Fundamental alteration and disproportionate burden
Binds
economic operators
Applies from
Applies to
product, service
Evidence
document, process, record
Article 14(1): Requirements apply only so far as they do not fundamentally alter or overburden
all operators · Article 14(1)
The accessibility requirements referred to in Article 4 shall apply only to the extent that compliance:
How to satisfy it: The only two escape hatches in the Directive, and both are conditional and documented. There is no "we are small" route: the microenterprise exemption is Article 4(5) and applies to services only.
Article 14(2): Carry out the assessment against Annex VI
all operators · Article 14(2)
Economic operators shall carry out an assessment of whether compliance with the accessibility requirements referred to in Article 4 would introduce a fundamental alteration or, based on the relevant criteria set out in Annex VI, impose a disproportionate burden, as provided for in paragraph 1 of this Article.
How to satisfy it: The assessment is per product and per service, not company-wide.
Article 14(3): Document the assessment and keep it five years
all operators · Article 14(3)
Economic operators shall document the assessment referred to in paragraph 2. Economic operators shall keep all relevant results for a period of five years to be calculated from the last making available of a product on the market or after a service was last provided, as applicable. Upon a request from the market surveillance authorities or from the authorities responsible for checking compliance of services, as applicable, the economic operators shall provide the authorities with a copy of the assessment referred to in paragraph 2.
How to satisfy it: Undocumented reliance on the exemption is itself a breach. Five years runs from the LAST making available of the product or the LAST provision of the service, not from the assessment date.
Article 14(4): Microenterprises dealing with products need not document
subject kind product · Article 14(4)
By way of derogation from paragraph 3, microenterprises dealing with products shall be exempted from the requirement to document their assessment. However, if a market surveillance authority so requests, microenterprises dealing with products and which have chosen to rely on paragraph 1 shall provide the authority with the facts relevant to the assessment referred to in paragraph 2.
How to satisfy it: Products only, and it is a derogation from documenting, not from assessing: the facts must still be produced on request.
Article 14(5): Service providers renew the assessment
service provider · subject kind service · Article 14(5)
Service providers relying on point (b) of paragraph 1 shall, with regard to each category or type of service, renew their assessment of whether the burden is disproportionate:
How to satisfy it: Three independent triggers, one of which is a clock. This is the clause a five-year renewal timer implements.
Article 14(6): External funding forfeits the disproportionate burden defence
all operators · Article 14(6)
Where economic operators receive funding from other sources than the economic operator’s own resources, whether public or private, that is provided for the purpose of improving accessibility, they shall not be entitled to rely on point (b) of paragraph 1.
How to satisfy it: A trap worth naming to any client: taking an accessibility grant, public or private, removes the defence entirely. In Germany the BAFA subsidy is exactly this shape.
Article 14(7): Commission empowered to specify the Annex VI criteria
all operators · Article 14(7)
The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 26 to supplement Annex VI by further specifying the relevant criteria that are to be taken into account by the economic operator for the assessment referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article. When further specifying those criteria, the Commission shall take into account not only the potential benefits for persons with disabilities, but also those for persons with functional limitations. When necessary, the Commission shall adopt the first such delegated act by 28 June 2020. Such act shall start to apply, at the earliest, in 28 June 2025.
How to satisfy it: NEVER USED. The first delegated act was due 28 June 2020 and none has been adopted, so Annex VI remains unelaborated. The "when necessary" conditional means that is not a breach. See corpus/eu-eaa/standards.yml.
Article 14(8): Notify the authority when relying on the exemption
all operators · Article 14(8)
Where economic operators rely on paragraph 1 for a specific product or service they shall send information to that effect to the relevant market surveillance authorities, or authorities responsible for checking the compliance of services, of the Member State where the specific product is placed on the market or the specific service is provided. The first subparagraph shall not apply to microenterprises.
How to satisfy it: Invoking the exemption puts you ON the regulator list rather than off it, in every Member State where the product or service is offered. The second subparagraph exempts microenterprises from this notification.
No harmonised standard is cited in the Official Journal under this Directive, so the Article 15(1) presumption of conformity is available to nobody. EN 301 549 is harmonised under Directive (EU) 2016/2102, the Web Accessibility Directive, and not under this one. Conformity is demonstrated against Annex I directly.
Every quoted requirement on this page is verbatim Official Journal text. The surrounding guidance is Legalithm’s commentary and is not regulation. This page states the obligation and its legal basis; it is not legal advice, and the corpus has not been reviewed by counsel.
