Chapter II, accessibility requirements and free movement
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.
- Citation
- Article 5, CELEX 32019L0882 (Directive)
- Binds
- Air, bus, rail and water passenger operators already regulated by the named Union acts.
- In the instrument
- Chapter II, accessibility requirements and free movement
- Applies from
- 28 June 2025 for products placed and services provided from that date (Article 31(2)). The Article 4(8) 112 duty may be deferred to 28 June 2027 where a member state uses Article 31(3).
- Source
- EUR-Lex, CELEX 32019L0882
What it requires
The article links this Directive to the passenger rights regime. A service that meets the accessible information and accessibility information duties in Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 on air passenger rights, Regulation (EC) No 1107/2006 on the rights of disabled air passengers, Regulation (EC) No 1371/2007 on rail passengers, Regulation (EU) No 1177/2010 on waterborne passengers and Regulation (EU) No 181/2011 on bus and coach passengers, and in acts adopted under the rail interoperability Directive, is treated as meeting the matching requirements here.
The deeming effect is limited to the matching requirements. Where this Directive adds a requirement that the transport regulation does not contain, the added requirement applies in full. The article therefore saves duplicate work on information duties without creating a general safe harbour.
In practice
Build the mapping from the transport regulation to the Annex I clause, not the other way round. Start with the information duties you already report on, then mark the Annex I clauses that go beyond them, such as the terminal and mobile app requirements. The resulting gap list is the work plan, and the mapping is the evidence that the deemed-compliance route is being used honestly.
What to do
- Map each transport information duty you already meet to the matching Annex I requirement.
- Identify the requirements this Directive adds beyond the transport regulation.
- Keep the mapping so a supervisor can see which rule is being relied on for which element.
Evidence to keep
- A clause-by-clause mapping from the transport regulation to Annex I Sections III and IV.
- A gap list of the additional requirements that apply in full.
- The passenger information artefacts that show the duty is actually met.
Dates
- 2025-06-28The service requirements apply from this date. (Article 2(2), Article 31(2))
Cross-references
Where teams get this wrong
A transport operator can conclude too quickly that its passenger rights compliance covers everything. The deeming effect is clause-specific, and the digital and terminal requirements are usually where the gap sits.
Read from the Official Journal text of Directive (EU) 2019/882, OJ L 151/70, 7 June 2019, Article 5. Check it yourself: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32019L0882. This page states the provision in our own words and is not legal advice; it does not certify any product or service.