The Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has made use of the authorisation contained in Sec. 3 para. 2 of the BFSG (Act on the Implementation of Directive (EU) 2019/882 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Accessibility Requirements for Products and Services of 16 November 2021 – Act on the Barrier Free Act) to regulate accessibility requirements by means of statutory instruments (BFSGV available under: BGBl. I p. 928).
The background to the legal ordinance is the regulation of concrete requirements for the accessibility of products and services that meet the requirements of Annex I of Directive (EU) 2019/882 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on accessibility requirements for products and services and relate in particular to the barrier-free provision of information on products and services, the design of the user interface and functionality in products, additional requirements for certain services and functional performance criteria.
Alongside the BFSG, the regulation is part of the implementation of Directive (EU) 2019/882. By adopting the regulation, the legislator has complied with Art. 31 para. 1 of Directive (EU) 2019/882, which requires the adoption and publication of all laws, regulations and administrative provisions by 28 June 2022.
The new BFSGV applies to all products pursuant to Sec. 1 para. 2 BFSG and to all services pursuant to Sec. 1 BFSG, Sec. 1 BFSGV. It should first be emphasised that the state of the art must be observed when fulfilling the requirements of the BFSGV, Sec. 3 1st sentence BFSGV. This can only be deviated from if the requirements of this ordinance are met to the same extent in another way, Sec. 3 2nd sentence BFSGV.
Then the following general requirements will have to be observed in practice:
- Requirements for the provision of information for products, Sec. 4 BFSGV.
- Requirements for product packaging and instructions, Sec. 5 BFSGV
- Requirements for the design of the user interface and functionality of products, Sec. 6 BFSGV.
Subsequently, the additional (sector-specific) requirements for products (Sec. 7 ff. BFSGV) and services (Sec. 12 ff. BFSGV) are specified.
The BFSGV – like large parts of the BFSG itself – will not enter into force until 28 June 2025, Sec. 22 BFSGV.
For more details: Schucht, PHi 2022, 2 ff.
Do you have any questions about this news, or would you like to discuss the news with the author? Please contact: Dr. Carsten Schucht
