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(19)
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For the purposes of this Regulation the notion of ‘publicly accessible space’
should be understood as referring to any physical space that is accessible to an undetermined
number of natural persons, and irrespective of whether the space in question is privately or
publicly owned, irrespective of the activity for which the space may be used, such as for
commerce, for example, shops, restaurants, cafés; for services, for example, banks, professional
activities, hospitality; for sport, for example, swimming pools, gyms, stadiums; for transport,
for example, bus, metro and railway stations, airports, means of transport; for entertainment,
for example, cinemas, theatres, museums, concert and conference halls; or for leisure or
otherwise, for example, public roads and squares, parks, forests, playgrounds. A space
should also be classified as being publicly accessible if, regardless of potential capacity or
security restrictions, access is subject to certain predetermined conditions which can be
fulfilled by an undetermined number of persons, such as the purchase of a ticket or title
of transport, prior registration or having a certain age. In contrast, a space should
not be considered to be publicly accessible if access is limited to specific and defined natural
persons through either Union or national law directly related to public safety or security or
through the clear manifestation of will by the person having the relevant authority over the
space. The factual possibility of access alone, such as an unlocked door or an open gate in
a fence, does not imply that the space is publicly accessible in the presence of
indications or circumstances suggesting the contrary, such as. signs prohibiting or restricting
access. Company and factory premises, as well as offices and workplaces that are intended to be
accessed only by relevant employees and service providers, are spaces that are not publicly
accessible. Publicly accessible spaces should not include prisons or border control. Some other
spaces may comprise both publicly accessible and non-publicly accessible spaces, such as the
hallway of a private residential building necessary to access a doctor’s office or an
airport. Online spaces are not covered, as they are not physical spaces. Whether a given
space is accessible to the public should however be determined on a case-by-case basis,
having regard to the specificities of the individual situation at hand.
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