Market Surveillance & Penalties Under the BaFG
Market surveillance of digital accessibility under the Austrian Accessibility Act (BaFG) has been the responsibility of the Sozialministeriumservice (Upper Austria regional office) since the Act came into force on 28 June 2025. Consumers can report barriers they encounter through a contact form, after which the authority assesses whether to open proceedings and, where a service is non-conformant, can order defects to be remedied within a reasonable period or, as a last resort, withdraw products from the market or prohibit services. The Act provides for graduated administrative fines of up to €80,000.
In practice
In practice the Sozialministeriumservice has so far followed the principle of advice before penalties: in the first year after the Act came into force around 84 sets of proceedings were opened (many of them concerning banking services), but no administrative fines have been imposed yet. Agencies should nonetheless point clients to the real risk of fines, since remedy deadlines and repeated breaches push penalty levels up. User complaints go through the Sozialministeriumservice contact form; the Austrian Disability Council also accompanies implementation as an advocacy body and raises awareness among the public and businesses. Web agencies supporting BaFG conformity should advise clients to keep an up-to-date accessibility statement available and to fix defects proactively rather than wait for an official request.