk-management measures, basic cyber-hygiene practices and training, cryptography and encryption policy, human-resources security and access-control and asset management, multi-factor or continuous authentication and secure voice, video, text and emergency communications, and the entity's own coordinated vulnerability-disclosure policy.

Article 31 requires the management body of an essential or important entity to approve the cybersecurity risk-management measures it takes to comply with Article 30, supervise their implementation, and answer for that entity's violation of Article 30, without prejudice to the liability rules that otherwise apply to a public institution. Article 32 makes the entity itself responsible for the risk analysis it performs and for the choice and implementation of the Article 30 measures.

Article 33 lets the King, after consulting the national cybersecurity authority, any sectoral authority concerned and the federated entities concerned, impose additional appropriate and proportionate sector- or subsector-specific risk-management measures by decree deliberated in the Council of Ministers. This Act's own Article 97 repeals the predecessor Loi du 7 avril 2019, the original NIS Directive transposition, effective the same date.

Article 6(3) disapplies Titles 3 to 5, which hold these measures, to an entity of the banking or financial-market-infrastructure sector in Annex I that falls within the scope of Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 (DORA).

Article 34 requires an essential entity or an important entity to notify any significant incident to the national computer security incident response team (CSIRT) without undue delay, following the arrangements set out in a protocol between the CSIRT and the National Crisis Centre (NCCN).

Article 35 sets the clock: an early warning within 24 hours of becoming aware of the significant incident, stating whether it is suspected to result from unlawful or malicious action and whether it may have a cross-border impact; an incident notification within 72 hours, updating the early warning with an initial assessment of the incident's severity and impact and any available indicators of compromise; an interim report if the national CSIRT or the competent sectoral authority asks for one; and a final report no later than one month after the incident notification, describing the incident, its severity and impact, the likely threat or root cause, the mitigation measures applied, and any cross-border impact.

A trust service provider, by derogation from the 72-hour notification, notifies a significant incident affecting its trust services within 24 hours of becoming aware of it. Article 36 requires the national CSIRT to respond to an early warning within 24 hours where possible, with initial feedback and, on request, operational guidance.

Article 37 lets the national CSIRT, after consulting the entity, the NCCN, any sectoral authority concerned and the responsible minister, inform the public of a significant incident or require the entity to do so, where public awareness is necessary to prevent or manage the incident or where disclosure is otherwise in the public interest. Article 54, paragraph 2 bars a further administrative fine for conduct already fined by the data protection authorities under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Article 58(2)(i).

Article 6(3) disapplies Titles 3 to 5, which hold these notification duties, to an entity of the banking or financial-market-infrastructure sector in Annex I that falls within the scope of Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 (DORA).

Article XII.13, paragraph 1 of the Code de droit économique, inserted by the Act of 15 December 2013, prohibits the use of electronic mail for advertising without the prior, free, specific and informed consent of the recipient of the messages. The King may, on a joint proposal of the Minister and the Minister of Justice, provide for exceptions to that prohibition.

The Data Protection Authority identifies the Royal Decree of 4 April 2003, Article 1, point 1° as such an exception: a provider need not ask for prior consent to send advertising by electronic mail to its customers, natural or legal persons, when it obtained their electronic contact details directly in the sale of a product or service, in compliance with privacy requirements, uses them for advertising exclusively for analogous products or services that it supplies itself, and gives its customers, when the details are collected, the means to object, free of charge and in a simple manner, to that use.

Under Article XII.13, paragraph 2, when sending any advertising by electronic mail the provider gives clear and comprehensible information on the right to object to receiving advertising in the future and indicates and makes available an appropriate means of exercising that right electronically.

Under paragraph 3, it is prohibited, when sending advertising by electronic mail, to use the electronic address or the identity of a third party, to falsify or mask any information that identifies the origin of the message or its transmission path, or to encourage the recipient to visit websites that breach Article XII.12. Under paragraph 4, the provider bears the burden of proving that advertising by electronic mail was solicited.

Article XV.120, inserted by the same Act, punishes with a level 3 sanction those who send advertising by electronic mail in breach of Article XII.13. Article XV.121, inserted by the same Act, punishes with a level 4 sanction those who commit a breach of Article XII.13 in bad faith.

Article I.18, point 2° of the Code defines electronic mail as any message in the form of text, voice, sound or image sent by a public communications network that can be stored in the network or in the recipient's terminal equipment until the recipient retrieves it. The Data Protection Authority considers that this definition clearly covers emails and SMS messages. The Act inserting Book XII provides that the King sets the date on which each of its provisions enters into force.

Article 10/2 of the Act of 30 July 2018 allows the storage of information in the terminal equipment of a subscriber or user, or access to information already stored there, only on two conditions. The first is that the subscriber or user concerned receives clear and precise information about the purposes of the processing and their rights under the Regulation and the Act. The second is that the subscriber or end user has given consent after being informed in that way.

The first paragraph does not apply to the technical recording of information, or access to information stored in terminal equipment, whose sole purpose is to carry out the sending of a communication over an electronic communications network or to provide a service the subscriber or end user expressly requested, where that is strictly necessary for that purpose.

The article is made in application of Article 125, paragraph 1, point 1° of the Act of 13 June 2005 on electronic communications and without prejudice to the Regulation and the Act. The Data Protection Authority's guidance states that the consent must meet all the conditions for the validity of a consent. The same guidance treats other tracking techniques, such as local storage, as covered by the rules on storing and reading information on the device.

The Data Protection Authority's opinion on the bill that inserted Articles 10/1 and 10/2 records that their content is almost identical to that of Articles 128 and 129 of the Act of 13 June 2005.

Article 10/1, paragraph 1 of the Act of 30 July 2018 allows the recording of an electronic communication and of the traffic data relating to it, made in lawful commercial transactions as proof of a commercial transaction or of another professional communication, on condition that the parties to the communication are informed, before the recording, of the recording, of its precise purposes and of the storage period.

The data are erased at the latest at the end of the period during which the transaction can be challenged in court. Paragraph 2 allows the listening to and recording of electronic communications and traffic data whose sole aim is to monitor the quality of service in call centers, on condition that the people who work in the call center are informed beforehand of the possibility of listening and recording, of the precise purpose and of the retention period.

Those data may be kept for a maximum of one month. Both paragraphs are made in application of Article 125, paragraph 1, point 1° of the Act of 13 June 2005 on electronic communications and without prejudice to the Regulation and the Act. The Data Protection Authority's opinion on the bill that inserted Articles 10/1 and 10/2 records that their content is almost identical to that of Articles 128 and 129 of the Act of 13 June 2005.

Article 1 of the Royal Decree of 12 May 2024 requires operators that directly receive incoming international telephone calls through their international network interfaces to take measures to block calls that do not comply with ITU-T Recommendation E.157 and calls that show a Belgian geographic or non-geographic E.164 telephone number as the identification of the calling party.

Under point 3 of Article 1, after verifying that the caller is not roaming abroad with a Belgian mobile E.164 telephone number, they must block all calls, and they may suppress the identification of the calling party instead only if it can be shown that such verification is technically infeasible. Under point 4 of Article 1, they must block all calls that show a short telephone number as the identification of the calling party.

Article 2 allows international telephone calls to be received only on circuits dedicated to them and clearly separate from national calls. Article 3 provides that calls from a Belgian geographic or mobile number that originate in Belgium may not be blocked when they are destined for an incoming roamer, for an outgoing roamer with a late conditional call forwarding to a Belgian number, or for a user of a foreign number who has a forwarding to a Belgian number.

Article 4, paragraph 1 allows nomadic calls and calls from cloud-based conference dial-out, customer support and telephone direct marketing services made with Belgian geographic numbers only if they reach the operators that first receive incoming international calls through a special interface under the full control of the originating operator.

Article 4, paragraph 2 requires the receiving operators to give the Institute, within 24 hours of a simple request, the name, address and contact details of the user who made a given call, and to block all incoming calls of that user within 24 hours if the answer is late, incomplete or incorrect. Article 4, paragraph 3 lets those operators rely on the exception only after they meet the provisions of that Article in an agreement with the caller's operator.

Under Article 6 the Decree takes effect on the first day of the third month after the month of its publication in the Belgisch Staatsblad, and Article 1, point 3 takes effect on the first day of the sixth month after that month. The Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications states that operators must take the measures for geographic numbers from 1 September 2024 and for mobile numbers from 1 December 2024.

Article 4 of the Act of 21 April 2024 replaces Article XII.20 of the Code de droit économique. Under Article XII.20, paragraph 1, when a competent judicial or administrative authority establishes an infringement relating to specific content, the providers of the services named in Article 3, points (g), (i) and (j) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 make inaccessible the content that is the subject of the infringement committed through their intermediary.

The orders of those authorities meet at least the conditions listed in Article 9, paragraph 2 of the Regulation. Under Article XII.20, paragraph 2, the same providers communicate to the competent judicial or administrative authorities, on request, all the specific information they hold that is useful for investigating and establishing infringements committed by a specific recipient of their intermediary service.

The orders of those authorities meet at least the conditions listed in Article 10, paragraph 2 of the Regulation. Article 5 of the Act replaces point 3° of Article XV.118 of the Code so that it covers providers that refuse the cooperation required by Article XII.20, paragraph 1 or paragraph 2. Article XV.118 of the Code opens with the words that those it lists are punished with a level 3 sanction.

Article 3 of the Act repeals sections 1, 2 and 3 of chapter 6 of title 1 of Book XII of the Code, which contained Articles XII.17, XII.18 and XII.19. The Chamber's explanatory memorandum records that Articles XII.17 to XII.20 had transposed Articles 12 to 15 of Directive 2000/31. Article 2 of the Act replaces, in Article XI.228/3, paragraph 3 of the Code, the reference to Article XII.19, paragraph 1 with a reference to Article 8, paragraph 1 of the Regulation.

Articles 15 to 18 of the Act replace the references to Articles XII.17 to XII.20 in Article 39ter of the Code d'instruction criminelle, in Article 584 of the Judicial Code and in Articles 29, 29/1, 29/2 and 29/4 of the Act of 5 May 2017 on audiovisual media services in the Brussels-Capital bilingual region with references to the corresponding Articles of the Regulation, namely Articles 4, 5, 6 and 8, or Articles 4 and 6 in the Judicial Code. The BIPT states that it has been designated at federal level by virtue of the Act of 21 April 2024.

Article XI.228/2 of the Code de droit économique defines an online content-sharing service provider as the provider of an information society service whose main purpose, or one of whose main purposes, is to store and give the public access to a large amount of works or other protected subject matter uploaded by its users, which it organizes and promotes for profit.

Non-profit online encyclopedias, non-profit educational and scientific repositories, open-source software development and sharing platforms, electronic communications service providers, online marketplaces, business-to-business cloud services and cloud services that let users upload content for their own use are not online content-sharing service providers.

Under Article XI.228/3, paragraph 1, such a provider performs an act of communication to the public when it gives the public access to works or performances uploaded by its users. Under paragraph 2, an authorization the provider obtains also covers the acts of its users, as long as they are not acting on a commercial basis or their activity does not generate significant revenues.

Under Article XI.228/5, paragraph 1, if no authorization is granted the provider is liable for unauthorized acts of communication to the public unless it shows that it made its best efforts to obtain an authorization, made its best efforts, in accordance with high industry standards of professional diligence, to ensure the unavailability of specific works for which rightholders gave it the relevant and necessary information, and, in any event, acted promptly on a sufficiently substantiated notice from rightholders to block access or remove the works and made its best efforts to prevent their future upload.

Under paragraph 2, a new provider whose services have been available to the public in the European Union for less than three years and whose annual turnover is below EUR 10,000,000 only has to show its best efforts to obtain an authorization and prompt action on a sufficiently substantiated notice, and if its average monthly unique visitors exceed five million it must also show its best efforts to prevent further uploads of the notified works.

Article XI.228/6 provides that cooperation with rightholders must not prevent the availability of uploaded works that do not infringe copyright and related rights, including works covered by an exception or limitation, and that the chapter gives rise to no general monitoring obligation.

Article XI.228/7 requires providers to give rightholders, on request, adequate information on how their cooperation practices work and, where licenses exist, on the use of the covered works, and to tell users in their general terms and conditions that they may use works under exceptions and limitations.

Article XI.228/8 requires an effective and quick complaint and redress mechanism for users in disputes over blocked or removed uploads, with complaints handled without undue delay and decisions to block or remove subject to review by a natural person. Article XI.228/9 requires providers, for activities directed at users or rightholders with their seat or habitual residence in Belgium, to name two or more mediators with whom they are prepared to work on out-of-court settlement of such disputes.

Article XI.228/3, paragraph 3 disapplies the liability scheme of Article XII.19, paragraph 1 to situations covered by the chapter. The Act of 21 April 2024 replaced that reference with a reference to Article 8, paragraph 1 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065. The Federal Public Service Economy lists Articles XI.228/3 and XI.228/5 to XI.228/9 as the transposition of Article 17 of the Copyright Directive by the Act of 19 June 2022.

The Federal Public Service Economy states that most provisions of the Act came into force on 1 August 2022. The Act enters into force on the day of its publication in the Moniteur belge, except for listed provisions that do not include these articles. The Chamber of Representatives adopted the text in plenary session on 16 June 2022, identical to the text adopted in committee in second reading.

Article 7 of the Act of 21 April 2024 inserts a paragraph 1/1 into Article 14 of the law of 17 January 2003 on the statute of the BIPT, under which the Institute is, for the federal competences, a competent authority within the meaning of Article 49 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065. Article 9 inserts Article 15/1, under which the Institute itself carries out the inspections of premises provided for in Article 51(1)(b) of the Regulation, after a decision of its Council.

The decision of the Council or its president states the object and purpose of the inspection, fixes the date on which it starts and mentions the sanctions that apply in case of non-compliance. An inspection in a private home needs at least two officials acting together and the authorization of an investigating judge of the Dutch-language or French-language court of first instance of Brussels.

Requests for explanations under Article 51(1)(c) of the Regulation are made by staff of the Institute mandated by the Council, and the explanations are recorded in a report that the person questioned signs. Article 12 adds a paragraph 3 to Article 20, under which the Council adopts interim measures when it finds a breach prima facie, in the context of Article 51(2)(e) of the Regulation.

Article 13 supplements Article 21, paragraph 5, so that the Institute may accept the commitments that a provider of an intermediary service proposes under the Regulation and make them binding. For breaches of the Regulation, the maximum administrative fine is the amount referred to in Article 52(3) of the Regulation. For breaches of the Regulation, the maximum periodic penalty payment is the amount referred to in Article 52(4) of the Regulation.

Paragraph 7/3 of Article 21 provides that, for the restriction of access provided for in Article 51(3), first paragraph, point (b) of the Regulation, the Institute applies to the president of the court of first instance sitting in summary proceedings. The Chamber of Representatives adopted the text in plenary session on 18 April 2024, in the form adopted in committee in second reading.

Article 4, paragraph 1 of the cooperation agreement between the federal State, the Flemish Community, the French Community and the German-speaking Community designates the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications as coordinator, which Article 1 defines as the Digital Services Coordinator within the meaning of Article 49(2) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065.

Article 1 defines a competent authority as the authority designated by the federal State or by one of the Communities, the federal one being the authority referred to in Article 14, paragraph 1 of the law of 17 January 2003 and the three others being those referred to in the audiovisual media decrees of the Flemish, French and German-speaking Communities.

Under Article 4, paragraph 2, the coordinator is responsible for coordination at national level of all questions related to the supervision and enforcement of the Regulation. Article 5 requires the coordinator and the other competent authorities to set up an information-sharing system that each of them can access, in which they mention the files they handle and indicate their status in real time.

Under Articles 10 and 11, the coordinator receives applications for certification as an out-of-court dispute settlement body and for trusted flagger or vetted researcher status, and the complaints referred to in Article 53 of the Regulation, and places them in that system.

Under Article 8, before imposing a sanction, the competent authorities check in the system whether another competent authority has already taken a final decision against the same provider of intermediary services for the same infringement of the Regulation. Article 20 provides that the agreement enters into force ten days after the publication in the Moniteur belge of the last act of assent. The cooperation agreement is dated 3 May 2024, and the loi du 20 décembre 2024 gave assent to it.

The agreement was published in the Moniteur belge on 30 December 2024 and entered into force on 9 January 2025. The BIPT states that the agreement designates it as the national coordinator and lays down the tasks of the coordinator and of the other competent authorities, the Medienrat, the CSA and the VRM.

Article 6.41 makes the producer liable for the damage caused by a defect in its product. Article 6.42 defines a product as any corporeal movable good, even where it forms part of another movable or immovable good or has become immovable by destination.

Article 6.43 counts as a producer the manufacturer of a finished product, the manufacturer of a component part and the manufacturer or producer of a raw material, and anyone who presents itself as a manufacturer or producer by putting its name, trade mark or another distinguishing sign on the product. Article 6.44 treats as a producer anyone who, in the course of its economic activities, imports a product into the European Union to sell it or transfer its use to a third party.

Article 6.44 treats the supplier as the producer where a product made in a Member State has no identifiable producer, unless the supplier tells the injured person within a reasonable time who the producer is or who supplied the product to it. Article 6.44 treats the supplier of an imported product as the producer where the importer cannot be identified, unless the supplier tells the injured person within a reasonable time who the importer is or who supplied the product to it.

Article 6.45 makes a product defective where it does not offer the safety that one is entitled to expect in all the circumstances, among them its presentation, its normal or reasonably foreseeable use and the time it was put into circulation. Article 6.45 provides that a product may not be regarded as defective only because a better product was put into circulation later. Article 6.47 places on the injured person the burden of proving the damage, the defect and the causal link between them.

Article 6.48 excuses the producer who proves that it did not put the product into circulation. Article 6.48 excuses the producer who proves that the defect probably did not exist when it put the product into circulation or arose later. Article 6.48 excuses the producer who proves that the product was not made for sale or distribution with an economic purpose, nor made or distributed in the course of its profession.

Article 6.48 excuses the producer who proves that the defect results from the product complying with mandatory rules of the public authorities. Article 6.48 excuses the producer who proves that the state of scientific and technical knowledge when it put the product into circulation made it impossible to discover the defect.

Article 6.48 excuses the producer of a component or raw material who proves that the defect is due to the design of the product it went into or to the instructions of that product's producer. Article 6.49 makes each of several persons liable for the same damage jointly liable, without prejudice to rights of recourse. Article 6.50 bars limiting or excluding the producer's liability towards the injured person by contract.

Article 6.50 allows the liability to be limited or excluded where the damage is caused both by a defect and by the fault of the injured person or of a person for whom the injured person is responsible. Article 6.50 does not allow the liability to be limited or excluded where the damage is caused both by a defect and by the act of a third party. Article 6.51 covers damage to persons, moral damage included, and, subject to the following provisions, damage to goods.

Article 6.51 compensates damage to goods only if they are of a type normally intended for private use or consumption and the injured person mainly used them that way. Article 6.51 gives no compensation for damage to the defective product itself. Article 6.51 makes compensation for damage to goods due only after a deductible of five hundred euros.

Article 6.52 extinguishes the injured person's right to compensation ten years after the producer put the product into circulation, unless the injured person began judicial proceedings within that period. Article 6.52 provides that the action prescribes three years after the injured person reasonably should have known the damage, the defect and the identity of the producer. Article 6.53 leaves untouched the injured person's rights under the law of contractual or extra-contractual liability.

Article 6.51 refers to Directive 85/374/EEC of 25 July 1985 on liability for defective products. The Law of 7 February 2024 that enacted Book 6 was published in the Belgisch Staatsblad on 1 July 2024. Article 45 of that Law brings it into force on the first day of the sixth month after the month of its publication. Article 44 of that Law applies Book 6 to facts that can give rise to liability and occurred after its entry into force, and not to the future consequences of earlier facts.

Article 2 of the ordinance of the Brussels-Capital Region of 30 March 2023 states that it partly transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882. Article 2(2)(c) of the Directive brings urban, suburban and regional transport services within its scope only for their interactive self-service terminals.

Article 4 covers the accessibility for persons with disabilities of the interactive self-service terminals that give access to urban and regional bus, tram and metro transport services on the territory of the Brussels-Capital Region, rail excluded.

Article 3, point 5, defines the service provider as the economic operator that manages the urban and regional services, and Article 3, point 6, defines an economic operator as an entity carrying on an economic activity, whatever its legal status and way of financing.

Article 5 requires the services to meet the accessibility requirements of Annex I. Article 6(1) applies the requirements only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change that fundamentally alters the nature of the service and does not impose a disproportionate burden on the providers.

Article 6(3) requires providers to support their assessment with evidence, keep the relevant results for five years after the service was last provided and give the control service a copy on request. Article 6(5) bars a provider that receives funding other than its own resources, public or private, to improve accessibility from relying on the disproportionate burden defence, and Article 6(6) requires a provider relying on the exception to inform the control service.

Article 7(3) makes the requirements of Annex I binding accessibility requirements within the meaning of Article 53(1), fifth paragraph, of the Law of 17 June 2016 on public procurement. Article 7(6) deems services that meet the accessible-information requirements of the EU passenger rights regulations, and of the acts adopted under Directive 2008/57/EC, to meet the corresponding requirements of the ordinance.

Article 8 requires providers to design and provide the services in line with the requirements, prepare the Annex II information and make it available in writing and orally, including in a way accessible to persons with disabilities, keep procedures that keep the service conforming, take corrective measures and inform the control service of a non-conformity at once. Article 10(1) lets any interested person lodge a complaint free of charge with the competent authority, anonymously if they wish.

Article 13 lets a person mandate a non-profit body active for at least three years in protecting the rights of persons with disabilities to lodge the complaint on their behalf. Article 17(1) sets administrative fines from EUR 10,000 to EUR 16,000 for failing to design and provide conforming services down to EUR 1,250 to EUR 2,000 for failing to supply the information the control service asks for.

Article 17(3) caps the total of the fines for concurrent breaches at twice the heaviest maximum fine, and Article 17(4) sets the fine for a repeat of the same breach within two years at no less than twice the earlier fine. Article 20 lets the person fined appeal to the police court within one month of the decision.

Article 21 lets service contracts agreed before 28 June 2025 run unchanged for no more than five years, and lets self-service terminals lawfully used before that date stay in use until 28 June 2035 and for no more than twenty years after they entered service. Article 22 brings the ordinance into force on 28 June 2025. Article 3 of the order of the Brussels Government of 8 June 2023 makes Brussels Mobility the competent authority that handles complaints and imposes the fines.

Article 4 of that order makes Brussels Mobility the control service as well. Article 6 of that order brings it into force on 28 June 2025. The European Union's list of Belgian transposition measures also records an ordinance of 22 October 2026 amending the ordinance of 30 March 2023, published in the Moniteur belge on 27 October 2026.

Article 2 of the Law of 5 November 2023 states that the Law partly transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882. Article 4(1) of the Directive requires Member States to ensure that economic operators only provide services that comply with the accessibility requirements in its Annex I. Article VIII.58(1) applies Title 5 of Book VIII of the Code of Economic Law to consumer banking services and e-commerce services provided to consumers.

Article I.9/1, point 7, defines e-commerce services as services provided at a distance, through websites and mobile device-based services, by electronic means and at a consumer's individual request with a view to concluding a consumer contract. Article I.9/1, point 6, treats as consumer banking services the consumer credit agreements, investment services, payment services, electronic money and payment-account services that it lists.

Article VIII.58(2) excludes from Title 5 the pre-recorded time-based media and office file formats published before the entry into force of the title, and online maps and mapping services where the essential navigation information is provided in an accessible digital way. Article VIII.58(2) also excludes third-party content that the operator does not finance, develop or control, and website and app content that counts as an archive.

Article VIII.59(1) requires service providers to design and provide only services within Article VIII.58(1) that meet the accessibility requirements in Annex 1 to Book VIII. Article VIII.59(1) requires providers that outsource a service in whole or in part to ensure that the outsourced service meets the same requirements. Article VIII.59(2) lets the King exclude all or certain categories of micro-enterprises from all or some of the accessibility requirements.

Section 1 of Annex 1 requires websites, related online applications and mobile device services, including mobile applications, to be made accessible in a consistent and adequate way by making them perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. Section 2 of Annex 1 sets additional accessibility requirements for consumer banking services, covering identification methods, electronic signature, security and payment services.

Section 2 of Annex 1 also requires banking information to be no more difficult than level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Section 3 of Annex 1 sets additional accessibility requirements for e-commerce services, covering accessibility information on the products and services offered for sale, and identification, security and payment functions.

Section 3 of Annex 1 also requires e-commerce services to provide identification methods, electronic signatures and payment services that are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. Section 4 of Annex 1 requires functions of a service that Sections 1 to 3 do not address to be made accessible by meeting the functional performance criteria it lists.

Article VIII.60 requires service providers to prepare the information required by Annex 2 and explain how the services meet or do not meet the accessibility requirements. Article VIII.60 requires that information to be made available to the public in writing and orally, including in a way accessible to persons with disabilities, and kept as long as the service operates.

Article VIII.61(1) requires service providers to apply procedures that keep the service in line with the accessibility requirements for as long as it is provided. Article VIII.61(2) requires providers to take corrective measures when a service no longer conforms. Article VIII.61(2) also requires providers to notify the officials designated under Article XV.2 immediately when a service does not meet the requirements.

Article VIII.61(3) requires providers to give those officials, on request, all information and documentation that shows the service meets the requirements, and to cooperate with them. Article VIII.62(1) applies the requirements only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change resulting in a fundamental alteration of the nature of the service and does not impose a disproportionate burden on the provider.

Article VIII.62(1) requires the requirements that do not cause a fundamental alteration or disproportionate burden to be complied with in full. Article VIII.62(2) requires providers to carry out an assessment of whether compliance with the accessibility requirements would introduce a fundamental alteration. Article VIII.62(3) requires providers to keep all relevant results of the assessment for five years after the service was last provided.

Article VIII.62(4) requires a provider relying on the disproportionate burden defence to renew the assessment when the service changes, at the officials' request, and at least every five years. Article VIII.62(5) bars a provider that receives public or private funding for accessibility from relying on the disproportionate burden defence.

Article VIII.62(6) requires a provider that relies on the fundamental alteration or disproportionate burden exception for a specific service to inform the officials proactively. Article VIII.63 presumes that services meeting harmonised standards, or parts of them, published in the Official Journal of the European Union conform to the accessibility requirements to the extent the standards cover them.

Article 39 of the Law lets service contracts concluded before 28 June 2025 continue unchanged until they expire, and for no more than five years from that date. Article 39 of the Law lets providers keep using, until 28 June 2030, the products they lawfully used before that date to provide similar services. Article 39 of the Law lets self-service terminals lawfully used before 28 June 2025 stay in use until the end of their economic life, and for no more than twenty years after they entered use.

Article 40 of the Law excludes certain small enterprises from the Law until 28 June 2030, except for Article 5 of the Law. The explanatory memorandum states that service providers that are micro-enterprises come within the scope of the Law only from 2030. Article 4(5) of the Directive exempts microenterprises providing services from the accessibility requirements for services and from any obligations relating to compliance with them.

Article 40 of the Law lets service contracts agreed with those enterprises before 28 June 2030 continue unchanged until they expire, and for no more than five years from that date. Article 40 of the Law lets those enterprises keep using, until 28 June 2035, the products they lawfully used before that date to provide similar services. Article 38 of the Law provides that the Law enters into force on 28 June 2025.

Article XV.18/5(1) lets any person lodge a complaint about the accessibility of products and services free of charge with the officials designated under Article XV.2. Article XV.18/5(3) makes a complaint inadmissible where it concerns facts that occurred before 28 June 2025, or before 28 June 2030 where the service is provided by a micro-enterprise.

Article XV.18/6 lets a person with a disability mandate a non-profit body, organisation or association that meets its conditions to lodge the complaint on their behalf. The Economic Inspection of the Federal Public Service Economy supervises consumer banking and e-commerce providers. Article XV.101/1 punishes breach of Articles VIII.59 to VIII.62 with a level 2 sanction, and a bad-faith breach with a level 3 sanction.

The explanatory memorandum equates a level 2 sanction with an administrative or criminal fine of EUR 208 to EUR 80,000. The explanatory memorandum gives for a level 2 sanction a settlement of EUR 26 to EUR 60,000 under the Royal Decree of 10 April 2014. The explanatory memorandum gives for a level 3 sanction an administrative or criminal fine of EUR 208 to EUR 200,000 or a settlement of EUR 26 to EUR 150,000.

Article XV.132 lets the court order additional corrective measures for breaches of Articles XV.99/1 and XV.101/1. Article 36 of the Law adds Titles 4 and 5 of Book VIII to the provisions listed in Article XVII.37, point 1, of the Code. The explanatory summary says that the Law inserts into Books I, XV and XVII the relevant definitions, the enforcement provisions and the possibility of an action for collective redress.

Article XV.62/7 lets the officials designated under Article XV.60/4, who impose the administrative fine, decide that it is not executed, or only in part, if the offender carries out the corrective measures they set.

Article 4.1-1 of the French Community decree requires service publishers and service distributors to apply the regulations of the Advisory College of the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel, approved by the Government, that govern the accessibility of programmes for persons with a sensory impairment. Article 4.1-1 states that those regulations aim in particular to make programmes continuously and progressively more accessible to persons with a sensory impairment.

Article 2.1.4-1 requires service publishers, when they broadcast an urgent message of general interest, to ensure that it is also accessible to persons with a sensory impairment. Article 9.2.2-1 lets the Authorisation and Control College of the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel, on finding a breach of the audiovisual laws, decrees and regulations, impose a fine. The consolidated text gives the decree's date as 4 February 2021 and its publication in the Moniteur belge as 26 March 2021.

Article 10.4-1 provides that the decree enters into force on the twentieth day after its publication in the Moniteur belge.

Article 1.2-1, paragraph 1, point 5, of the French Community decree states that the decree partly transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882. Article 4(1) of the Directive requires Member States to ensure that economic operators only provide services that comply with the accessibility requirements in its Annex I. Article 8.3.2-3 requires electronic programme guides to be accessible to persons with a sensory impairment and to give information on the availability of accessibility features.

Article 8.3.2-3 lets the Government determine the modes of use that those guides must offer to make them accessible. Article 8.3.2-3 requires application programme interfaces to be able to process the applications and related data of audiovisual media services, including those that give persons with a sensory impairment access to the services.

Article 8.3.2-3 requires access features such as subtitling, audio description or sign language interpretation to be available at a quality suited to a clear display, synchronised with sound and video, and adjustable by the user.

Article 10.2-1 brings into force on 28 June 2025 an Article 8.2.3-6, which the consolidated decree does not contain, and lets electronic programme guides and interfaces made available to users before that date be operated in their original configuration until 28 June 2030. The electronic programme guides and application programme interfaces whose accessibility the decree governs are those of Article 8.3.2-3.

Article 10.4-1 provides that the decree enters into force on the twentieth day after its publication in the Moniteur belge. Article 9.2.2-1 lets the Authorisation and Control College of the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel, on finding a breach of the audiovisual laws, decrees and regulations, impose one of the sanctions that it lists.

Article 1, point 5, of the Decree of the German-speaking Community states that the Decree partly transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882.

Article 4(1) of the Directive requires Member States to ensure that economic operators only place on the market products and only provide services that comply with the accessibility requirements in its Annex I. Article 100(1) requires consumer terminal equipment with interactive computing capability used to access audiovisual media services, and e-readers, placed on the market after 28 June 2025 to meet Sections I and IV of Annex 1.

Article 100(2) requires services that give access to audiovisual media services, and e-books, provided to consumers after 28 June 2025 to meet Sections II and III, or Section IV, of Annex 1. Article 100(2) exempts microenterprises that offer services from the accessibility requirements and from all obligations relating to compliance with them.

Article 100(3) applies the requirements only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change resulting in a fundamental alteration of the product or service and does not impose a disproportionate burden on the economic operators. Article 100(3) requires economic operators to assess and document the defence on the Annex 2 criteria, keep the results for five years, and give the Media Council or the competent authority a copy on request.

Article 100(4) bars an operator that receives public or private funding for accessibility from relying on the disproportionate burden defence. Article 139(1) lets the Media Council impose on providers of consumer terminal equipment, e-readers, access services and e-books, for breach of Article 100, a warning, a press notice or an administrative fine of EUR 2,500 to EUR 25,000.

Article 139(1) also lets the Media Council impose a warning and publication of a notice in the press for a breach of Article 100. Article 139(1) also lists the seizure of the equipment among the sanctions the Media Council may impose. The consolidated text records that the e-book wording of Article 100 was added by the Decree of 14 December 2023, in force from 1 January 2024.

Article 21(1) of the Decree of the German-speaking Community requires audiovisual media service providers to improve the accessibility of their services for persons with support needs continuously and increasingly, by appropriate measures. Article 21(1) requires media service providers to report to the Media Council every three years from the date of their notification on how they carried out those measures.

Article 21(2) requires emergency information made available to the public through audiovisual media services to be provided in a way that is accessible to persons with support needs. Article 138 lets the Media Council, for a breach of Title 2 of the Decree, impose on the media service providers concerned a warning, a press notice or an administrative fine.

Article 157 provides that the Decree enters into force on the day of its publication, which the title line of the consolidated text gives as 12 April 2021 in the Belgisch Staatsblad.

Article 1, second paragraph, point 7, of the Electronic Communications Act states that the Act partly transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882.

Article 4(1) of the Directive requires Member States to ensure that economic operators only provide services that comply with the accessibility requirements in its Annex I. Article 121/4(3) requires providers of electronic communications services to design the services in accordance with accessibility requirements and make them accessible to end users with disabilities. Article 121/4(3) leaves it to the King to fix the accessibility requirements and procedures.

The Royal Decree of 13 September 2023 on accessibility for persons with disabilities to electronic communications services, made under Article 121/4, enters into force on 28 June 2025. Article 3 of that decree requires the provider of electronic communications services to give information on how the service works and on its accessibility features through several sensory channels.

Article 3, point 2, of that decree requires websites, related online applications and mobile device services, including mobile applications, to be made accessible by making them perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. Article 3, point 3, of that decree requires technical support that gives information, through accessible communication methods, on the accessibility of the service and its compatibility with assistive technologies.

Article 4 of that decree requires real-time text in addition to voice communication, and total conversation where video is provided in addition to voice. Article 5 of that decree requires the provider to describe the service in accessible formats and justify how it meets each requirement of Articles 3 and 4. Article 5(2) of that decree requires that information to be stated in the general terms and conditions or an equivalent document and kept as long as the service operates.

Article 6 of that decree sets the criteria for assessing a disproportionate burden, among them the ratio of the net costs of compliance to the provider's net turnover. Article 121/4(4) excludes from the requirements the transmission services used to provide machine-to-machine services. Article 121/4(5) exempts micro-enterprises that offer electronic communications services from the requirements and from all obligations relating to compliance with them.

Article 121/4(6) applies the requirements only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change that fundamentally alters the nature of the service and does not impose a disproportionate burden on the provider. Article 121/4(6) requires providers to assess whether compliance would impose a fundamental alteration or disproportionate burden, to keep the evidence and results for five years, and to give the Institute a copy of the assessment on request.

Article 121/4(6) requires providers to renew the assessment for each category or type of service when the service changes, at the Institute's request, and at least every five years. Article 121/4(7) bars a provider that receives public or private funding for accessibility from relying on the disproportionate burden defence. Article 2, point 1, defines the Institute as the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications.

The Law of 20 July 2023 inserted Article 121/4(3) to (7), and the Justel consolidation records that it applies from 28 June 2025. A royal decree laying down the rules and detailed provisions on accessibility for persons with disabilities to electronic communications services is among the measures that Belgium notified for Directive 2019/882.

Article 14(1), point 3, of the Law of 17 January 2003 on the status of the regulator of the Belgian postal and telecommunications sectors charges the Institute with checking compliance with the Law of 13 June 2005 and its implementing decrees. Article 21(5) of the Law of 17 January 2003 lets the Institute's Council, on finding a breach, order it to end, prescribe how it is to be remedied, and impose an administrative fine, with separate maximums for natural and for legal persons.

Article 21(5) of the Law of 17 January 2003 also lets the Council impose a periodic penalty payment for each day of delay in complying with its decisions. Article 21(6) of the Law of 17 January 2003 doubles those maximum amounts and percentages where the measures taken have not remedied the breach.

Article 4(1) of the Directive requires Member States to ensure that economic operators only place on the market products that comply with the accessibility requirements in its Annex I. Article 38/1(1) subjects the radio equipment it lists to accessibility requirements fixed by the King, for holding, marketing, importing or owning it.

Article 38/1(1) lists general-purpose consumer computer hardware and its operating systems, self-service payment terminals, bank machines, ticketing machines, check-in machines, interactive information terminals, consumer terminal equipment for electronic communications services and for access to audiovisual media services, and e-readers.

Article 38/1(1) applies the requirements only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change that fundamentally alters the nature of the equipment and does not impose a disproportionate burden on manufacturers, authorised representatives, importers and distributors. Article 38/1(1) requires those operators to assess the effect of compliance, support the assessment with evidence and keep the results for five years from the last placing on the market of the equipment.

Article 38/1(1) lets the Institute require a copy of the assessment. Article 38/1(1) exonerates a micro-enterprise active in radio equipment from the duty to support its assessment with evidence, unless the Institute asks for the relevant facts. Article 38/1(2) bars a manufacturer, authorised representative, importer or distributor that receives public or private funding for accessibility from relying on the disproportionate burden defence.

The Royal Decree of 13 September 2023 amending the Royal Decree of 25 March 2016 on making radio equipment available on the market requires the radio equipment covered by Article 38/1 to meet the accessibility requirements that it sets. That amending decree enters into force on 28 June 2025.

Article 3/1(1), which that decree inserts, requires radio equipment to be designed and produced so as to maximise its foreseeable use by persons with disabilities, and to be accompanied, where possible in or on the equipment, by accessible information on how it works and on its accessibility features.

Article 26(1/1), which that decree inserts, requires the Institute, where it finds that radio equipment does not meet the accessibility requirements, to order the operator to take corrective measures within a reasonable period, and to require withdrawal from the market only where the operator fails to take them. The Justel consolidation records that Article 38/1 was inserted by the Law of 20 July 2023 and applies from 28 June 2025.

A royal decree amending the Royal Decree of 25 March 2016 on making radio equipment available on the market is among the measures that Belgium notified for Directive 2019/882. Article 14(1), point 3, of the Law of 17 January 2003 on the status of the regulator of the Belgian postal and telecommunications sectors charges the Institute with checking compliance with the Law of 13 June 2005 and its implementing decrees.

Article 21(5) of the Law of 17 January 2003 lets the Institute's Council, on finding a breach, order it to end, prescribe how it is to be remedied, and impose an administrative fine of up to EUR 5,000 on a natural person and of up to 5% of the offender's consolidated turnover in the electronic communications or postal sector in Belgium, or up to EUR 1,000,000 for a legal person with no turnover.

Article 21(5) of the Law of 17 January 2003 also lets the Council impose a periodic penalty payment of up to EUR 500 a day of delay on a natural person and of up to 5% of daily turnover a day of delay on a legal person. Article 21(6) of the Law of 17 January 2003 doubles those maximum amounts and percentages where the measures taken have not remedied the breach.

Article 151(1) of the Flemish Media Decree requires the public broadcaster of the Flemish Community and the private television broadcasters to make their programmes continuously and increasingly accessible to persons with disabilities, by proportionate measures. Article 151(1) names subtitling, audio description, sign language and spoken subtitles as the means of making programmes accessible to persons with a visual or auditory disability.

Article 151(2) requires regional television broadcasters to make their news bulletins on weekdays from 8 pm accessible to persons with a hearing disability by subtitling. Article 151(2) requires private television broadcasters that air a main news bulletin and hold an average market share of 2% to subtitle that main news bulletin. Article 151(3) requires the Flemish Government to set a timetable and quotas for other subtitling, audio description, sign language and spoken subtitles.

Article 151(4) requires the public broadcaster and the private television broadcasters to send the Flemish Regulator for the Media each year before 31 March a report on how they met paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 in the previous year. Article 151(6) requires television broadcasters to broadcast emergency information, as far as reasonably possible, including announcements in natural disasters, in a way that is accessible to persons with disabilities.

Article 151(7) has the Flemish Regulator for the Media keep an online contact point, easily accessible to persons with disabilities, that gives information on and receives complaints about Article 151. The consolidated text marks Article 151 as in force from 9 May 2021.

Article 228 of the Flemish Media Decree lets the general chamber of the Flemish Regulator for the Media impose on any natural or legal person to whom the Decree applies an administrative fine of up to EUR 125,000 for an infringement of the Decree.

Article 1 of the Flemish Media Decree states that the Decree transposes, among other instruments, Directive (EU) 2019/882.

Article 4(1) of the Directive requires Member States to ensure that economic operators only place on the market products and only provide services that comply with the accessibility requirements in its Annex I. Article 214/2(1) requires terminal equipment with interactive computing capability for access to television services that is placed on the market from 28 June 2025 to meet Sections 1 and 2 of Annex 1.

Article 214/2(2) requires services providing access to television services that are provided to consumers from 28 June 2025 to meet Sections 3 and 4 of Annex 1. Article 214/2(2) requires providers of those services to prepare the information required by Annex 2 and explain how the services meet the applicable accessibility requirements.

Article 214/2(2) requires the information to be made available to the public in writing and orally, in a way accessible to persons with disabilities, and kept as long as the service operates. Article 214/2(2) exempts micro-enterprises that offer those services from the accessibility requirements and from every obligation relating to compliance with them.

Article 214/2(3) applies the requirements only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change resulting in a fundamental alteration of the nature of the terminal equipment or service and does not impose a disproportionate burden on the providers. Article 214/2(3) requires providers to document their assessment and keep the relevant results for five years after the terminal equipment or service was last made available.

Article 214/2(3) requires providers of access services that rely on the disproportionate burden defence to renew the assessment when the service changes, at the regulator's request, and at least every five years. Article 214/2(3) excepts micro-enterprises that deal in terminal equipment from the duty to document their assessment, and requires them to give the Flemish Regulator for the Media the relevant facts on request.

Article 214/2(3) requires providers other than micro-enterprises that rely on the defence for a specific terminal or service to inform the Flemish Regulator for the Media. Article 214/2(4) bars a provider that receives public or private funding for accessibility from relying on the disproportionate burden defence.

Article 214/2(5) lets providers of those services keep using, until 28 June 2030, the terminals they lawfully used before that date, and lets service contracts concluded before 28 June 2025 run unchanged for no more than five years. The consolidated text marks Article 214/2 as in force from 28 June 2025.

Article 228, point 4, lets the general chamber of the Flemish Regulator for the Media impose an administrative fine of up to EUR 125,000 on any natural or legal person to whom the Decree applies. Article 228, point 8, lets the general chamber order effective remedial measures to secure compliance with Article 214/2.

Article 2 of the Flemish decree of 29 March 2024 on e-books and related software states that it partly transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882. Article 2(2)(e) of the Directive brings e-books and dedicated software within its scope as services provided to consumers.

Article 3, point 2, defines an e-book as a service that makes available digital files carrying an electronic version of a book, together with the software, including mobile device services and applications, needed to open, browse, read and use them, other than e-reader software. Article 4(2) requires e-books placed on the market from 28 June 2025 to meet the accessibility requirements of Sections 1 and 2 of Annex 1.

Article 4(2) requires e-book providers to prepare the information Annex 2 requires, explain how the services meet the requirements, make it available to the public in writing and orally in an accessible way, and keep it as long as the service operates. Article 4(2) exempts micro-enterprises that offer those services from the accessibility requirements and from every obligation relating to compliance with them.

Article 4(3) applies the requirements only where compliance requires no significant change resulting in a fundamental alteration of the e-book and imposes no disproportionate burden on the provider. Article 4(3) requires providers to document the assessment, keep its results for five years after the service was last provided and give the administration a copy on request.

Article 4(3) requires providers other than micro-enterprises that consider the requirements cannot be applied to a specific product or service to inform the administration. Article 4(4) bars a provider that receives public or private funding for accessibility from relying on the disproportionate burden defence.

Article 4(5) lets providers keep using, until 28 June 2030, the products they lawfully used before that date, and lets service contracts concluded before 28 June 2025 run unchanged until 27 June 2030 at the latest. Article 5(1) punishes anyone who breaches the decree or its implementing decisions with an exclusive administrative fine of at least EUR 5,000 and at most EUR 125,000 per established infringement. Article 5(1) indexes those amounts every 1 January to the health index.

Article 5(2) applies the framework decree on Flemish enforcement of 14 July 2023 to the enforcement of the decree, and lets authorities or legal persons with a legitimate interest file an enforcement request on behalf of or in support of the persons concerned.

Article 1 of the French Community decree of 24 April 2025 states that it partly transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882. Article 2(2)(e) of the Directive brings e-books and dedicated software within its scope as services provided to consumers. Article 2, point 5, treats as e-book providers the publishers of e-books and the other economic operators associated with their distribution.

Article 3(1) requires e-books placed on the market from 28 June 2025 to meet the accessibility requirements of Sections 1 and 2 of Annex I. Article 3(1) requires publishers to prepare the information Annex II requires and make it available in writing and orally, keep procedures that keep the service conforming, take corrective measures, inform the Administration of a non-conformity at once and cooperate with it.

Article 3(2) exempts micro-enterprises that publish e-books from the accessibility requirements and from all obligations relating to compliance with them, counting only the book-publishing part of a business with several activities. Article 3(3) requires distributors of e-books to receive, store and send on the publishers' files without compromising their accessibility features or changing their metadata.

Article 3(4) requires e-book retailers to store and supply the files to consumers without compromising their accessibility features, and to pass on faithfully the metadata on their accessibility features. Article 4(1) applies the requirements only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change that fundamentally alters the nature of the e-book and does not impose a disproportionate burden, and requires a provider relying on that rule to inform the Administration.

Article 4(2) and (3) require providers to support their assessment with evidence, keep the results for five years, give the Administration a copy on request, and renew a burden assessment when the service changes, on request and at least every five years. Article 4(4) bars a provider that receives funding other than its own resources, public or private, to improve accessibility from relying on the disproportionate burden defence.

Article 5 lets any interested person ask the independent out-of-court settlement commission of the decree of 19 October 2017 on the cultural protection of the book to settle a dispute over the decree. Article 6(1) charges agents designated by the Government, who have the status of judicial police officers, with checking compliance and recording infringements.

Article 6(2) makes an e-book provider that does not meet the accessibility requirements and the obligations relating to them liable to a fine of EUR 100 to EUR 100,000 per infringement. Article 6(2) punishes knowingly incorrect or incomplete statements or information in the burden assessment with imprisonment of four months to five years and a fine of EUR 26 to EUR 50,000, or either of them.

Article 6(2) punishes intentionally obstructing the agents with imprisonment of eight days to six months and a fine of EUR 26 to EUR 200, or either of them. Article 7 applies the decree to e-books placed on the market from 28 June 2025, and from 28 June 2030 to e-books placed on the market before 28 June 2025.

Article 2 of the amending Law inserts into the Law of 5 May 2017 a statement that it partly transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882. Article 4(1) of the Directive requires Member States to ensure that economic operators only provide services that comply with the accessibility requirements in its Annex I. Article 3/2(1) requires audiovisual media services to be made continuously and progressively more accessible, by proportionate measures, to persons with a visual or auditory impairment.

Article 3/2(2) requires emergency information made available to the public through audiovisual media services, including public communications and announcements in natural disasters, to be provided in a way that persons with a visual or auditory impairment can access. Article 3/2(3) requires a single online contact point, easily accessible to the public including persons with a visual or auditory impairment, to provide information and receive complaints on accessibility questions.

Article 3/3(1) requires an audiovisual media service provider to apply procedures that keep its service in line with the accessibility requirements of Articles 12(1) and 30/1. Article 3/3(2) requires the provider to take corrective measures when the service does not conform. Article 3/3(2) also requires the provider to inform the Institute immediately, describing the non-conformity and the corrective measures taken.

Article 3/3(3) requires the provider to cooperate with the Institute on request in any measure taken to ensure conformity. Article 3/4 exempts micro-enterprises from the accessibility requirements of Articles 3/2, 3/3, 12(1) and 30/1 and from every obligation relating to compliance with them.

Article 3/5(1) applies those articles only to the extent that they do not lead to a fundamental alteration of the service and the provider bears no burden that is disproportionate under the criteria the King sets. Article 3/5(2) and (3) require providers to assess the impact of that defence in a reasoned written report and to repeat the assessment when the service changes, at the Institute's request, and at least every five years.

Article 3/5(5) bars a provider that receives public or private funding for accessibility from relying on the disproportionate burden defence. Article 3/5(6) requires a provider that relies on the defence for a specific service to inform the Institute. Article 12(1) as replaced requires providers of audiovisual media services to develop the services in accordance with the accessibility requirements, which the King lays down.

Article 30/1 requires service distributors to make audiovisual media services available at all times in accordance with the accessibility requirements. The Royal Decree of 13 September 2023 that lays down those accessibility requirements is made under Articles 3/2 to 3/4, 12 and 30/1 of the Law of 5 May 2017, as inserted by the Law of 20 July 2023. That decree enters into force on 28 June 2025.

Article 3 of that decree requires the audiovisual media service provider to give information on how the service works and on its accessibility features through several sensory channels, to make websites and mobile device services, including mobile applications, perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, and to provide accessible support.

Article 4 of that decree requires electronic programme guides that are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust and that give information on the accessibility of the services. Article 4 of that decree also requires full transmission of the access components of audiovisual media services, such as subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, audio description, spoken subtitles and sign language interpretation, synchronised with sound and video and adjustable by the user.

Article 10 of the amending Law provides that the Law enters into force on 28 June 2025. The Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications lists the Law of 5 May 2017 and the Royal Decree of 13 September 2023 among the media regulations applicable at the Belgian level.

Article 14(1), point 3, of the Law of 17 January 2003 on the status of the regulator of the Belgian postal and telecommunications sectors charges the Institute with checking compliance with the Law of 5 May 2017 and its implementing decrees. Article 21(5) of the Law of 17 January 2003 lets the Institute's Council, on finding a breach, order it to end, prescribe how it is to be remedied, and impose an administrative fine, with separate maximums for natural and for legal persons.

Article 21(5) of the Law of 17 January 2003 also lets the Council impose a periodic penalty payment for each day of delay in complying with its decisions. Article 21(6) of the Law of 17 January 2003 doubles those maximum amounts and percentages where the measures taken have not remedied the breach. Article 21(5) of the Law of 17 January 2003 sets a separate, lower cap of EUR 125,000 for a breach of Chapter 2 of the Law of 5 May 2017. Article 4 of the amending Law inserts Article 3/2 into Chapter 1 of the Law of 5 May 2017.

Article 2 of the Law of 8 May 2024 states that the Law partly transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882. Article 3(1) applies the Law to the websites, mobile device services including apps, and electronic tickets and ticketing services of passenger air, bus, rail and waterborne transport services, other than urban, suburban and regional services. Article 3(1) also covers the provision of information on those transport services, including real-time travel information.

Article 3(1) also covers interactive self-service terminals on Belgian territory, other than terminals installed as integral parts of vehicles, aircraft, ships and rolling stock. Article 3(1) applies to urban, suburban and regional rail passenger services only as regards their interactive self-service terminals.

Article 3(2) excludes pre-recorded time-based media and office file formats published before 28 June 2025, online maps and mapping services with accessible essential navigation information, third-party content the operator does not finance, develop or control, and archive content. Article 5(1) requires service providers to design and provide their services in accordance with the accessibility requirements in Sections I and II of Annex 1.

Article 5(1) limits urban, suburban and regional rail services to Section I, point a, of Annex 1. Article 5(2) makes functions that Sections I and II do not address accessible through the functional performance criteria in Section III of Annex 1. Article 5(3) exempts micro-enterprises that offer services from the accessibility requirements and from any obligation relating to compliance with them.

Article 6 requires service providers to prepare the information required by Annex 2 and explain how the services meet the applicable accessibility requirements. Article 7(1) requires providers to apply procedures that keep the service in line with the accessibility requirements. Article 7(2) requires providers to take corrective measures at once when the service does not conform, and to inform the control service immediately, describing the non-conformity and the corrective measures.

Article 8 requires providers to give the control service, on its reasoned request, all information and documentation that shows the service conforms, and to cooperate with it. Article 9(1) applies the requirements only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change of the service that results in a fundamental alteration of its nature. Article 9(1) also applies the requirements only to the extent that compliance does not impose a disproportionate burden on the provider.

Article 9(3) requires providers to keep all relevant results of the assessment for five years after the service was last provided. Article 9(4) requires a provider that relies on the disproportionate burden defence to renew the assessment when the service changes, at the control service's request, and at least every five years. Article 9(5) bars a provider that receives public or private funding for accessibility from relying on the disproportionate burden defence.

Article 10 presumes that services meeting harmonised standards published in the Official Journal of the European Union conform to the Law's accessibility requirements. Article 13 deems services that meet the requirements on accessible information and on information about accessibility of Regulations (EC) No 261/2004, (EC) No 1107/2006, (EC) No 1371/2007, (EU) No 1177/2010 and (EU) No 181/2011, and of the acts adopted under Directive 2008/57/EC, to meet the corresponding requirements of the Law.

Article 13 applies in full any requirement of the Law that goes beyond those regulations and acts. Article 14 requires the King to designate, for each mode of transport, the authority responsible for handling complaints and imposing administrative sanctions for breaches of the Law. Article 19 requires the King to designate the control service, which checks the conformity of services, follows up non-conformity and checks that corrective measures were taken.

Article 15(1) lets any person with a disability lodge a complaint with the competent authority free of charge. Article 16 sets a period of six months from receipt of the complaint for the competent authority to deal with it. Article 22(1) sets four degrees of administrative fine, starting at EUR 1,250 to EUR 2,000 for a first-degree breach, such as failing to give the required information to the traveller.

Article 22(1) sets EUR 2,500 to EUR 4,000 for a second-degree breach, which is a structural failure to put suitable procedures and business processes in place. Article 22(1) sets EUR 5,000 to EUR 8,000 for a third-degree breach, which causes direct and serious harm to the traveller or concerns misuse of external funding. Article 22(1) sets EUR 10,000 to EUR 16,000 for a fourth-degree breach, which obstructs supervision of compliance with the Law.

Article 23(1) lets the authority impose a fine below the minimum amounts where there are mitigating circumstances. Article 23(2) caps the sum of the fines for concurrent breaches at twice the highest maximum. Article 23(3) lets the amounts be doubled on a repeat within the year that follows a final decision imposing an administrative fine. Article 22(2) indexes the fine amounts every 1 January to the health index.

Article 29 provides that, for waterborne passenger transport providers, an administrative fine for a breach of Article 22(1) is imposed under chapter 3 of the Law of 25 December 2016 instituting administrative fines for breaches of the navigation laws. Article 25 sets a limitation period of three years from the date of the facts for imposing an administrative fine.

Article 60 lets providers keep using, until 28 June 2030, the products they lawfully used before that date, and lets service contracts concluded before 28 June 2025 run unchanged for no more than five years. Article 60(2) lets self-service terminals of air passenger transport providers that were lawfully in use before 28 June 2025 stay in use until the end of their economic life, and for no more than twenty years after they entered use.

Article 61 provides that, apart from the articles of Title VIII that take effect on 20 March 2025, the Law enters into force on 28 June 2025.

Article 1 of the decree states that it partly transposes Directive 2019/882/EU. The decree is made under Article VIII.57 of the Code of Economic Law. Article 4(1) of the Directive requires Member States to ensure that economic operators only place on the market products that comply with the accessibility requirements in its Annex I. Article 3(1) applies the decree to the products it lists that are not radio equipment as the Law of 13 June 2005 defines it.

Article 3(1) lists general-purpose consumer computer hardware, payment terminals, cash machines, ticketing machines, check-in machines, interactive information self-service terminals, consumer terminal equipment for electronic communications services and for access to audiovisual media services, and e-readers, placed on the market after 28 June 2025. Article 2, point 11, defines an economic operator as a manufacturer, authorised representative, importer, distributor or service provider.

Article 4 requires economic operators to place on the market only products that meet the accessibility requirements in Annex 1. Article 4 requires all products to meet Section I of Annex 1, and all products except self-service terminals to meet Section II. Article 5(1) requires manufacturers to ensure that their products are designed and manufactured in accordance with the applicable accessibility requirements.

Article 5(2) requires manufacturers to draw up the technical documentation and carry out the conformity assessment, then to draw up an EU declaration of conformity and affix the CE marking. Article 5(3) requires manufacturers to keep the technical documentation and the EU declaration of conformity for five years after the product is placed on the market.

Article 5(8) requires a manufacturer that has reason to believe a product does not conform to take corrective measures at once, and to inform the market surveillance authorities. Article 7(1) requires importers to place only conforming products on the market. Article 8(1) requires distributors that make a product available to act with due care in relation to the requirements of the decree.

Article 9 treats an importer or distributor as the manufacturer when it places a product on the market under its own name or trademark. Article 11(1) applies the requirements only to the extent that compliance does not require a fundamental alteration of the product and does not impose a disproportionate burden on the operators. Article 11(3) requires operators to document the assessment and keep the results for five years after the product was last made available.

Article 11(4) lets the market surveillance authorities, on a reasoned request, exempt micro-enterprises from the documentation duty. Article 14(4) of the Directive exempts microenterprises dealing with products from the requirement to document their assessment. Article 11(5) bars an operator that receives public or private funding for accessibility from relying on the disproportionate burden defence.

Article 11(6) requires an operator that relies on the defence for a specific product to give the market surveillance authorities the information they need to examine it. Article 14(8) of the Directive excepts microenterprises from the duty to send the market surveillance authorities information on reliance on the defence.

Article 12 presumes that products meeting harmonised standards, or parts of them, published in the Official Journal of the European Union conform to the accessibility requirements to the extent the standards cover them. Article 2, point 27, designates the Directorate-General for Energy of the Federal Public Service Economy as the Belgian market surveillance authority.

Article XV.18/7(1) of the Code of Economic Law requires the officials designated under Article XV.2 to call on the operator to end a non-conformity that they find. Article XV.18/7(2) lets the minister or the minister's delegate restrict or prohibit making the product available, or have it withdrawn from the market, if the defect continues. Article XV.99/1 punishes breach of the decrees made under Article VIII.57 with a level 2 sanction, and a bad-faith breach with a level 3 sanction.

The explanatory memorandum to that Law equates a level 2 sanction with an administrative or criminal fine of EUR 208 to EUR 80,000. The memorandum gives for a level 2 sanction a settlement of EUR 26 to EUR 60,000 under the Royal Decree of 10 April 2014. The memorandum gives for a level 3 sanction an administrative or criminal fine of EUR 208 to EUR 200,000 or a settlement of EUR 26 to EUR 150,000.

Article XV.18/5(1) lets any person lodge a complaint about the accessibility of products and services free of charge with the officials designated under Article XV.2. Article XV.62/7 lets the officials designated under Article XV.60/4, who impose the administrative fine, decide that it is not executed, or only in part, if the offender carries out the corrective measures they set. The explanatory memorandum to the Law of 5 November 2023 places Article VIII.57 in Title 4 of Book VIII of the Code.

Article 36 of the Law of 5 November 2023 adds Titles 4 and 5 of Book VIII to the provisions listed in Article XVII.37, point 1, of the Code. The explanatory memorandum to that Law says that it inserts into Book XVII the possibility of an action for collective redress.

A bill on various economic provisions adds to Article I.9/1 of the Code a definition of product as a substance, preparation or good produced through a manufacturing process, other than food, feed, living plants and animals, products of human origin and products of plants and animals relating directly to their future reproduction. The Chamber adopted that bill in plenary on 19 March 2026 and submitted it for royal assent.

Article 1 of the Walloon decree of 16 February 2023 states that it partly transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882. Article 2(2)(c) of the Directive brings urban, suburban and regional transport services within its scope only for their interactive self-service terminals.

Article 3 applies the decree to urban, suburban and regional transport services other than rail, provided to consumers after 28 June 2025, as regards interactive self-service terminals on the territory of the Walloon Region, other than terminals installed as integral parts of vehicles and rolling stock. Article 2, point 14, defines interactive self-service terminals as vending machines that let the customer carry out every stage of the sale, up to the delivery of the transport tickets.

Article 2, point 5, defines a service provider as any natural or legal person that provides a service on the Union market or offers to provide one to consumers in the Union. Article 4(1) requires economic operators to place on the market only services that meet the accessibility requirements of Section 1 of Annex 1. Article 4(2) exempts micro-enterprises that offer services from the accessibility requirements and from all obligations relating to compliance with them.

Article 5 deems services that meet the accessible-information requirements of Regulations (EC) No 261/2004, (EC) No 1107/2006, (EC) No 1371/2007, (EU) No 1177/2010 and (EU) No 181/2011, and of the acts adopted under Directive 2008/57/EC, to meet the corresponding requirements of the decree.

Article 7(1) and (2) require service providers to design and provide services in line with Article 4, prepare the information that Annex 3 requires, and make it available to the public in writing and orally, including in a way accessible to persons with disabilities. Article 7(4) requires providers to bring a non-conforming service into conformity and to inform the competent authority of the Walloon Region immediately.

Article 8(1) applies the requirements only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change that fundamentally alters the nature of the service and does not impose a disproportionate burden on the operators. Article 8(3) requires operators to support their assessment with evidence and to keep the relevant results for five years after the service was last provided.

Article 8(5) bars an operator that receives funding other than its own resources, public or private, to improve accessibility from relying on the disproportionate burden defence. Article 8(6) requires operators that rely on the exception for a specific service to inform the authorities, and does not apply that duty to micro-enterprises.

Article 9 presumes that services meeting harmonised standards published in the Official Journal of the European Union conform to the decree's accessibility requirements to the extent the standards cover them. Article 10 requires the Government to designate the authorities that check the conformity of services and to lay down the complaint procedure.

Article 11 makes the requirements of Annex 1 binding accessibility requirements within the meaning of Article 42(1) of Directive 2014/24/EU, Article 60(1) of Directive 2014/25/EU and Article 53 of the Law of 17 June 2016 on public procurement. Article 13(1) lets an administrative fine be imposed on economic operators, from EUR 10,000 to EUR 16,000 for failing to design and provide conforming services and from EUR 1,250 to EUR 2,000 for failing to supply the information the authority asks for.

Article 13(1) sets EUR 5,000 to EUR 8,000 for a breach of the information duty or of the duty to correct and report a non-conformity, and EUR 2,500 to EUR 4,000 for a breach of the procedures duty or of Article 8. Article 13(3) caps the total of the fines for concurrent breaches at twice the heaviest maximum fine. Article 13(4) sets the fine for a repeat of the same breach within two years at no less than twice the earlier fine, unless the authority finds mitigating circumstances.

Article 13(6) leaves the procedure for imposing a fine and for appeals to the Government. Article 14 lets providers keep using, until 28 June 2030, the products they lawfully used for similar services, lets service contracts agreed before 28 June 2025 run unchanged for no more than five years, and lets self-service terminals used before 28 June 2025 stay in use until the end of their economic life, but not after 28 June 2035. Article 15 brings the decree into force on 28 June 2025.

Article 53(1) of the Law of 17 June 2016 requires the contracting authority to draw up the technical specifications of every public contract intended for use by natural persons, whether the general public or the authority's staff, so as to take account of accessibility criteria for persons with disabilities or design for all users. Article 53(1) allows the contracting authority to depart from that rule only in duly justified cases.

Article 53(1) requires the technical specifications to be defined by reference to binding accessibility requirements adopted by a legal act of the European Union. Article 133, point 3, applies Article 53 to the public contracts in the special sectors covered by Title 3 of the Law.

Article 24(1) of the Directive makes the accessibility requirements of its Annex I, for the products and services it covers, mandatory accessibility requirements within the meaning of Article 42(1) of Directive 2014/24/EU and Article 60(1) of Directive 2014/25/EU. The Justel consolidation records that, for contracts under Title 2 on public contracts in the classical sectors, the articles of the Law not yet in force took effect on 30 June 2017.

The Justel consolidation records the same day, 30 June 2017, for contracts under Title 3 on public contracts in the special sectors.

A video-sharing platform provider under the jurisdiction of the German-speaking Community must take appropriate measures to protect minors from programmes, user-generated videos and audiovisual commercial communication that could impair their physical, mental or moral development. Those measures include, where appropriate, systems to verify the age of the platform's users for that content. They also include parental control systems managed by the end user.

The most harmful content is subject to the strictest access-control measures. Personal data of minors collected for age verification and parental control may not be used for commercial purposes such as direct marketing, profiling or behavioral advertising. A video-sharing platform provider not itself established in the German-speaking area is treated as established there when it has a parent or subsidiary company established there or belongs to a group with a company established there.

The Media Council (Medienrat) sets the mechanisms for assessing whether the providers' measures are appropriate. The Media Council can impose an administrative fine of up to 25,000 euros, which is set at 5 percent of annual turnover excluding tax where the breach is repeated within five years. The decree entered into force on the day of its publication in the Belgian State Gazette.

A video-sharing platform provider under the jurisdiction of the French Community must take appropriate measures to protect minors from programmes and user-generated videos that could harm their physical, mental or moral development. Those measures include a system to verify the age of the user and a parental control that the user controls. The most harmful content, such as pornography and gratuitous violence, is subject to the strictest access-control measures.

Personal data of minors collected or generated under these measures may not be used for commercial purposes such as direct marketing, profiling or behavioral advertising. A provider falls under the jurisdiction of the French Community when it is established in the French-language region, or in the bilingual Brussels-Capital region where its activity belongs exclusively to the French Community. The Collège d'autorisation et de contrôle assesses whether the measures providers take are appropriate.

It can impose an administrative fine of at least 250 euros and at most 3 percent of annual turnover excluding tax, or 5 percent where the breach is repeated within five years. The decree entered into force on the twentieth day after its publication in the Moniteur belge.

A video-sharing platform provider under the jurisdiction of the Flemish Community must take appropriate measures to protect minors from programmes, user-generated content and commercial communication that could impair their development. Those measures include setting up and using systems to verify the age of the platform's users for that content.

Programmes, user-generated content and commercial communication showing pornographic images or images of gratuitous violence must be offered encrypted or placed under effective parental control. A provider falls under the jurisdiction of the Flemish Community when it is established in the Dutch language region, or in the bilingual Brussels-Capital region where its activities belong exclusively to the Flemish Community.

An infringement of the decree can bring an administrative fine of up to 125,000 euros. The Flemish Regulator for the Media supervises whether providers take these measures and apply them.

A press publisher established in an EU member state has the sole right to reproduce its press publication and to make it available online for use by an information-society service provider, per Article XI.216/2, paragraph 1.

The publisher and the service provider must negotiate in good faith over that use and the remuneration due, and either may refer an unresolved dispute to the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications, which can decide the remuneration and take a binding administrative decision.

A service provider must give the publisher updated, relevant, and complete information on the number of consultations and the revenue it draws from the publications, on the publisher's written request, so the publisher can value the right, and authors of works integrated into a press publication are entitled to an appropriate, non-transferable share of what publishers collect for the use, set by a collective agreement.

The right does not reach hyperlinking, the use of isolated words or very short extracts of a press publication, or works whose protection has expired. It expires two years after the press publication was published, counted from 1 January of the following year, per Article XI.216/3. Article XI.216/2 does not apply to a press publication first published before 6 June 2019, per Article 99 of the Act.