Article 14 disproportionate burden assessment workflow

Open an Article 14 assessment only after the product or service, economic-operator role, applicable Article 4 accessibility requirement, and affected feature have been identified. The assessment should be written requirement by requirement, because Article 14 does not remove the duty to meet accessibility requirements that are not affected by the exception.

Separate the two Article 14 grounds. A fundamental alteration record explains why the required change would significantly change the basic nature of the product or service. A disproportionate burden record applies the Annex VI cost and benefit criteria. The Directive supplies ratios and cost inputs, but no automatic percentage or monetary threshold; the conclusion must follow from the documented facts.

The record should be complete enough for a market surveillance authority or a service-compliance authority to review without reconstructing the analysis from emails. Keep the accessibility requirement, evidence, cost inputs, decision, and reviewer approval in one version-controlled file or evidence pack.

For products, connect the Article 14 record to the technical documentation and, where Article 14 is used, the EU declaration of conformity must identify which accessibility requirements are subject to the exception. For services, connect the record to the service description, customer-facing accessibility information, test evidence, and the reassessment log.

Article 14 records are not one-off release notes. Economic operators must document the assessment and keep relevant results for five years from the last making available of a product on the market or after a service was last provided, as applicable.

Service providers relying on disproportionate burden must renew the assessment for each category or type of service when the service is altered, when the responsible authority requests it, and at least every five years. Economic operators that receive public or private funding, other than their own resources, for improving accessibility cannot rely on disproportionate burden. That funding rule does not remove the separate fundamental-alteration ground.

The Directive gives microenterprises two narrow procedural carve-outs. A microenterprise dealing with products need not document the Article 14 assessment, but must give the market surveillance authority the relevant facts if requested. Microenterprises do not have to send the Article 14(8) reliance notice. These carve-outs do not create a general Article 14 exemption; the operator must still have facts supporting the ground it relies on.