The Accessibility Reinforcement Act – new accessibility requirements from 28.06.2025.

I. Scope of application of the BFSG

The scope of application of the BFSG includes the products and services listed in sect. 1 (2) and (3) exhaustively, insofar as these are placed on the market after 28 June 2025. All economic operators are thus obliged. A catalogue with legal definitions can be found in sect. 2 BFSG.

E-commerce services are of great importance. These are telemedia services that are offered via websites and applications on mobile devices and are provided electronically at the individual request of a consumer, with a view to concluding a consumer contract. This particularly affects web shops with a shopping basket function or websites with a booking portal. Booking portals are, for example, websites of restaurants, hotels or car hire providers with the option of reserving or booking appointments online. Exceptions are listed exhaustively in Section 1 (4) BFSG. Examples of exceptions are office file formats (e.g. PDF) and pre-recorded time-based media, i.e. any recordings via audio and/or video.

II. Requirements

The obligations of economic operators are listed in sect. 6 et seq. BFSG. These refer to the rather confusing BFSGV for more detailed concretisation. The following requirements are particularly relevant for websites:

• Provision of information about the functioning of the service
• Provision of information via more than one sensory channel and presented in an understandable way
• Websites are designed to be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. For more precise definitions, please refer to the WCAG 2.1 guidelines. For comprehensibility, it is necessary that the default language for each website can be defined programmatically.
• Indication in the GTC or in another clearly perceptible way of how the accessibility requirements of the BFSGV are fulfilled (sect. 14 (1) No. 2 BFSG in conjunction with Annex 3 to sect. 14 and 28 BFSG).

Accessibility of services and products is presumed if they comply with certain harmonised standards or the technical specifications defined by the EU Commission. The corresponding harmonised standard is due to be published in the course of the year. The “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines” are also an important reference work.

III Exceptions

Pursuant to sect. 3 (3) sentence 1 BFSG micro enterprises that offer or provide services are exempt from the accessibility requirements. This includes companies that employ fewer than ten persons and which have an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 2 million or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 2 million (sect. 2 No. 17 BFSG). The exception does not apply to micro enterprises that offer, manufacture or import products. These are merely not subject to the strict obligations of information, documentation and storage (sect. 16 (4) sentence 1, 17 (2) sentence 3 BFSG).

Sect. 16 (1) sentence 1 BFSG provides a further exception. According to this, the requirements of the BFSGV only apply insofar as compliance with them does not require a significant change in a product or service that results in the fundamental alteration of its basic nature. The economic operator itself decides whether this is the case.

In addition, according to sect. 17 (1) sentence 1 BFSG, the accessibility requirements are only to be implemented if compliance with them would not result in thedisproportionate burden on the economic operators concerned. The criteria for assessment are listed in Annex 4 of the BFSG. This assessment is also carried out by the economic operator itself.

In particular, certain websites and web shops with a shopping basket fall within the scope of the BFSG. Although there are exceptions for micro-enterprises, among others, the BFSG is personally aimed at all economic operators. Affected economic operators should therefore familiarize themselves with their obligations under the BFSG and the BFSGV promptly. The basis for the review can be the harmonised European standard DIN EN 301 549, which is to be published for private economic operators in the course of 2025.