German Accessibility Act Comes into Force

Individuals with disabilities face numerous challenges when accessing digital services and products, encountering significant barriers in their daily lives. The German Accessibility Act (Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz, BFSG) aims to address these issues by establishing mandatory accessibility standards for products and services. In this alert, we describe the scope of the new Act, its key obligations, and how it will be enforced.

1. Background

The German Accessibility Act was enacted on July 16, 2021, and will take effect on June 28, 2025. It implements Directive (EU) 2019/882 of the European Parliament and Council, dated April 17, 2019, which addresses accessibility requirements for products and services, commonly referred to as the European Accessibility Act (EAA). However, the German Accessibility Act is not the sole implementation of the EAA into national law. With regard to services that provide access to audiovisual media, the EAA’s provisions were implemented into German State media law (Medienstaatsvertrag).

2. Scope

The German Accessibility Act applies to certain groups of products and services. In particular, it captures the following products:

• Consumer devices with interactive features that are used for telecommunication services or for access to audiovisual media services such as smartphones, tablets, or consoles
• E-book readers
• Hardware systems for universal computers
• Self-service terminals such as ATMs, ticket machines, or check-in machines

In-scope services include:

• Telecommunications services
• Electronic commerce services
• Banking services
• Interactive self-service terminals for passenger transport services
• Websites and services offered on mobile devices as well as electronic tickets for passenger transport and ticket services with the exception of urban, suburban, and regional transport services
• E-books

Non-commercial and, in most cases, strictly business-to-business (B2B) offerings are exempted from the scope of the German Accessibility Act.

The BFSG will affect a wide range of entities, noting that micro-enterprises are not in scope to the extent they only provide services.

• Service Providers: Entities that provide or offer a service to consumers in the EU.
• Manufacturers: Entities that manufacture, develop, or have a product manufactured that they market that product under their own name or brand.
• Importers: Entities based in the EU that place a product from a third country on the EU market.
• Distributors: Entities in the supply chain that make a product available on the market, other than the manufacturer or importer.

3. Key Obligations

The German Accessibility Act requires that products and services must be accessible. Accessibility is achieved when products and services can be found, accessed, and used by people with disabilities without undue difficulty and generally without external assistance. An implementing regulation to the Act specifies the details of these requirements.

• Product-related obligations:
  
  Key requirements include the provision of information through multiple sensory channels, ensuring that the information is perceivable, operable, understandable, and designed with adequate font size and color contrast. For text and non-text content, alternative formats must be provided. Accessibility and usage information must be publicly available and accessible. Further obligations apply to self-service terminals and e-book readers, which must also offer speech output.
• Service-related obligations:
  
  Information must be presented through multiple sensory channels, in a discoverable, understandable, and perceivable manner, ensuring visibility and audibility for individuals with impairments. Specific obligations apply to each service type, for example, telecommunications services must provide real-time text in addition to voice communication.

Additionally, all economic operators are subject to various testing, documentation, and notification obligations.

However, economic operators can, in individual cases, refrain from fulfilling the requirements under the German Accessibility Act if they would otherwise have to modify their products or services substantially or if compliance would result in a disproportionate burden.

Please note that the key obligations from the German Accessibility Act still contain numerous undefined legal terms, employ very vague language, and lack specific instructions for their implementation. Harmonized standards that will serve as a presumption for conformity have not yet been published. To a great extent, this still leaves the precise requirements for complying with the new law yet to be clarified. Until then, we recommend digital service providers follow recognized standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the European Standard for digital accessibility EN 301 549, the latter referring to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. While EN301 549 currently only applies to certain public sector websites and mobile applications, the future harmonized standard expected to be published by mid-2026 or the end of that year is being developed as an amendment to EN 301 549.

4. Transition Periods

The BFSG’s legal requirements will apply to each individual product placed on the market and service provided after June 28, 2025. In addition, there are various transition periods:

• Existing Devices: Companies may continue using devices and technologies already in use before June 28, 2025, for service provision until June 27, 2030, even if these devices and technologies do not comply with the German Accessibility Act.
• Existing Contracts: Contracts concluded before June 28, 2025 only need to comply with the German Accessibility Act after June 27, 2030, providing a transitional period of five years.
• Self-Service Terminals: Devices such as ATMs or ticket machines installed before June 28, 2025 that were compliant with the applicable regulations at that time may continue to be used until they reach the end of their lifespan, but no longer than 15 years from installation.

It is crucial to note, however, that no grace period is provided for existing e-commerce offerings, except for the products distributed through these platforms.

5. Enforcement

Violations of the German Accessibility Act are considered administrative offenses and can be sanctioned with fines of up to EUR 100,000, depending on a case-by-case assessment. In severe cases, non-compliant online offerings and apps may be subject to a forced shutdown. The Act empowers market surveillance authorities to ensure compliance by way of a reporting and monitoring system. However, the establishment of these bodies is still pending.

Many rules of the German Accessibility Act will likely be considered market conduct regulations within the meaning of the German Unfair Competition Act. Hence, their violation can be deemed anti-competitive and result in civil litigation brought by consumer rights associations or competitors.

We are grateful to our research assistance Felicitas Lampe for her contributions to this client alert.