Legal Alert | The Polish Accessibility Act

On 28 June 2025, new obligations for businesses regarding ensuring the accessibility of certain products and services for persons with disabilities will come into force. The Act of 26 April 2024 on ensuring that certain products and services meet accessibility requirements by business entities, known as the Polish Accessibility Act, implements EU Directive 2019/882 of 17 April 2019 on the accessibility requirements for products and services (European Accessibility Act).

Which businesses are affected by the new obligations?

Manufacturers, their authorised representatives, importers, and distributors, of the following products:

• computer hardware and operating systems,
• payment terminals,
• ATMs and cash deposit machines,
• ticketing machines,
• passenger check-in devices,
• interactive information terminals,
• e-book readers, and
• consumer terminal equipment used to provide telecommunications services and access to audiovisual media services.

Service providers offering or providing the following services:

• consumer banking,
• telecommunications,
• access to audiovisual media services,
• passenger transport, including websites, electronic tickets,
• e-commerce, and
• the distribution of e-books.

What obligations do the new regulations introduce?

The categories of products and services specified in the Act and information about them (e.g. instructions, labelling, and warnings) should meet accessibility requirements, e.g. be accessible through various sensory channels and enable communication through such channels, be presented in an understandable and visible manner, using an appropriate font with sufficient contrast and spacing between letters, lines, and paragraphs, with alternative presentation of non-textual content.

Self-assessment obligation

The new regulations impose an obligation on the above-mentioned entrepreneurs to assess whether their products or services meet accessibility requirements. In addition, service providers are required to include information in their terms and conditions on how the service meets accessibility requirements.

Manufacturers, importers, and distributors of the above-mentioned products, as well as providers of the above-mentioned services are also required to inform the supervisory authorities of any non-compliance with accessibility requirements and of any remedies they take.

Control and supervision

The accessibility of products and services will be subject to control. Any person will be able to:

• monitor whether a business complies with accessibility regulations and lodge a complaint with the business entity, and
• notify supervisory authorities that a product or service does not meet accessibility requirements.

The supervisory authorities will be the President of PFRON (State Fund For Rehabilitation of Disabled Peolple) and authorities specialising in a given industry, e.g.: UKE (tellcom regulator), the Ministry of Digital Affairs, UTK (rail regulator), and the Financial Ombudsman.

Sanctions

An entrepreneur who fails to meet the accessibility requirements for products or services may be ordered to:

• ensure compliance with accessibility requirements or fulfil outstanding obligations,
• withdraw the product from the market,
• prohibit the product/service on the market from being further made available, or
• inform consumers about the failure to meet accessibility requirements or about the risk that the product/service poses to the health or safety of consumers.

Failing to meet accessibility requirements may also result in a fine for the company.

The amount of fines will be determined by PFRON or the competent market surveillance authority up to 10 times the average salary, not exceeding 10% of the entrepreneur's turnover for the previous year.