Czech Republic

Section 181(2) of the Criminal Code makes it an offense to produce, with intent to cause another person serious harm to rights, a work that wrongfully shows, records or otherwise uses that person's likeness or an expression of his personal nature, appears genuine, and is known to the offender not to be genuine. The offense also reaches whoever makes such a work publicly accessible, mediates it, puts it into circulation, sells it or otherwise supplies it to another.

The penalty is that of paragraph 1, imprisonment of up to two years or a ban on activity. Imprisonment of up to three years applies where the act causes significant harm to rights, brings a significant benefit, involves posing as an official person, or is committed through the press, film, radio, television, a publicly accessible computer network or a similarly effective means.

Imprisonment of six months to five years applies where the act causes harm to rights on a large scale or brings a benefit on a large scale.

Whoever produces, imports, exports, transports, offers, makes publicly accessible, mediates, puts into circulation, sells or otherwise supplies to another a photographic, film, computer, electronic or other pornographic work depicting or otherwise using a person the offender knows did not consent to that depiction or use, faces up to two years' imprisonment, a ban on activity, or forfeiture of a thing; the offence does not require the image to be a photograph of a real event and reaches a synthetic or digitally altered depiction of a real person's likeness made without consent.

The penalty rises to six months to three years where the act causes significant harm, is committed by a member of an organized group, is committed through the press, film, radio, television, a publicly accessible computer network or a similarly effective means, or is committed to obtain a significant benefit. It rises further to one to five years where it causes large-scale harm, is committed by a group operating across multiple states, or is committed to obtain a large-scale benefit.

Whoever possesses a photographic, film, computer, electronic or other pornographic work depicting or otherwise using a child or a person who appears to be a child faces up to two years' imprisonment, and the same penalty applies to gaining access to child pornography through information or communication technology; the offence's own text extends to a person who merely appears to be a child, so an entirely AI-generated or synthetic depiction with no real child victim is reached the same way as an authentic image.

Producing, importing, exporting, transporting, offering, making publicly accessible, mediating, putting into circulation, selling, or otherwise supplying such a work, or profiting from it, carries six months to three years. That rises to two to six years or forfeiture of property where committed by an organized group, through the press, film, radio, television, a publicly accessible computer network or a similarly effective means, or to obtain a significant benefit.

It rises further to three to eight years where committed by a group operating across multiple states or to obtain a large-scale benefit.

A controller must notify UOOU 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.

Section 12 of Act No. 110/2019 Sb. lets a controller that must notify a breach to the data subject do so in limited scope, or postpone it, where necessary and proportionate to protect an interest listed in Section 6(2), and Section 11(2) applies to the notice of that course of action to the Office by analogy.

The Czech Republic gives the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) domestic effect through Act No. 110/2019 Coll., in force since 24 April 2019, replacing the pre-GDPR Act No. 101/2000 Coll. It is predominantly procedural: it establishes the supervisory authority's powers, administrative-offense and fine procedures, and processing by competent authorities for criminal-law purposes transposing Directive (EU) 2016/680.

Section 7 of the Act sets the age at which a child acquires the capacity to consent to the processing of personal data in connection with an offer of information society services made directly to them at 15.

A transfer of personal data outside the EEA requires an adequacy decision, appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses or Binding Corporate Rules, or a narrow Article 49 derogation, backed by the Article 83(5)(c) top fine tier.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Article 22 gives a person in the Czech Republic 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.

Section 11 of Act No. 110/2019 Sb. reaches this right too, allowing proportionate application or postponement to protect a listed interest, with notice to the Office for Personal Data Protection. The Act's own automated-decision provision (§ 39) applies only to competent authorities processing for law-enforcement purposes.

Under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Articles 12 to 21, a person in the Czech Republic 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.

Section 11 of Act No. 110/2019 Sb. lets a controller apply the rights in GDPR Articles 12 to 22 proportionately, or postpone compliance, where necessary and proportionate to protect an interest listed in Section 6(2), including the rights and freedoms of others and the enforcement of a private-law claim; the controller must notify the Office for Personal Data Protection of such a restriction without undue delay.

UOOU (Office for Personal Data Protection) is the Czech Republic's supervisory authority. Under Section 62(1) of Act No. 110/2019 Sb., a controller or processor commits an administrative offense by infringing, among other provisions, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) processing principles in Articles 5 to 7 and 9, the data subject rights in Articles 12 to 22, or an order of the Office under Article 58(2). Under Section 64, the Office hears the administrative offenses that the Act creates.

GDPR Article 82 arms an individual with a direct private right of action. Act No. 179/2024 Coll. on Collective Civil Court Proceeding took effect on 1 July 2024. It refers to Directive (EU) 2020/1828 on representative actions as the EU instrument it transposes. Under Section 8(1), the claimant in a collective action can only be a legal person entered on the list of qualified entities under the consumer protection act, or several such persons together.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Article 9(1) prohibits processing special categories of personal data, namely personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation, absent an Article 9(2) ground.

Section 39a(1) of Act No. 110/2019 Sb. defines an isolated system as an artificial intelligence system for real-time remote biometric identification of natural persons that a managing authority uses in a space limited to the buildings and premises of an international airport.

Whoever overcomes a security measure and thereby gains unauthorized access to a computer system or part of it faces up to two years' imprisonment, a ban on activity, or forfeiture of property; this offense turns on whether a technical security measure was circumvented, not on whether a website's terms of use were violated alone.

A separate paragraph reaches unauthorized use, deletion, alteration, forgery, insertion or transmission of data, or another interference with a computer system's software or hardware, with no security-measure element, carrying up to three years.

The penalty rises to six months to four years where the act is committed with intent to cause damage or gain an unauthorized benefit, or to restrict a computer system's functionality; to one to five years where committed by an organized group, causes significant damage, targets a computer system whose disruption would seriously affect the state, public health, safety, the economy, or the population's basic needs, secures a significant benefit, or seriously disrupts a business; and to three to eight years for large-scale damage or a large-scale benefit.

A person does not infringe copyright by reproducing a work for the purpose of automated textual and data analysis carried out to obtain information such as patterns, trends and correlations, and may keep the resulting copy only for as long as the analysis requires, per Section 39c(1).

That general licence does not apply where the rightholder has expressly reserved the use in a suitable way, including, for a work made available online, a machine-readable reservation, per Section 39c(2); a scraper mining a work so reserved needs the rightholder's authorization.

A separate exception in Section 39d lets a university carrying out scientific research, a legal person whose main purpose is scientific research or education including research, or a cultural-heritage institution, reproduce a work for text and data analysis for scientific research regardless of any rightholder reservation.

A database is a collection of independent works, data or other elements, systematically or methodically arranged and individually accessible by electronic or other means, per Section 88.

Its maker, the person who at their own responsibility obtained, verified or presented its content with a qualitatively or quantitatively substantial investment, holds the exclusive right to use the whole content or a qualitatively or quantitatively substantial part of it and to authorize another to do so, per Sections 88a and 90.

Repeated and systematic extraction or re-utilization of insubstantial parts is also prohibited where it conflicts with the normal exploitation of the database or unreasonably prejudices the maker's legitimate interests. The right lasts fifteen years from the database's making, or from its first making available to the public if that occurs within that period, per Section 93, and a fresh substantial investment in the database restarts the term.

An authorized user who uses the database lawfully made available to the public does not infringe the right by using a qualitatively or quantitatively insubstantial part for any purpose, provided that use is normal, proportionate and not systematic or repeated.

Unauthorized use of a database is an administrative offence a natural person may be fined up to CZK 150,000 for, and a legal person or a natural person acting in business up to CZK 150,000, before the municipal authority with extended competence in whose district the offence was committed. The Act took effect on 1 December 2000, and its database-right provisions in Sections 88 and 89 to 94 applied from that day in the wording then enacted.

Act 216/2006 Coll. inserted Section 88a, which gives the maker its right and restarts the term after a new substantial investment. The same Act inserted Sections 105a and 105b, which set the fines for unauthorized use of a database. Act 216/2006 Coll. took effect on 22 May 2006, the day it was promulgated.

Sections 47, 57 and 61 of the Cybersecurity Act (Act No. 264/2025 Coll.), in force since 1 November 2025, carry out the EU Cybersecurity Act (Regulation (EU) 2019/881) in the Czech Republic. Under Section 47 the Office, the National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NÚKIB), decides on applications to authorise a conformity assessment body, and it decides to suspend, restrict or withdraw an authorisation when the body breaches the requirements.

Under Section 57(1) the Office may, for at least six months, suspend the validity of a European cybersecurity certificate it issued to a higher-obligations provider that has not remedied the deficiencies ordered under Section 56, or order a conformity assessment body to suspend a certificate or attestation it issued.

Section 61 makes it an offence to misuse or forge a European cybersecurity certification mark, certificate or EU declaration of conformity, to carry out assessment at assurance level high or issue a certificate without the entitlement or authorisation, to act as an accredited body without accreditation or outside it, and to fail to suspend a certificate on the Office's order, and it sets offences for a certificate holder that does not tell conformity assessment bodies of later-found vulnerabilities and for a manufacturer or provider that issues an EU declaration of conformity wrongly, does not keep or submit the required documents, or does not give the required cybersecurity information.

Fines run to CZK 50,000,000 for the offences in Section 61(1)(a) to (e), CZK 20,000,000 for those in Section 61(1)(f) and (g) and Section 61(3)(a), and CZK 2,000,000 for those in Section 61(2) and Section 61(3)(b) to (d).

Act No. 32/2025 Coll., promulgated on 14 February 2025 and in effect from 15 February 2025, amends a number of financial-market laws in connection with EU digital-finance rules, among them Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 (DORA).

Part Two adds to the matters listed in Section 8b(1) of the Banks Act, as a new item f, the establishment and management of networks and information systems under the EU rule on the digital operational resilience of the financial sector, and, as a new item h, policies and plans for ICT business continuity and ICT response and recovery plans that are introduced, managed and tested under DORA Article 11.

It also makes the Czech National Bank's evaluation of the risks a bank is or may be exposed to cover the risks found by digital operational resilience testing under Chapter IV of DORA. Part Three makes parallel additions to the Act on savings and credit co-operatives.

Section 13 requires a provider of a regulated service, within the scope it determines for its own assets, to adopt and implement organisational and technical security measures adequate to secure the regulated service's proper provision and the cybersecurity of its assets.

Section 14(1) sets at least 14 organisational measure categories for a provider in the higher-obligations (essential-entity) regime, including an information security management system, top-management requirements, security roles, security-policy and documentation management, asset, risk, supplier and change management, human-resources security, acquisition and development security, access management, incident handling, business-continuity management and cybersecurity auditing, plus at least 11 technical measure categories including physical security, communications-network security, identity and access-rights administration, event detection, logging and evaluation, application security, cryptographic algorithms, availability assurance, and security of industrial or control-system assets.

Section 14(2) sets a reduced 13-category combined list for a provider in the lower-obligations (important-entity) regime.

Section 18(1) instead requires a provider of DNS resolution, trust, top-level-domain registry, cloud computing, data-centre, content-delivery-network, online-marketplace, internet-search-engine, social-networking-platform, managed-service or managed-security-service offerings to adopt appropriate and proportionate measures covering at least risk management, security-policy and documentation management, incident handling, business continuity, supplier management, secure acquisition, development and maintenance, application security, human-resources security, cryptography, access management and identity administration, to the extent and in the manner set by the Commission's implementing regulation under NIS2, and Section 13(2) does not apply to those services.

Under Section 13(4), a provider must begin implementing and applying the security measures for each regulated service no later than one year from the day the decision registering that service is delivered to it. Section 70(1) disapplies this Act's provisions on security measures and incident reporting, including their supervision, where a directly applicable EU regulation lays down such obligations with at least comparable effect.

Section 70(3) counts as having that effect the provisions of a directly applicable EU regulation that itself says they do. Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 (DORA) is, by its Article 1(2), the sector-specific Union legal act under Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2022/2555 for the financial entities identified as essential or important under national rules transposing that Directive.

Decree No. 408/2025 Coll. of the National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NÚKIB), promulgated on 14 October 2025, is issued under Section 4(2) and Section 8(2) of the Cybersecurity Act. It lists the regulated services and the conditions under which a provider is significant for the purposes of Section 4(1) of the Act, and allocates the providers of each regulated service to the higher-obligations or lower-obligations regime under Section 8(1).

Its Annex begins with public administration, whose exercise of delegated powers makes a central state administration body, among others, a provider in the higher-obligations regime. Under Section 2(2), the euro amounts in Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC are converted into Czech currency at the Czech National Bank's rate for the last day before the assessed calendar year. The decree takes effect on 1 November 2025.

Decree No. 409/2025 Coll. of the National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NÚKIB), issued under Section 13(3) of the Cybersecurity Act on 26 September 2025 and promulgated on 14 October 2025, sets the content of the security measures a provider of a regulated service in the higher-obligations regime must adopt, and how it is to adopt and carry them out.

Section 3 requires the provider to set the objectives of an information security management system, to manage risks under Section 8, and to adopt proportionate measures for the regulated service. Section 4 requires the statutory body or equivalent top management to complete training and to see that the security policy and the objectives of the management system are set.

Sections 5 to 26 then set detailed measures, among them security roles, policy and documentation, risk management, suppliers, human-resources security, change management, acquisition, development and maintenance, access management, handling of events and incidents, cybersecurity audit, identity administration, detection, logging and evaluation of events, application security, cryptographic algorithms and availability of the regulated service.

Section 16 requires the provider to set a plan for its cybersecurity audits. The decree took effect on 1 November 2025. Section 70(1) of the Cybersecurity Act, under whose Section 13(3) this decree is issued, disapplies the Act's provisions on security measures, including their supervision, where a directly applicable EU regulation lays down such obligations with at least comparable effect, and Section 70(3) counts a regulation that itself says so.

Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 (DORA) is, by its Article 1(2), the sector-specific Union legal act under Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2022/2555 for the financial entities identified as essential or important under national rules transposing that Directive.

Decree No. 410/2025 Coll. of the National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NÚKIB), issued under Section 13(3) and Section 15(3) of the Cybersecurity Act and promulgated on 14 October 2025, sets the minimum security measures of a provider of a regulated service in the lower-obligations regime and how the provider determines the significance of a cybersecurity incident's impact.

Section 3 requires the provider to introduce measures proportionate to its security needs, including at least those in Section 3(2) to (6) and Sections 4 to 6 and 10. Under Section 3(2) the provider keeps an overview of the measures it has introduced, will introduce, and has not introduced with reasons, updates it with an evaluation of effectiveness at least once a year, and keeps each version for at least four years.

Section 14 requires the provider to set the tolerable level of harm from an incident that does not yet endanger life, health or its ability to meet its obligations, and the areas for assessing an incident's impact, which cover operational impact, the number of users affected, recovery resources, the type and location of the assets affected, the sensitivity of the data and the direct cause. The decree took effect on 1 November 2025.

Section 70(1) of the Cybersecurity Act, under whose Section 13(3) this decree is issued, disapplies the Act's provisions on security measures, including their supervision, where a directly applicable EU regulation lays down such obligations with at least comparable effect, and Section 70(3) counts a regulation that itself says so.

Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 (DORA) is, by its Article 1(2), the sector-specific Union legal act under Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2022/2555 for the financial entities identified as essential or important under national rules transposing that Directive.

Section 15 requires a provider in the higher-obligations regime to report a qualifying cybersecurity incident directly to NÚKIB, and a provider in the lower-obligations regime to report to the Národní CERT. Section 16 sets a graduated notification clock, transposing NIS2 Article 23.

An initial report is due no later than 24 hours after detecting the incident, giving the provider's identifying details, basic incident data, and whether the provider believes the incident was caused by an unlawful intervention or could have a cross-border impact.

For an incident with significant impact, a follow-up report is due no later than 72 hours after detection, updating that assessment and giving an initial evaluation of the incident's impact and, where available, indicators of compromise.

An interim report is due on NÚKIB's or the Národní CERT's request, and a final report is due no later than 30 days after the notification under Section 16(3)(a); if the incident is still ongoing at that point, a progress report is due instead, followed by a final report within 30 days of resolution.

A provider reports through NÚKIB's Portál Úřadu where possible; a higher-obligations provider otherwise emails NÚKIB or uses its data-box address, and a lower-obligations provider does the same with the Národní CERT.

Section 18(2) separately requires a provider of the digital-infrastructure services named in Section 18(1), other than a trust service, to report every incident with significant impact on that service, with significance set by the Commission's implementing regulation, and Sections 15 and 16 still govern how it reports unless that regulation sets a special procedure.

Under Section 15(4), a provider must begin reporting incidents for each regulated service no later than one year from the day the decision registering that service is delivered to it. Section 70(1) disapplies this Act's provisions on security measures and incident reporting, including their supervision, where a directly applicable EU regulation lays down such obligations with at least comparable effect.

Section 70(3) counts as having that effect the provisions of a directly applicable EU regulation that itself says they do. Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 (DORA) is, by its Article 1(2), the sector-specific Union legal act under Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2022/2555 for the financial entities identified as essential or important under national rules transposing that Directive.

Section 7(2) allows the details of an electronic contact to be used to spread commercial communications by electronic means only toward users who have given prior consent.

Under Section 7(3), a person who obtained a customer's electronic mail contact details in connection with the sale of a product or service may use them to spread commercial communications about its own similar products or services, provided that the customer has a clear and distinct, simple and free chance to refuse that use, including in every single message where the customer did not refuse that use originally.

Section 7(4) bans sending electronic mail to spread a commercial communication if it is not clearly marked as a commercial communication, if it hides the identity of the sender on whose behalf it is sent, or if it is sent without a valid address to which the recipient can directly and effectively send a request to stop further commercial messages. Under Section 10(1)(a), the Office for Personal Data Protection supervises the spreading of commercial communications under Section 7.

Act No. 214/2006 rewrote Section 7 of Act No. 480/2004 in this structure. Act No. 214/2006 took effect on 1 August 2006.

Section 89(3) of Act No. 127/2005 requires anyone who intends to use, or uses, electronic communications networks to store data in the terminal equipment of subscribers or users, or to gain access to data stored there, to obtain their provable consent in advance to the scope and purpose of the processing.

The obligation does not apply to technical storage or access solely for the transmission of a message through an electronic communications network, or where it is necessary for providing an information society service that the subscriber or user has expressly requested. Act No. 374/2021 replaced the earlier duty to inform users in advance and offer them a way to refuse the processing with this consent requirement. That amendment took effect on 1 January 2022.

Section 89(1) requires businesses that provide public communications networks or publicly available electronic communications services to ensure, technically and organizationally, the confidentiality of messages and of the related traffic and location data transmitted over their public network and services.

In particular, they must not allow eavesdropping, storage of messages or other interception or monitoring of messages and the related data by persons other than the users, without the consent of the users concerned, unless a law provides otherwise. This does not prevent the technical storage of data that is necessary for the transmission of messages.

Section 89(2) defines a message as any information exchanged or transmitted between a finite number of subscribers or users through a publicly available electronic communications service, other than information carried as part of public radio or television broadcasting that cannot be attributed to an identifiable subscriber or user.

Section 316(2) bars an employer, without a serious reason lying in the special nature of its activity, from intruding on an employee's privacy at the workplace and in the employer's shared premises by open or secret monitoring, by interception and recording of the employee's telephone calls, by checking electronic mail, or by checking postal items addressed to the employee.

Where such a serious reason exists and justifies introducing these control mechanisms, Section 316(3) requires the employer to inform the employee directly about the scope of the control and the ways it is carried out.

Section 19 requires an oral report to be captured either in an audio recording or in a record that faithfully captures the substance of the oral report. An audio recording of an oral report may be made only with the consent of the whistleblower. The competent person or the authorized employee must let the whistleblower comment on the record or on the transcript of the audio recording, and the comment is attached to it.

Under Section 8(1)(b), an employer with at least 50 employees on 1 January of the calendar year must set up an internal reporting system unless it is an obliged person under the act on certain measures against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Section 96(1) bans offering marketing advertising or a similar offer of goods or services through electronic communications networks or services to subscribers or users who have not stated, in the public directory under Section 95, that they wish to be contacted for marketing.

Section 96(2) bans using subscriber directories, or an electronic communications network or service, for direct marketing by automated calling systems without human involvement, by fax machines or by electronic mail unless the subscriber or user concerned has given prior consent. Section 96(4) applies Sections 95 and 96 equally to the data of subscribers that are legal persons.

Act No. 468/2011 inserted the ban in Section 96(2) on automated calling systems, fax machines and electronic mail used for direct marketing without prior consent.

Section 3(1) of the Act on Certain Information Society Services makes a provider of a service that consists of transmitting information a user provides over electronic communications networks, or of giving access to those networks, liable for the content transmitted only if it initiates the transmission, chooses the user to whom the information goes, or chooses or changes the content.

Section 3(2) treats automatic, short-term, temporary storage of the transmitted information as part of that transmission.

Section 4 makes a provider that transmits information liable for the content of information automatically stored in a temporary cache only if it changes the content, fails to meet the conditions of access, ignores the industry update rules, exceeds the permitted use of a recognized technology to collect data on use, or fails to act at once to remove or block the stored information once it learns that it has been removed from the original source, blocked there, or ordered withdrawn by a court.

Section 5(1) makes a provider of a service that stores information a user provides liable for the content stored at the user's request only if it could, given its activity and the circumstances, have known that the content or the user's conduct was unlawful, or demonstrably learned of the unlawful nature and did not promptly take every step that can be required of it to remove or block the information.

Section 5(2) makes that provider always liable for the stored content if it exercises a direct or indirect decisive influence on the user's activity. Section 6 states that the providers in Sections 3 to 5 are not obliged to supervise the content of the information they transmit or store, or to search actively for facts and circumstances pointing to unlawful content.

Section 7(1)(b) requires a provider of a video-sharing platform service to adopt measures that protect the general public from programmes, user-created videos and commercial communications containing incitement to violence or hatred against a group of persons or a member of a group on grounds such as sex, race, ethnic or social origin, language, religion, political opinion, disability, age or sexual orientation.

Section 7(1)(c) requires measures that protect the general public from content whose dissemination is a criminal offence, in particular public incitement to commit a terrorist offence, child pornography offences and offences connected with racism and xenophobia. Section 8(2) requires the measures to be feasible and proportionate to the scope and nature of the service, and they may not lead to filtering of uploaded content or to prior checks.

Section 8(3)(d) lists, among the measures to be taken where appropriate, transparent and user-friendly mechanisms that let platform users report or flag to the provider content of the kind in Section 7(1) provided on its platform. Section 8(3)(e) adds systems through which the provider tells users how their report or flag was handled without undue delay and no later than 60 days after it was made.

Section 8(3)(i) adds transparent, easy-to-use and effective procedures for handling users' complaints about how the protection measures in points (d) to (h) are carried out, including information on settling the dispute out of court before the Czech Trade Inspection Authority. Section 13 gives this Act precedence over the Act on Certain Information Society Services where the two conflict.

Section 11(3) and (4)(c) make it an offence for a provider not to introduce the appropriate protection measures under Section 8(1) to (3), punishable by a fine of up to CZK 500,000. Section 5 makes the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting (Rada pro rozhlasové a televizní vysílání) the supervisory body for the preparation and application of the protection measures under Sections 7 and 8.

Section 2939(1) makes whoever produced, extracted, grew or otherwise obtained a product or its component liable for damage caused by a defect of a movable thing intended to be placed on the market as a product for sale, hire or other use. Section 2939(1) makes whoever marked the product or its part with its name, trade mark or in another way jointly and severally liable with that person.

Section 2939(2) makes whoever imported the product in order to place it on the market in the course of its business jointly and severally liable with those persons. Section 2939(3) compensates damage to a thing caused by a product defect only in the amount exceeding EUR 500 at the exchange rate of the Czech National Bank.

Section 2940(1) makes each supplier liable where the producer cannot be determined, unless the supplier tells the injured person within one month who the producer is or who supplied the product to it. Section 2940(2) makes each supplier of an imported product liable even where the producer is known, unless the supplier tells the injured person within that period who the importer is.

Section 2941(1) makes a product defective if it is not as safe as can reasonably be expected in view of all circumstances, in particular the way it is placed on the market or offered, its intended purpose and the time it was placed on the market. Section 2941(2) provides that a product is not defective only because a better product was placed on the market later.

Section 2942(1) releases the tortfeasor from the duty to compensate damage caused by a product defect only on proof that the injured person, or a person for whose act the injured person answers, caused the damage. Section 2942(2) point (a) also releases that person where it proves that it did not place the product on the market.

Section 2942(2) point (b) also releases that person where it can reasonably be assumed, in view of all circumstances, that the defect did not exist when the product was placed on the market or arose later. Section 2942(2) point (c) also releases that person where it did not make the product for sale or other use for business purposes and did not make or distribute it in the course of its business.

Section 2942(2) point (d) also releases that person where the defect results from compliance with legal provisions that bind the producer. Section 2942(2) point (e) also releases that person where the state of scientific and technical knowledge when it placed the product on the market did not make it possible to discover the defect.

Section 2942(3) releases the maker of a component where it proves that the defect was caused by the design of the product into which the component was incorporated or by the instructions for that product. Section 2942(4) disregards an advance waiver by the other party of the right to compensation, in whole or in part. Section 2942(5) disregards agreements contrary to paragraphs 1 to 4.

Section 2943 disapplies sections 2939 to 2942 where the defect damaged the defective product itself or damaged a thing intended and used mainly for business purposes. Section 620(2) makes the circumstances that start the limitation period for a claim for damage caused by a product defect include the injured person's knowledge of the damage, the defect and the identity of the producer. Section 629(1) sets a limitation period of three years.

Section 637 time-bars a claim for damage caused by a product defect at the latest ten years after the producer placed the defective product on the market. Section 489 defines a thing in the legal sense as everything that is distinct from a person and serves human needs. Section 496(2) defines intangible things as rights whose nature permits it and other things without a material substance.

Section 498(2) treats all things other than immovables as movable, whether their substance is tangible or intangible. Section 2389a(1) describes digital content as a thing in digital form. The Civil Code entered into force on 1 January 2014.

Act 424/2023 transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882. Section 2(1) of the Act applies it to general-purpose consumer computer hardware systems and their operating systems, self-service payment terminals, ATMs, ticket-issuing machines, check-in machines and information terminals used to provide services, consumer terminal equipment with interactive computing capability used for electronic communications services or for access to audiovisual media services, and e-readers.

Section 4(1) sets the accessibility requirements of the products as those in sections I and II of Annex 1. Article 10(1) of the Directive requires distributors making a product available on the market to act with due care in relation to the requirements of the Directive. Section 8(1) of the Act requires a distributor to act with due care so that the products it supplies meet the accessibility requirements, and to ensure that storage and transport conditions do not endanger that compliance.

Section 8(2) requires the distributor, before supplying a product to the market, to verify that it bears the CE marking, that the instructions and safety information accompany it, and that the manufacturer and importer met their identification duties. Section 8(3) requires a distributor that finds before supply that a product does not meet the requirements to inform the manufacturer or importer and the authority without delay.

Section 8(4) requires a distributor that finds a product it supplied does not meet the requirements to correct it or withdraw it without undue delay and to inform the authority of the non-compliance, its nature and causes, and the measures taken. Article 11 of the Directive treats an importer or distributor as a manufacturer where it places a product on the market under its own name or trademark or modifies a product in a way that may affect compliance.

Section 9 of the Act treats an importer or distributor as a manufacturer on the same two grounds. Section 10 requires distributors to identify on the authority's request each operator that supplied them or that they supplied, for 5 years. Section 15(3) requires a distributor that supplied a product to keep the assessment and its supporting documents for 5 years from the day it last supplied the product, and exempts a microenterprise distributor from submitting the assessment to the authority.

Section 15(5) requires the manufacturer, authorised representative, importer or distributor to inform the supervisory authority before supplying a product to the market that it will not meet the accessibility requirements under section 15(1). Section 15(6) requires the distributor, where the manufacturer relies on the disproportionate-burden limb, to attach to that information the manufacturer's sworn statement that it received no subsidy, gift or similar payment to secure accessibility.

Section 15(7) exempts a manufacturer, importer or distributor that is a microenterprise from the duty to inform the authority under section 15(5). Section 19(1) names the Czech Trade Inspection as the supervisory authority for products. Section 20 requires the authority to call on the distributor of a non-compliant product to take corrective measures within a reasonable period, then to withdraw it from the market, and if it does not, to ban its supply or decide on its withdrawal.

Section 25(5) makes it an offence for a distributor to fail to act with due care or to ensure compliance, to fail to verify the CE marking, the instructions and the identification duties before supply, to fail to inform the manufacturer, importer or authority, or to fail to correct or withdraw a non-compliant product.

Section 25(6) makes it an offence for a manufacturer, authorised representative, importer or distributor to fail to identify the operators under section 10, to fail to keep the assessment and its supporting documents, to fail to inform the authority under section 15(5) or give the required content, or to omit the sworn statement under section 15(6).

Section 25(1) makes it an offence for any legal person or entrepreneur to affix the CE marking without entitlement or to draw up or alter a declaration of conformity without entitlement. Section 25(8) sets the maximum fine for a distributor at 10,000,000 koruna for offences under section 25(5)(a) and (d), at 5,000,000 koruna for section 25(5)(b), at 2,000,000 koruna for section 25(5)(c), and at 1,000,000 koruna for section 25(5)(e).

Section 26(1) gives the offence proceedings to the authority that supervises the duty breached, and section 26(2) lets the Czech Trade Inspection collect the fine it imposes. Section 30 of the Act on liability for offences (250/2016) sets a limitation period of 3 years for an offence whose maximum fine reaches 100,000 koruna, which covers every offence in section 25. Section 28(1) applies the duties of distributors to products placed on the market after 28 June 2025. Section 29 brought the Act into effect on 28 June 2025.

Act 424/2023 transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882. Section 2(1) of the Act applies it to general-purpose consumer computer hardware systems and their operating systems, self-service payment terminals, ATMs, ticket-issuing machines, check-in machines and information terminals used to provide services, consumer terminal equipment with interactive computing capability used for electronic communications services or for access to audiovisual media services, and e-readers.

Section 4(1) sets the accessibility requirements of the products as those in sections I and II of Annex 1. Article 9(1) of the Directive requires importers to place only compliant products on the market. Section 7(1) of the Act allows an importer to place a product on the market only if it meets the accessibility requirements.

Section 7(2) requires the importer, before placing the product on the market, to ensure that the manufacturer carried out the conformity assessment of Annex 2, prepared the technical documentation, affixed the CE marking, met its identification duties and supplied instructions and safety information, and to keep the documentation and a copy of the declaration of conformity for 5 years.

Section 7(3) requires the importer to state its name or trade name or trademark and a contact address on the product, or on the packaging or an accompanying document. Section 7(4) requires an importer that finds a product it intends to place on the market does not meet the requirements to inform the manufacturer and the authority without delay.

Section 7(5) requires an importer that finds a product it placed on the market does not meet the requirements to correct it or withdraw it without undue delay, inform the authority, and keep a register of non-compliant products and related complaints. Article 11 of the Directive treats an importer or distributor as a manufacturer where it places a product on the market under its own name or trademark or modifies a product in a way that may affect compliance.

Section 9 of the Act treats an importer or distributor as a manufacturer on the same two grounds. Section 10 requires importers to identify on the authority's request each operator that supplied them or that they supplied, for 5 years. Section 15(3) requires an importer that supplied a product to keep the assessment and its supporting documents for 5 years from the day it last supplied the product, and exempts a microenterprise importer from submitting the assessment to the authority.

Section 15(5) requires the manufacturer, authorised representative, importer or distributor to inform the supervisory authority before supplying a product to the market that it will not meet the accessibility requirements under section 15(1). Section 15(6) requires the importer, where the manufacturer relies on the disproportionate-burden limb, to attach to that information the manufacturer's sworn statement that it received no subsidy, gift or similar payment to secure accessibility.

Section 15(7) exempts a manufacturer, importer or distributor that is a microenterprise from the duty to inform the authority under section 15(5). Section 19(1) names the Czech Trade Inspection as the supervisory authority for products. Section 20 requires the authority to call on the importer of a non-compliant product to take corrective measures within a reasonable period, then to withdraw it from the market, and if it does not, to ban its supply or decide on its withdrawal.

Section 27(3) applies Articles 25(2) to (4), 26(1) and (2) and 27 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 to the customs offices on the import of products into the Union. Section 25(4) makes it an offence for an importer to place a non-compliant product on the market against section 7(1), or to fail to ensure before placing it that the manufacturer carried out the conformity assessment, prepared the documentation, affixed the CE marking, met its identification duties and supplied the instructions.

Section 25(6) makes it an offence for a manufacturer, authorised representative, importer or distributor to fail to identify the operators under section 10, to fail to keep the assessment and its supporting documents, to fail to inform the authority under section 15(5) or give the required content, or to omit the sworn statement under section 15(6).

Section 25(1) makes it an offence for any legal person or entrepreneur to affix the CE marking without entitlement or to draw up or alter a declaration of conformity without entitlement. Section 25(8) sets the maximum fine for an importer at 10,000,000 koruna for offences under section 25(4)(a) and (f), at 5,000,000 koruna for section 25(4)(b) and (c), at 2,000,000 koruna for section 25(4)(d), and at 1,000,000 koruna for section 25(4)(e), (g) and (h).

Section 26(1) gives the offence proceedings to the authority that supervises the duty breached, and section 26(2) lets the Czech Trade Inspection collect the fine it imposes. Section 30 of the Act on liability for offences (250/2016) sets a limitation period of 3 years for an offence whose maximum fine reaches 100,000 koruna, which covers every offence in section 25. Section 28(1) applies the duties of importers to products placed on the market after 28 June 2025. Section 29 brought the Act into effect on 28 June 2025.

Act 424/2023 transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882. Article 2(1) of the Directive applies it to the products it lists, including consumer terminal equipment used for electronic communications services or for access to audiovisual media services, and e-readers.

Section 2(1) of the Act applies it to general-purpose consumer computer hardware systems and their operating systems, self-service payment terminals, ATMs, ticket-issuing machines, check-in machines and information terminals used to provide services, consumer terminal equipment with interactive computing capability used for electronic communications services or for access to audiovisual media services, and e-readers.

Section 4(1) sets the accessibility requirements of the products as those in sections I and II of Annex 1. Section II of Annex 1 excludes self-service payment terminals and self-service terminals from its requirements on packaging and installation instructions. Article 7(1) of the Directive requires manufacturers placing products on the market to ensure the products have been designed and manufactured in accordance with the applicable accessibility requirements.

Section 5(1) of the Act allows a manufacturer to place a product on the market only if it meets the accessibility requirements, also after a change to the product or to the harmonised standard or technical specification relied on.

Section 5(2) requires the manufacturer to prepare technical documentation, carry out the conformity assessment procedure of Annex 2, draw up the declaration of conformity and affix the CE marking, and keep the documentation and declaration for 5 years from placing on the market. Section 5(3) requires the manufacturer to mark the product with a type, batch or serial number or another identifying element, or to give it on the packaging or an accompanying document.

Section 5(4) requires the manufacturer to state its name or trade name or trademark and a contact address on the product, or on the packaging or an accompanying document. Section 5(5) requires the manufacturer to ensure that instructions for use and safety information in the Czech language accompany the product and are clear, understandable and easy to comprehend.

Section 5(6) requires a manufacturer that finds a product it placed on the market does not meet the requirements to correct it or withdraw it without undue delay, inform the supervisory authority, and keep a register of non-compliant products and related complaints. Article 8(1) of the Directive lets a manufacturer appoint an authorised representative by written mandate, and the mandate cannot include the Article 7(1) obligation or the drawing up of technical documentation.

Section 5(7) of the Act allows the manufacturer to appoint an authorised representative in writing. Section 6(2) provides that the mandate of an authorised representative cannot include the duty in section 5(1) or the preparation of technical documentation. Section 6(1) requires the mandate to allow the representative at least to keep the declaration of conformity and the technical documentation, give the authority information and documentation, and cooperate with it.

Section 6(3) requires the authorised representative to keep the technical documentation and the declaration of conformity for 5 years from the day the product was placed on the market. Article 11 of the Directive treats an importer or distributor as a manufacturer where it places a product on the market under its own name or trademark or modifies a product in a way that may affect compliance. Section 9 of the Act treats an importer or distributor as a manufacturer on the same two grounds.

Section 10 requires manufacturers, authorised representatives, importers and distributors to identify on the authority's request each operator that supplied them or that they supplied, for 5 years. Section 11(2) requires the declaration of conformity to be drawn up in the Czech language with the content in Annex 3 and updated when the data change.

Section 11(1) requires a manufacturer that relies on section 15(1) to state in the declaration of conformity which accessibility requirements were not met. Section 11(3) requires a single declaration of conformity, referring to every EU act concerned, where several transposing laws or directly applicable EU acts require a declaration for the product.

Section 12 requires the CE marking to be placed visibly, legibly and indelibly on the product or its rating plate, or where the product does not allow it on the packaging or an accompanying document. Section 15(1) and (2) relieve a manufacturer of the requirements to the extent that compliance would require a fundamental alteration of the product or a disproportionate burden judged on the criteria in Annex 4, and only after it prepares an assessment.

Section 15(3) requires the manufacturer to keep the assessment and its supporting documents for 5 years from the day it last supplied the product, and exempts a microenterprise manufacturer from submitting the assessment to the authority. Section 15(5) requires the manufacturer to inform the supervisory authority before placing the product on the market that it will not meet the requirements, stating the product, the ground, the requirements not met and the date of the assessment.

Section 15(6) requires a manufacturer relying on disproportionate burden to attach a sworn statement that it received no subsidy, gift or similar payment to secure accessibility. Section 15(7) exempts a manufacturer, importer or distributor that is a microenterprise from the duty to inform the authority under section 15(5). Section 16(1) treats compliance with a harmonised standard or part of it as compliance with the accessibility requirements to the extent the standard covers them.

Section 19(1) names the Czech Trade Inspection as the supervisory authority for products. Section 20 requires the authority to call on the manufacturer, importer or distributor of a non-compliant product to take corrective measures within a reasonable period, then to withdraw it from the market, and if it does not, to ban its supply or decide on its withdrawal. Section 22 requires the authority to publish on its website a list of the products that do not meet the requirements.

Section 23 applies the articles of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 it lists to market surveillance of products as to the accessibility requirements. Section 25(2) makes it an offence for a manufacturer to place a product on the market against section 5(1), to fail to prepare the technical documentation, carry out the conformity assessment, draw up the declaration or affix the CE marking, or to fail to keep the documentation or declaration.

Section 25(6) makes it an offence for a manufacturer, authorised representative, importer or distributor to fail to identify the operators under section 10, to fail to keep the assessment and its supporting documents, to fail to inform the authority under section 15(5) or give the required content, or to omit the sworn statement under section 15(6).

Section 25(1) makes it an offence for any legal person or entrepreneur to affix the CE marking without entitlement or to draw up or alter a declaration of conformity without entitlement. Section 25(8) sets the maximum fine for a manufacturer at 10,000,000 koruna for offences under section 25(2)(a) and (g), at 5,000,000 koruna for section 25(2)(b), (c), (j) and (k), at 2,000,000 koruna for section 25(2)(d), (e) and (f), and at 1,000,000 koruna for section 25(2)(h) and (i).

Section 26(1) gives the offence proceedings to the authority that supervises the duty breached, and section 26(2) lets the Czech Trade Inspection collect the fine it imposes. Section 30 of the Act on liability for offences (250/2016) sets a limitation period of 3 years for an offence whose maximum fine reaches 100,000 koruna, which covers every offence in section 25.

Section 28(1) applies the duties of manufacturers, authorised representatives, importers and distributors to products placed on the market after 28 June 2025. Section 29 brought the Act into effect on 28 June 2025.

Act 424/2023 transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882. Article 2(2) of the Directive applies it to the services it lists that are provided to consumers after 28 June 2025.

Section 2(2) of the Act applies it to the services it lists that are provided to consumers, namely electronic communications services, services providing access to audiovisual media services, financial services, e-commerce services, the sale of e-books and e-book software, commercial air, public regular bus, rail and water passenger transport as to the items it lists, and urban and regional transport as to self-service terminals.

Section 3(1)(i) defines e-commerce services as services provided at a distance through websites or mobile devices, by electronic means and at the individual request of a consumer, with a view to concluding a consumer contract.

Section 3(1)(g) defines financial services as consumer credit within section 2 of the Consumer Credit Act with the exceptions it names, certain investment and ancillary investment services under the Capital Market Undertakings Act, payment services, services linked to a payment account, and the issue and redemption of electronic money.

Section 3(1)(b) defines services providing access to audiovisual media services to include the electronic programme guide and elements such as open or hidden subtitles, audio description and Czech Sign Language interpretation. Article 4(5) of the Directive exempts microenterprises providing services from the accessibility requirements of paragraph 3 of that Article and any obligations relating to compliance with them.

Section 2(3)(a) of the Act excludes services provided by a service provider that is a microenterprise. Section 3(1)(p) defines a microenterprise by reference to Article 2(3) of Annex I to Commission Regulation (EU) 651/2014. Section 27(1) converts the Czech currency to euros at the Czech National Bank exchange rate for the balance sheet day to decide whether a person is a microenterprise.

Section 2(3)(b) to (e) also excludes machine-to-machine transmission services, the content of an online map where basic navigation information is provided in an accessible digital form, website and app content that does not belong to the provider unless the provider finances, creates or can influence it, and self-service terminals installed as an integral part of a means of transport. Section 4(2) sets the accessibility requirements of the services as those in sections III and IV of Annex 1.

Section III of Annex 1 sets general accessibility requirements for services other than urban and regional transport services. Section 4(3) sets the requirements of Annex 5 for features or functions of products and services that the requirements of Annex 1 do not cover. Article 13(1) of the Directive requires service providers to ensure that they design and provide services in accordance with the accessibility requirements of the Directive.

Section 13(1) of the Act requires a service provider to ensure that the service it provides meets the accessibility requirements. Section 13(1) also requires the provider to keep the service within the requirements for the whole time it is provided, including when the service, the requirement or the harmonised standard or technical specification it relies on changes.

Section 13(2) requires a provider that finds a service does not meet the requirements to take measures without undue delay to bring it into line and to inform the supervisory authority of the district where it provides the service of the non-compliance, its nature and causes, and the measures taken.

Article 13(2) of the Directive requires the information on how a service meets the requirements to be made available to the public in written and oral format, including in a manner accessible to persons with disabilities.

Section 14(1) requires the provider to publish in its general terms and conditions or a similar document how the service meets the requirements, including a description of each requirement, and to give this information in audio form on request and in commonly accessible formats when it is published on a website. Section 14(2) requires the provider to publish also a general description of the service and the explanations needed to understand how it works.

Section 14(3) lets the provider, when publishing the information, refer to the accessibility requirements met in the harmonised standard or technical specification the service conforms to. Section 14(4) requires the provider to publish this information for the whole time it provides the service, in a way that is also accessible to persons with disabilities.

Article 14(1) of the Directive applies the accessibility requirements only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change resulting in the fundamental alteration of the basic nature of the product or service and does not impose a disproportionate burden on the economic operators concerned.

Section 15(1) of the Act relieves a service provider of the requirements to the extent that compliance would require a fundamental alteration of the service or a disproportionate burden judged on the criteria in Annex 4. Section 15(2) allows the provider to rely on this only after preparing an assessment, and the disproportionate-burden limb does not apply to a provider that receives a subsidy, gift or similar payment to secure compliance.

Section 15(3) requires the provider to keep the assessment and its supporting documents for 5 years from the day the service was last provided. Section 15(4) requires a provider relying on the disproportionate-burden limb to prepare a new assessment for each service when the service changes and in any case within 5 years of the last assessment, and also on the supervisory authority's call within the reasonable period it sets where it has a well-founded doubt about the burden.

Section 15(5) requires the provider to inform the supervisory authority before it starts providing the service that the service will not meet the requirements, stating the service, the ground, the requirements not met and the date of the assessment. Section 15(6) requires a provider relying on the disproportionate-burden limb to attach a sworn statement that it received no subsidy, gift or similar payment to secure accessibility.

Article 15(1) of the Directive presumes products and services in conformity with harmonised standards whose references are published in the Official Journal to be in conformity with the accessibility requirements so far as those standards cover them. Section 16(1) of the Act treats compliance with a harmonised standard or part of it as compliance with the accessibility requirements to the extent the standard covers them.

Section 16(2) treats compliance with a technical specification or part of it the same way where no reference to a harmonised standard has been published. Section 17(2) treats a service as meeting the accessibility requirements when it meets the accessible-information requirements of the EU passenger rights regulations and the rail interoperability implementing rules, and an additional requirement of the Act still applies.

Section 18 allows a specific technical requirement of Annex 1 to be met in the way set out in Annex 5 where equivalent accessibility is secured. Section III, point 3 of Annex 1 requires websites, related online applications and mobile services including mobile applications to be made perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.

Section III, point 4 of Annex 1 requires support services such as helpdesks, call centres, technical support, relay services and training to give information on the accessibility of the service and its compatibility with assistive technologies through means of communication accessible to persons with disabilities.

Section IV, point 1 of Annex 1 requires electronic communications services including emergency communications to provide real-time text alongside voice, total conversation where video is provided, and synchronised emergency communications carried to the most suitable emergency communication centre.

Section IV, point 2 of Annex 1 requires the electronic programme guide of a service providing access to audiovisual media services to be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, and requires the accessibility elements to be fully transmitted with adequate quality and synchronised with sound and video.

Section IV, point 3 of Annex 1 requires passenger transport services other than urban and regional transport to give information on the accessibility of vehicles, infrastructure and assistance, on electronic ticket sales and on real-time travel information. Section IV, point 4 of Annex 1 requires the self-service terminals used in urban and regional transport services to be accessible.

Section IV, point 5 of Annex 1 requires the identification, electronic signature, security and payment methods of financial services to be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, and the information to be understandable without increased effort by the consumer.

Section IV, point 6 of Annex 1 sets requirements for e-books, including synchronised text and sound, files that do not hinder assistive technologies, navigation, searchability by accessibility metadata and digital rights management that does not block accessibility features.

Section IV, point 7 of Annex 1 requires e-commerce services to give information on the accessibility of the products and services sold where the seller provides it, and to make identification, security, payment and electronic signature functions perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.

Section 19(2) names the supervisory authority for services as the Czech Trade Inspection, except for electronic communications services (the Czech Telecommunication Office), services giving access to audiovisual media services (the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting), public regular bus transport outside urban bus transport (the regional office), rail passenger transport (the Railway Authority), air passenger transport (the Civil Aviation Authority), water passenger transport (the State Navigation Administration) and urban bus and special-track, tram, trolleybus and cable transport (the Prague Magistrate and the municipal office of a municipality with extended powers).

Section 19(3) makes the competent supervisory authority the one for the place where the service is provided. Section 24 requires the supervisory authority to call on a provider whose service does not meet the requirements to take measures within a reasonable period and to publish on its website a list of the services that do not meet them.

Section 25(7) makes it an offence for a service provider to fail to meet the requirements, to fail to correct a non-compliant service, to repeatedly fail to inform the authority, to fail to publish the section 14 information, to fail to make or keep the assessment or notify the authority, to omit the sworn statement, or to fail to act within the time set under section 24(1).

Section 25(8) sets the maximum fine for a service-provider offence at 10,000,000 koruna for offences under section 25(7)(a), (b) and (l), at 5,000,000 koruna for section 25(7)(g), at 2,000,000 koruna for section 25(7)(h), (i), (j) and (k), and at 1,000,000 koruna for section 25(7)(c), (d), (e) and (f).

Section 26 gives the offence proceedings to the authority that supervises the duty breached, lets the Czech Trade Inspection and the Czech Telecommunication Office collect the fines they impose, and makes the Czech Telecommunication Office enforce the fine it imposed. Section 30 of the Act on liability for offences (250/2016) sets a limitation period of 3 years for an offence whose maximum fine reaches 100,000 koruna, which covers every offence in section 25.

Article 30 of the Directive requires Member States to lay down rules on penalties for infringements of the national provisions adopted under it, and the penalties are to be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. Article 31(2) of the Directive requires Member States to apply the transposing measures from 28 June 2025. Section 29 brought the Act into effect on 28 June 2025. Section 28(2) applies the duties of a service provider to services provided after 28 June 2025.

Article 32(2) of the Directive lets Member States allow self-service terminals lawfully used before 28 June 2025 to stay in use until the end of their economically useful life, but no longer than 20 years after their entry into use. Section 28(3) lets a self-service payment terminal or self-service terminal that does not meet the requirements, and was used lawfully before the Act took effect, stay in use for similar services for up to 20 years from its first being put into operation.

Article 32(1) of the Directive requires a transitional period ending on 28 June 2030 for services provided with products lawfully used before that date, and lets service contracts agreed before 28 June 2025 continue without alteration until they expire, but for no longer than five years from that date.

Section 28(4) lets a provider keep providing services until 28 June 2030 using products that do not meet the requirements, if it lawfully used them for similar services before and they were placed on the market by 28 June 2025. Section 28(5) lets a provider continue unchanged a service that does not meet the requirements under a contract concluded before the Act took effect until the obligation under the contract ends, and no later than 28 June 2030.

Section 28(6) takes out of the requirements pre-recorded time-based media and office-application file formats published on websites or in mobile applications no later than before the Act took effect. Section 28(7) takes out of the requirements websites and mobile applications that contain only content not updated or modified after the Act took effect.

Act 130/2025 replaced the words for international and domestic regular bus transport with public regular bus transport in sections 2(2)(f) and 3(2)(d) of the Act and point 3 of section IV of Annex 1, and repealed letter (c) of section 19(2) and relettered the letters after it. Article XVIII of Act 130/2025 brings that Act into effect on 1 July 2025, apart from the provisions it lists, none of which is Article XVI. Act 218/2025 replaced section 26(2) of the Act and added section 26(3).

Article CXL of Act 218/2025 brings that Act into effect on 1 July 2025, apart from the provisions it lists, none of which is Article CXXXVII.

Section 6b(1) of the Act on audiovisual media services on demand requires a provider, where it is appropriate, to supply open or hidden subtitles or Czech Sign Language interpretation for people with hearing impairment and audio description for people with visual impairment where it has them, or otherwise to ensure that some programmes are accessible to those people.

Section 6b(2) requires the provider, after consulting the organisations of people with hearing impairment and people with visual impairment, to prepare for each evaluation period an Action Plan by which it commits to raise the total share of accessible programmes over the previous period through appropriate measures, and to submit a new plan to the Council by 30 June of the year in which the previous period ends.

Section 6b(2) requires a provider of more than one on-demand service to prepare the plan by service and by year from 1 July to 30 June. Section 6b(3) requires the provider to submit to the Council by 30 September of the year in which the evaluation period ended an evaluation of the plan.

Section 6b(4) takes out of the duties in section 6b(1) and (2) programmes that by their nature cannot or need not be made accessible, in particular music programmes, programmes promoting the provider's own service, and programmes made only of graphics or teletext without spoken word. Act 242/2022 inserted sections 6a and 6b into the Act. Act 242/2022 took effect on the fifteenth day after its promulgation.

A transitional provision of Act 242/2022 required a provider to submit to the Council by 30 June 2023 an Action Plan for the shortened period from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2025, with its evaluation due by 30 September 2025. A transitional provision of Act 242/2022 makes the first Action Plan under section 6b(2) follow on from the plan for the shortened period. Section 12(1)(b) makes it an offence to fail to meet the duties in section 6b(1), (2) or (3).

Section 12(2) sets the fine for an offence under section 12(1)(b) at up to 1,000,000 koruna. Section 13(1) gives the proceedings on offences under the Act to the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting. Section 11(1) to (3) provides that the Council first notifies a provider of a breach and sets a period to correct it, and opens no offence proceedings if the provider corrects the breach in time.

Section 5(2)(b) of the Act on the operation of radio and television broadcasting makes the Council the publicly accessible online contact point for information and complaints about making television programmes accessible to people with hearing or visual impairment.

Section 32(2) of the Act on the operation of radio and television broadcasting requires a television broadcaster, after consulting the organisations of people with hearing impairment and people with visual impairment, to prepare for each evaluation period an Action Plan for making programmes accessible to those people, by which it commits to raise the total share of accessible programmes over the previous period through appropriate measures.

Section 32(2) sets the plan by programme and by year from 1 July to 30 June, counts the share of accessible programmes from the total running time of programmes broadcast, and requires a new plan to be submitted to the Council by 30 June of the year in which the previous period ends.

Section 32(3) requires the broadcaster to submit to the Council by 30 September of the year in which the evaluation period ended an evaluation of the plan, with the identification and broadcast time of each accessible programme.

Section 32(4) takes out of the plan and evaluation duties programmes made mainly of content other than programmes and programmes made mostly of programmes that by their nature cannot or need not be made accessible, in particular music programmes, programmes promoting the broadcaster's own broadcasting, programmes made only of graphics or teletext without spoken word, and local broadcasting programmes.

Section 32(1)(k) requires every broadcaster to give state bodies, local authorities and the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, in the urgent public interest and on their request, the airtime needed for important and urgent announcements connected with a declared state of emergency, state of danger to the state, state of war or state of cyber danger, a hydrometeorological warning, a notice of an obstacle to publishing in the Collection of Laws or public-health measures, and to ensure the announcements are also made accessible to people with hearing impairment, with both descriptive subtitles and Czech Sign Language interpretation, and to people with visual impairment.

Section 32(1)(l) requires every broadcaster to keep, in the form broadcast and in proper technical quality, recordings of all programmes and other parts of the broadcast, including the versions made accessible to people with hearing or visual impairment, for at least 30 days from broadcast and to lend them to the Council on its written request.

Section 2(2)(g) defines descriptive subtitles as an optional Czech-language text synchronised with the soundtrack that captures speech and meaningful sounds and identifies speakers off screen. Section 2(2)(h) defines audio description as an optional verbal commentary on the visual component of a programme for people with visual impairment, without limiting perception of the spoken word of the original soundtrack. Act 242/2022 replaced section 32(2) of the Act and added sections 32(3) and (4).

Act 242/2022 took effect on the fifteenth day after its promulgation. Section 16(8) of Act 242/2022 required a licensed broadcaster, from the day that Act took effect until 30 June 2023, to keep the share of accessible programmes set by section 32(2) in its earlier wording as if it were an Action Plan. Section 16(7) of Act 242/2022 required a nationwide television broadcaster to submit by 30 June 2023 an Action Plan for the shortened period from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2025.

Section 16(7) of Act 242/2022 required a licensed broadcaster to commit in that plan to provide at least 30 % of broadcast programmes with hidden or open subtitles from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025. Section 16(10) of Act 242/2022 required a television broadcaster other than a nationwide one to submit by 30 June 2023 an introductory plan for the same period by which it commits to start making programmes accessible.

Act 119/2025 added the words on descriptive subtitles and Czech Sign Language interpretation to section 32(1)(k) and changed the basis of the accessible-programme share in section 32(2) to the total running time of programmes broadcast. Those amendments of Act 119/2025 took effect on 1 July 2025. Section 5(1)(a) makes the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting supervise compliance with the legal rules on broadcasting and the conditions of licences and registrations.

Section 5(2)(b) makes the Council act as a publicly accessible online contact point for information and complaints about making television programmes accessible to people with hearing or visual impairment, and the contact point must itself be accessible to people with disabilities. Section 59(1) to (3) provides that the Council first notifies a broadcaster of a breach and sets a period to correct it, and imposes no penalty if the broadcaster corrects the breach in time.

Section 60(1)(c) makes it an offence to fail to provide airtime for the urgent announcements of section 32(1)(k), or to fail to make them accessible to people with hearing and visual impairment. Section 60(1)(d) and (e) make it an offence to destroy the recordings before the period of section 32(1)(l) ends or to fail to lend a requested recording to the Council within 15 days of receiving the request.

Section 60(1)(o), (p) and (q) makes it an offence to fail to submit the Action Plan or its evaluation to the Council in time, or to fail to meet the commitment to raise the share of accessible programmes made in the plan for the period that ended. Section 60(7)(a) sets the fine for an offence under section 60(1) at 5,000 to 2,500,000 koruna. Section 61(1) gives the proceedings on offences under the Act to the Council.

Section 17(1)(f) makes the applicant's readiness to provide a certain percentage of broadcast programmes with hidden or open subtitles for people with hearing impairment one of the facts the Council weighs when it decides on a licence for television broadcasting.

Section 93(1) of the Act on public procurement requires a contracting authority, where the object of a public contract is intended for use by natural persons, to take account of the accessibility of the object for persons with disabilities when it sets the technical specification, unless objective circumstances make that impossible.

Section 93(2) requires the contracting authority, where binding accessibility requirements for persons with disabilities are laid down by a European Union instrument, to set the relevant technical conditions by reference to that instrument.

Article 24(1) of Directive (EU) 2019/882 makes the accessibility requirements of its Annex I mandatory accessibility requirements within the meaning of Article 42(1) of Directive 2014/24/EU and Article 60(1) of Directive 2014/25/EU for the products and services within its scope.

Section 80(1) requires a contracting authority that asks, as proof of technical qualification, for compliance with quality-assurance standards including standards on accessibility for persons with disabilities to refer to quality-assurance systems based on the relevant European standards and certified by accredited bodies. Section 116(2)(c) lists user accessibility among the quality criteria that may be used to evaluate tenders.

Section 182(3) lets the technical conditions of a concession include adaptation to all requirements including accessibility for persons with disabilities. Section 31 lets a contracting authority award a small-scale public contract without an award procedure, while it must still follow the principles of section 6(1) to (3).

Section 52(b) lets a contracting authority award a below-threshold contract in a procedure type of the above-threshold regime, and then it follows Part Four, where sections 80, 93 and 116 sit. Section 53(4) lets a contracting authority that uses the simplified below-threshold procedure apply particular rules of the above-threshold regime. Section 178 lets a contracting authority award a small-scale concession without an award procedure.

The Act calls the Office for the Protection of Competition the Office. Section 248(1) gives the Office the supervision of compliance with the rules of the Act by contracting authorities.

A provider of an audiovisual media service on demand must choose suitable measures so that a programme capable of disrupting a minor's physical, psychological or moral development, such as pornography or gross gratuitous violence, cannot ordinarily be seen or heard by a minor; those measures include age-verification tools or other technical measures that prevent a minor from accessing the programme.

The provider must also give sufficient, freely and easily accessible information about the potentially harmful content a programme carries. Personal data of minors collected for this purpose may not be processed for commercial ends such as direct marketing, profiling or behaviourally targeted advertising. A breach of this duty is an administrative offence the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting may fine up to CZK 2,000,000.

A provider of a video-sharing platform service must adopt measures protecting minors from programmes, user-uploaded videos and commercial communications capable of harming their physical, psychological or moral development, and content of that kind may not be made available so that a minor could ordinarily see or hear it; the measures include, where appropriate, the introduction and operation of an age-verification system for platform users confronting such content, together with easily usable content-rating tools, parental-control systems, and a transparent notice-and-complaint procedure.

The most harmful content, such as pornography or gross gratuitous violence, must be subject to the strictest access-control measures. A provider that fails to introduce these protection measures commits an administrative offence the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting may fine up to CZK 500,000.

A press publisher established in an EU or EEA member state holds the exclusive right to reproduce its press publication and make it available online, and an information-society service provider needs the publisher's authorization before using it, per Section 87b(3)-(4). The right does not reach an individual private user's non-commercial use, a bare hyperlink, or the use of single words or very short, insignificant extracts, per Section 87b(8).

It lasts two years from the publication's release, per Section 87b(6). A service provider negotiating the required authorization must deal with the publisher in good faith on equal and non-discriminatory terms and pay a reasonable fee, per Section 87b(9); if the parties cannot agree a fee within 60 days of the start of negotiations, either side may ask the Ministry of Culture to set it, per Section 87b(11)-(12).

A service provider that fails to negotiate in good faith or refuses to supply the data the Ministry needs to set the fee commits an administrative offence the competent municipal authority may fine up to CZK 500,000 or 1 percent of the offender's total annual worldwide turnover, whichever is higher.

A person does not infringe copyright by reproducing a work, including a press publication, for the purpose of automated textual and data analysis carried out to obtain information such as patterns, trends and correlations, and may keep the copy only for as long as that analysis requires, per Section 39c(1).

That general licence does not apply to a work whose author has expressly reserved the analysis in a suitable way, including through machine-readable means for a work made available online, per Section 39c(2); a news aggregator indexing text so reserved therefore needs the rightholder's authorization.

A separate, non-waivable exception in Section 39d lets a university carrying out scientific research, or a legal person whose main purpose is scientific research or education including research, mine a lawfully accessed work without regard to any rightholder reservation.