BFSG

The BFSG applies to certain products placed on the market after 28 June 2025, and to certain services provided to consumers after 28 June 2025. Both lists are exhaustive and set out in § 1 of the Act.

The products include general purpose computer hardware systems together with their operating systems, and payment terminals. Also included are self-service terminals such as automated teller machines, ticketing machines, check-in machines and interactive terminals providing information, but only insofar as they are intended for providing services covered by the Act. Also covered are consumer terminal equipment with interactive computing capability used for telecommunications services or for accessing audiovisual media services, as well as e-book readers. The services include telecommunications services, certain elements of passenger transport services by air, bus, rail and waterborne transport, banking services for consumers, e-books together with the software intended for them, and services in electronic commerce.

§ 3 paragraph 3 sentence 1 exempts microenterprises that offer or provide services. This exemption does not apply to products. Under § 2 number 17, a microenterprise is a company that employs fewer than ten people and that either achieves an annual turnover of at most 2 million euros or whose annual balance sheet total is at most 2 million euros.

§ 1 paragraph 4 exempts certain content of websites and mobile applications. This includes recorded time based media published before 28 June 2025, office file formats, online maps and mapping services under certain conditions, third party content that the economic operator neither funds nor develops nor controls, and content that qualifies as archived because it is neither updated nor revised after 28 June 2025.

Under § 3 paragraph 1 BFSG, products and services must be accessible. They are accessible if people with disabilities can find, access and use them in the usual way, without particular difficulty and generally without outside help. The specific requirements are not set out in the Act itself but in the Verordnung zum Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSGV, the implementing regulation).

For websites, including their associated online applications, and for mobile apps, § 12 number 3 BFSGV requires them to be designed to be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust in a consistent and adequate way. Under § 3 paragraph 1 BFSGV, the state of the art must be observed; deviation is permitted if the requirements are met to an equivalent degree in another way.

Neither the BFSG nor the BFSGV names a specific technical standard. § 4 BFSG attaches a presumption of conformity to harmonized standards whose references have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The Bundesfachstelle für Barrierefreiheit (Federal Accessibility Office), which under § 3 paragraph 2 BFSGV informs about the standards to be observed, describes the European standard EN 301 549 as "currently the central technical reference for implementing accessibility requirements in the digital domain". In its version V3.2.1, this standard is based on WCAG 2.1.

Under § 14 paragraph 1 number 2 in conjunction with Annex 3, service providers must also state how their service meets the accessibility requirements, and must name the responsible market surveillance authority in doing so.

Market surveillance is a matter for the German federal states (Länder). § 2 number 22 BFSG defines the market surveillance authority as any authority responsible under state law for carrying out market surveillance. To carry out this task, the federal states have established a joint body: the Marktüberwachungsstelle der Länder für die Barrierefreiheit von Produkten und Dienstleistungen (market surveillance body of the German federal states for the accessibility of products and services), a public law institution (MLBF AöR), based at Carl-Miller-Straße 6, 39112 Magdeburg, Germany.

Under § 28 BFSG, the market surveillance authority checks services both when there is a specific reason and without one, based on adequate sampling. For websites and mobile applications, it follows the monitoring method and sampling requirements set out in Annex 1 of the Act.

Under § 32 BFSG, consumers can request that the market surveillance authority take action. The request is decided by a formal ruling. Recognized associations under § 15 paragraph 3 of the Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz (Act on Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities) can make the same request. Under § 33 BFSG, legal remedies are available against the ruling or against its omission.

Under § 37 BFSG, violations are administrative offenses. In most cases they can be sanctioned with a fine of up to ten thousand euros. Only for the violations listed in § 37 paragraph 1 number 1, 7, 8, 9 and 10 does the range extend up to one hundred thousand euros. This includes, among other things, offering or providing a service that is not accessible in violation of § 14 paragraph 1.

How the requirements of the BFSG can be implemented in practice is described on the topic page about the BFSG. Related fact pages: the fact page about the WCAG and the fact page about sitebrunch GmbH. All fact pages are listed on the facts overview.

The BFSG is not the BITV 2.0. The BITV 2.0 obligates federal public bodies, while the BFSG obligates private sector economic operators.

The BFSG is also not the BFSGV. The BFSGV is the regulation under § 3 paragraph 2 BFSG that sets out the specific accessibility requirements.

The BFSG does not apply to every website. It only covers the services listed in § 1 paragraph 3, which for online offerings are mainly services in electronic commerce, banking services for consumers and passenger transport services.