The Accessibility Improvement Act (Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz, BFSG) comes into force on June 28, 2025.
Its core objective is to enable all people to participate in economic life without barriers. Participation in digital products and services specifically is often possible to a limited extent, especially for people with disabilities. The BFSG obliges all economic actors to ensure the accessibility of certain services and products, including banking services, meaning there is a need for action for all affected companies in the financial sector.
BACKGROUND
The BFSG transposes the European Accessibility Act (Directive (EU) 2019/882) into German law. Additionally, the Ordinance on Accessibility Requirements for Products and Services under the Accessibility Improvement Act (Verordnung zum Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz, BFSGV), which regulates specific requirements for the accessibility of products and services, was adopted on June 15, 2022.
ACCESSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
The BFSG ensures the accessibility of products and services in the interest of consumers. The products covered include so-called self-service terminals, such as payment terminals and ATMs. The services comprise banking services. These include consumer credits, real estate consumer credits, and certain consumer-related investment services and ancillary services, including portfolio management and investment advice. Payment services under the German Payment Services Supervision Act (Zahlungsdiensteaufsichtsgesetz), services linked to a payment account, and e-money are also subject to the BFSG. Further, e-commerce services that are provided to end a consumer contract are also generally regulated. This means that not only the agreement of a consumer contract via a website or an app is covered, but so is the pre-contractual area.
Economic operators who offer such products or services must comply with the BFSG’s obligations and make them accessible. There are exceptions and simplifications for microenterprises (less than 10 employees; annual turnover or annual balance sheet total up to €2 million) and if the accessibility requirements would lead to disproportionate burdens on the economic operator.
GENERAL OBLIGATIONS
Products and services covered by the BFSG must be barrier-free. To this end, they must be findable, accessible, and usable for people with disabilities in the generally accepted manner (without difficulty and without assistance). This applies to when the contract is concluded and to all customer communication during the contract term.
The BFSG and the BFSGV contain general requirements that apply to products and services. For example, information on the use of products must be provided in a comprehensible manner and via more than one sensory channel. Among other things, self-service terminals must have voice output and, if buttons are used, must be equipped with sufficient contrast and tactile recognizability.
SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS FOR BANKING SERVICES
Special obligations are also imposed on banking services. For example, identification and authentication methods, electronic signatures, security functions, and payment services must be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. Information on how the banking service works must also be understandable for consumers and the difficulty level of the language of this information must not exceed language level B2 of the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
SANCTIONS
Violations of the BFSG’s obligations are administrative offenses and can generally be punished with a fine of up to €100,000. In addition to administrative measures, such as inspections and requests for information, and civil law claims, consequences under competition law cannot be ruled out from the outset.
OUTLOOK
The BFSG affects many different company areas and key banking services. It also goes beyond the actual target group of people with disabilities and protects all consumers (especially those who may have low digital literacy). To avoid the threat of sanctions and disappointed customer expectations, companies should comply with the obligations promptly and ensure rapid implementation, ideally by June 28, 2025. This goes along with most recent market surveys which identified severe deficiencies in accessibility in German retail banking, particularly regarding digital services.
Those that do not implement these obligations by the deadline may benefit from the transitional provisions. This means that services can generally be provided until June 27, 2030, while continuing to use the products that were used before June 28, 2025. Contracts concluded before June 28, 2025, may remain in place unchanged until June 27, 2030.
