The need to standardize accessibility in its broadest sense among economic operators stems from the obligation to implement the provisions of Directive (EU) 2019/882 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on the accessibility requirements for products and services (hereinafter the “European Accessibility Act“) into the Polish legal order. The primary objective of the Act of 26 April 2024 on ensuring that economic operators meet the accessibility requirements for certain products and services (hereinafter “the Act“) is therefore to eliminate social exclusion caused by limited access to everyday products and the most common services.
The new provisions are intended to provide businesses with a consistent set of requirements so that they can compete freely and on an equal basis in the common market. Businesses will be required to comply with the accessibility requirements set out in the provisions of the Act from the moment it takes effect, i.e. 28 June 2025.
What changes will therefore affect the financial market in Poland?
Accessibility, as defined in Article 5(4) of the Act, means the property of a product or service enabling it to be used for its intended purpose by persons with special needs on an equal basis with other users. Equality is to be achieved through the use of universal design and – where this is not possible – through the use of reasonable accommodation, as referred to in Article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, done in New York on 13 December 2006.
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- From the point of view of the financial market, the provisions of the Act will apply, inter alia, to payment terminals and self-service terminals intended to offer or provide services covered by the Act (collectively as “terminals”), as well as consumer terminal devices used to offer or provide telecommunications services. In the case of services provided to consumers, the scope of the Act will include, inter alia, telecommunications services and retail banking services, understood as banking and financial services provided to consumers including: a consumer credit contract, a mortgage credit contract, brokerage services, electronic money services, services linked to a payment account and payment services. Therefore entities entering into the above contracts or providing the above services will be supervised entities for the implementation of the obligations under the Act.
In terms of meeting a number of accessibility requirements by the products listed in the Act, in addition to the general requirements (referred to in Article 7(1)(1) and (2) and Article 8 of the Act), the terminals will have to:
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- be equipped with speech synthesis technology in the user interface language,
- be capable of connecting a wired stereo headset,
- be able to initiate the use of features providing accessibility requirements without being activated.
- Within retail banking services, financial market operators will also be required to ensure general accessibility requirements, as well as perceivability, functionality, comprehensibility and compatibility of consumer identification methods, electronic signatures, security and payment services. In addition, the Act will require the provision of information in Polish or – with the consumer’s consent – in another language at the B2 language proficiency level.
Importantly, due to the principle of proportionality, the accessibility requirements in the Act are intended to apply to the extent that they do not impose a disproportionate burden on the operator concerned or to the extent that they do not require significant changes to products and services.
Some of the obligations of financial entities acting as service providers under the Act will include:
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- making publicly available in writing, in hard copy or electronically, and in a manner accessible to persons with special needs, in the regulations for the provision of services or any equivalent document, information:
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(a) about the service offered and provided,
(b) necessary for the use of the service,
(c) how the service meets accessibility requirements;
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- providing information on the process of offering or providing the service and its monitoring in written, paper or electronic form and in a manner accessible to persons with special needs;
- taking into account changes to the offering or provision of the service, changes to the accessibility requirements and changes to the harmonized standards or technical specifications by which the service is declared to conform to the accessibility requirements;
- where a service does not meet the accessibility requirements, taking the corrective action necessary to bring the service into compliance with those requirements.
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In terms of consumer redress, the Act sets out the rules for complaining to an economic operator about the failure of a product or service to ensure accessibility requirements. Chapter 5 of the Act also sets out in detail the provisions for market supervision of compliance with accessibility requirements for products and services and the rules for carrying out inspections. In the case of products such as terminals, the President of the Office of Electronic Communications has been designated as the supervisory authority, and in the case of retail banking services – the Financial Ombudsman.
Finally, the Act also sets out the rules for the imposition of fines of up to ten times the average monthly salary in the national economy for the preceding year (announced by the President of the Central Statistical Office in the Official Journal ‘Monitor Polski’ on the basis of regulations on pensions from the Social Security Fund), but no more than 10% of the turnover achieved in the financial year preceding the year in which the penalty was imposed, determined as at the date of issuing a decision on non-compliance with the requirements provided for in the Act. The amount of the fines is to be determined taking into account the extent of the infringement of the Act, including its seriousness, the number of products or services that do not meet the accessibility requirements and the number of people adversely affected.
