The obligation register
Every article and annex, in our own words
47 units, 162 evidence lines and 12 dated events, read from the Official Journal print of 7 June 2019. Each page names who the provision binds, what it requires, what to do, what to keep and the source you can check.
Read the dates carefully. The duties apply from 28 June 2025. Article 31(3) allows 28 June 2027 only for the Article 4(8) duty on answering 112 emergency communications. The timeline shows every date with its article.
Chapter I, general provisions
| Unit | Title | What it does |
|---|
| Article 1 | Article 1: Subject matter | The Directive brings national accessibility rules for named products and services closer together so that divergent rules stop fragmenting the internal market. |
| Article 2 | Article 2: Scope | Five product groups first supplied in the Union from 28 June 2025 and six service groups provided after that date are covered, with narrow content exclusions. |
| Article 3 | Article 3: Definitions | Forty-four definitions fix the meaning of product, service, consumer, microenterprise, placing on the market and the named service groups. |
Chapter II, requirements and free movement
| Unit | Title | What it does |
|---|
| Article 4 | Article 4: Accessibility requirements | Products must meet Annex I Section I, and Section II unless they are self-service terminals; services must meet Sections III and IV, with a microenterprise service exemption and a separate 112 duty. |
| Article 5 | Article 5: Existing Union law in the field of passenger transport | Compliance with the information duties in five transport regulations is deemed to satisfy the corresponding Directive requirements, but additional requirements apply in full. |
| Article 6 | Article 6: Free movement | A member state may not block a product or service that complies with this Directive on accessibility grounds. |
Chapter III, product operators
| Unit | Title | What it does |
|---|
| Article 7 | Article 7: Obligations of manufacturers | Manufacturers must design to Annex I, build the Annex IV technical file, run the conformity procedure, draw up the EU declaration, affix CE, retain records for five years and act on non-conformity. |
| Article 8 | Article 8: Authorised representatives | An authorised representative acts under a written mandate that must at least cover the declaration and file, authority requests and cooperation, but cannot take over the design duty. |
| Article 9 | Article 9: Obligations of importers | Importers must verify the manufacturer's conformity work before placing a product, label themselves, keep the declaration for five years and act on non-conformity. |
| Article 10 | Article 10: Obligations of distributors | Distributors must act with due care, verify CE marking and documents before making a product available, and act when they have reason to believe it does not conform. |
| Article 11 | Article 11: Cases in which obligations of manufacturers apply to importers and distributors | An importer or distributor that brands or modifies a product becomes the manufacturer and takes on the full Article 7 set. |
| Article 12 | Article 12: Identification of economic operators dealing with products | On request from a market surveillance authority, operators must identify who supplied them and whom they supplied, and keep that information for five years on each side. |
Chapter IV, service providers
| Unit | Title | What it does |
|---|
| Article 13 | Article 13: Obligations of service providers | Service providers must design and run the service to Annex I, publish Annex V information in writing and orally, keep it current, fix non-conformity and answer authorities. |
Chapter V, the exception
Chapter VI, standards
| Unit | Title | What it does |
|---|
| Article 15 | Article 15: Presumption of conformity | Conformity with a harmonised standard cited in the Official Journal, or with a technical specification adopted by implementing act, creates a presumption of conformity to the extent it covers the requirement. |
Chapter VII, conformity and CE marking
Chapter VIII, market surveillance
| Unit | Title | What it does |
|---|
| Article 19 | Article 19: Market surveillance of products | The Union market surveillance rules apply, and where Article 14 is relied on the authority checks the assessment, reviews its use of Annex VI and then checks compliance. |
| Article 20 | Article 20: Procedure at national level for dealing with products not complying | A member state evaluates a suspect product, requires correction within a reasonable period, then withdraws it if correction fails, and tells the Commission and other states where the issue crosses borders. |
| Article 21 | Article 21: Union safeguard procedure | Where a national measure is challenged, the Commission decides whether it is justified; a justified measure leads to Union-wide withdrawal, an unjustified one is withdrawn. |
| Article 22 | Article 22: Formal non-compliance | Missing or incorrect CE marking, declaration, technical file or identification information is formal non-compliance, and persistent failure leads to restriction or withdrawal. |
Chapter IX, service compliance
| Unit | Title | What it does |
|---|
| Article 23 | Article 23: Compliance of services | Member states must run procedures to check service compliance, follow up complaints and verify corrective action, and must tell the public which authority does it. |
Chapter X, other Union acts
Chapter XI, delegation and final provisions
| Unit | Title | What it does |
|---|
| Article 26 | Article 26: Exercise of the delegation | The article sets the duration, revocation, consultation and objection rules for delegated acts under Articles 4(9), 12(3) and 14(7). |
| Article 27 | Article 27: Committee procedure | The Commission is assisted by a committee under Regulation (EU) No 182/2011, and the examination procedure applies to implementing acts. |
| Article 28 | Article 28: Working Group | A Commission working group of market surveillance and service authorities and stakeholders, including disability organisations, exchanges practice, fosters cooperation and advises on Articles 4 and 14. |
| Article 29 | Article 29: Enforcement | Member states must provide effective means to enforce the national measures, including consumer court action and action by bodies with a legitimate interest. |
| Article 30 | Article 30: Penalties | Penalties must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive, be notified to the Commission, and reflect seriousness, the number of units and the number of people affected. |
| Article 31 | Article 31: Transposition | National measures were due by 28 June 2022 and apply from 28 June 2025; only the Article 4(8) 112 duty may be deferred to 28 June 2027. |
| Article 32 | Article 32: Transitional measures | Services may keep using products lawfully used before 28 June 2025 until 28 June 2030, old contracts run to their end but no longer than five years, and terminals may run for their useful life up to twenty years. |
| Article 33 | Article 33: Report and review | The Commission reports by 28 June 2030, then at five-year intervals, on how the Directive is working, including the built environment, Article 14, the microenterprise exemption and possible scope changes. |
| Article 34 | Article 34: Entry into force | The Directive entered into force on the twentieth day after publication in the Official Journal. |
| Article 35 | Article 35: Addressees | Article 35 names the member states as the addressees, which is why the operative duties on businesses arrive through national transposition. |
Annexes
| Unit | Title | What it does |
|---|
| Annex I, Section I | Annex I Section I: General product duties | Products must be designed for foreseeable use by persons with disabilities, with usable information, a flexible interface and support services where available. |
| Annex I, Section II | Annex I Section II: Packaging and instructions | Packaging and the installation, maintenance, storage and disposal instructions must themselves be accessible, not only the product. |
| Annex I, Section III | Annex I Section III: General service duties | Services must use accessible products, explain themselves through more than one channel, run accessible websites and apps, and offer accessible support where available. |
| Annex I, Section IV | Annex I Section IV: Specific service duties | Seven service groups carry extra duties, from real time text and total conversation to CEFR B2 banking information and DRM that does not block accessibility. |
| Annex I, Section V | Annex I Section V: Answering 112 calls | A 112 emergency communication must be answered using the same communication means it arrived in, synchronised voice and text, or total conversation where video is used. |
| Annex I, Section VI | Annex I Section VI: Features under other acts | The Article 24(2) presumption only applies where the product or service feature meets the corresponding Section I, II or service requirements. |
| Annex I, Section VII | Annex I Section VII: Functional criteria | Eleven functional criteria cover use without vision, with limited vision, colour, hearing, speech, manipulation, reach, seizures, cognition and privacy. |
| Annex II | Annex II: Indicative examples | A non-binding table of examples for each Annex I requirement, with some entries left blank where no example was given. |
| Annex III | Annex III: Built environment | Twelve aspects of the built environment must be accessible where a member state applies the Article 4(4) option. |
| Annex IV | Annex IV: Conformity assessment | Internal production control: technical documentation, manufacturing control, CE marking and a written EU declaration for each product model. |
| Annex V | Annex V: Service information | The service information in the terms must describe the service, explain how it operates and say how each accessibility requirement is met. |
| Annex VI | Annex VI: Burden assessment criteria | Three criteria: net cost against overall costs, costs and benefits including use, and net cost against turnover, with named one-off and ongoing cost elements. |
The rules that apply to you, by market
This is a European instrument, and a consumer business usually sells into more than one market. For each market in order, these are the held frameworks that genuinely touch the same activity. Where a regime is not held, it is named and not stated.
United States
The federal ICT rule and the private-sector digital accessibility material are held. State-level accessibility statutes are not held and are not stated here.
European Union
The Directive's 16 article-aligned controls are held under the parent framework. This product also holds a 47-unit article register under the same framework, exported with 0 stubs, 0 placeholder evidence, 0 shared evidence and 0 named bodies; it is the set the pages and the kit are built from. The harmonised standard route is named in Article 15 and its clause content is not stated here.
United Kingdom
The Equality Act 2010 is held. The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 are named, not held, so no requirement from them is stated.
Australia
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Australian Consumer Law are held.
These holdings are the estate's, used to show the neighbouring duties that sit beside the European rule. They are not a claim that this product covers them in its kit, which is built from Directive (EU) 2019/882.
How to read a clause page
Each unit page follows the same order: the summary, who it binds, the requirement in our words, a practical note, what to do, the evidence to keep, the dates, the cross-references and the source pointer. The requirement is separated from the quoted citation on purpose: the citation lets you check us, and the requirement tells you what to do.
Check your own scope Get the register as a kit