Get your store EAA-ready.In force since 28 June 2025.
The European Accessibility Act applies to online stores selling to consumers in the EU, wherever the business is based - with a genuine exemption for the smallest ones.
Who does the European Accessibility Act apply to?
The European Accessibility Act, Directive (EU) 2019/882, applies to e-commerce services offered to consumers in the EU. Member states have applied it since 28 June 2025. Microenterprises providing services are exempt: fewer than 10 people, and turnover or a balance-sheet total of €2 million or less.
Where your company is established is not what decides it: the rules follow the consumer, so a store outside the Union that sells to EU consumers can be in scope. They follow the consumer in the other sense too, which is that business-to-business selling sits outside the e-commerce service rules. Contracts agreed before the date get a transition window.
| Attribute | What the directive says | Where it says it |
|---|---|---|
| Who is covered | E-commerce services: a service provided at a distance, through a website or a mobile service, by electronic means and at a consumer's individual request, with a view to concluding a consumer contract. | Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 2(2)(f) and Art. 3(30) |
| Who is exempt | Microenterprises providing services, meaning an enterprise employing fewer than 10 people with an annual turnover, or an annual balance-sheet total, not exceeding €2 million. The exemption is written for services; it works differently for products. | Art. 4(5) and Art. 3(23) |
| From when | Member states have applied their transposing measures since 28 June 2025. They had to adopt and publish those measures by 28 June 2022. | Art. 31(1) and Art. 31(2) |
| What the transition covers | Service contracts agreed before 28 June 2025 may continue without alteration until they expire, and no longer than five years from that date. Separately, service providers may keep using products they lawfully used before then until 28 June 2030. | Art. 32(1) |
| Which standard | The directive sets functional requirements and presumes conformity for harmonised standards whose references are published in the Official Journal. EN 301 549 is the standard published there for web content, cited under the Web Accessibility Directive, and its web-content clauses incorporate WCAG 2.1 Level AA. | Art. 15, and Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/2048 |
| Who enforces | Each member state designates the authorities that check whether services comply and follow up complaints, and lays down its own penalties, which have to be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. | Art. 23, Art. 29 and Art. 30 |
| What you have to publish | Information assessing how the service meets the accessibility requirements, in your general terms and conditions or an equivalent document, kept available to the public in written and oral format and in a form accessible to people with disabilities. | Art. 13(2) and Annex V |
Which standard does the EAA require a website to meet?
The directive sets functional accessibility requirements rather than naming a checklist. In practice conformity is demonstrated against EN 301 549, the European standard for ICT accessibility, whose web-content clauses incorporate WCAG 2.1 Level AA. That is the benchmark to build and test against. It is not a legal safe harbour.
The distinction is worth holding on to. A presumption of conformity attaches only to harmonised standards whose references have been published in the EU’s Official Journal, and the standard published there for web content is EN 301 549, cited under the Web Accessibility Directive, not yet under the EAA. So WCAG 2.1 AA is what a site is built and tested against, and anyone selling it to you as legal cover is selling you something the law has not granted them.
Who enforces the EAA, and what are the penalties?
Each member state does both. National authorities check whether services comply and follow up complaints, and each state sets its own penalties, which the directive requires to be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.1 So the exposure a store faces depends on which member states it sells into, not on one EU-wide figure.2
The figures below are statutory maxima rather than typical outcomes. Beyond fines, non-compliance can draw complaints to the national authority, orders to put things right, and the reputational cost of being the store somebody could not use.
Up to €100,000
GermanyUnder the Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG), the market-surveillance authority can fine non-compliant services up to €100,000.
Fines + criminal liability
IrelandIreland is notable for criminal liability: on conviction on indictment, fines up to €60,000 and/or up to 18 months imprisonment, under S.I. No. 636 of 2023.
Up to €1,000,000
SpainA tiered regime from minor infringements (from €301) up to €1,000,000 for very serious ones, with the possibility of suspending business activity in serious cases.
Administrative fines
FranceFrance transposed the EAA with administrative fines for non-compliant services, plus separate fines for a missing accessibility statement. Reported maxima vary between legal analyses, so check the current French text rather than a headline number.
Turnover-linked fines
ItalyAgID enforces, with a period to cure before fines apply. For the largest providers already covered by the Stanca Law, fines can reach up to 5% of annual turnover.
Administrative fines
LatviaLatvia - where Inclusify is built - transposed the EAA with administrative fines and corrective-measure orders. Exact figures depend on the infringement; check the current national text for your situation.
Naming the right authority is part of what an accessibility statement is for, and the statement Inclusify generates fills that in for your member state from the Commission’s own published list. How the statement generator handles it.
- 1Directive (EU) 2019/882, Article 30: penalties are set by each member state and must be "effective, proportionate and dissuasive". Figures shown are statutory maxima from national transposition laws as of mid-2026, not typical outcomes; they change as national practice develops, so check the current position for your member state.
- 2Everything on this page is general information about the EAA, not legal advice. For advice on your own situation, speak to a lawyer qualified in your member state.
How can Inclusify help with the EAA?
It scans your pages against WCAG 2.1 AA, monitors them daily from Starter up, and keeps a dated record of what was found and fixed. No tool makes a site compliant: automated testing catches roughly a third of accessibility barriers, and full conformance needs manual testing with assistive technology.
- 01
Scan
Automated audits against WCAG 2.1 AA using the axe-core engine - the same criteria EN 301 549 references for web content. Every finding names the rule, the affected elements and how to fix them.
- 02
Monitor
From the Starter plan up, recurring daily scans track your site over time, so regressions are caught as you ship changes rather than discovered in a complaint.
- 03
Document
Pro and Enterprise keep a dated PDF of every audit - what was found, what was fixed and when - evidence of the remediation work behind your accessibility effort. Starter keeps the same record in the panel, without the downloadable document.
The content a scan does not read, the pages it does not reach and the work the widget cannot do are written out on scope and limitations.
Built by Magebit, an EU company based in Latvia - EU accessibility software for EU compliance work.
EAA questions, answered.
The short version of what merchants ask us most. For anything about your own situation, ask a lawyer - or ask us about the product.
Talk to usIt is Directive (EU) 2019/882, an EU law harmonising accessibility requirements for a range of products and services, e-commerce among them. Every member state has transposed it into national law, and those laws have applied since 28 June 2025. For an online store it means the website and checkout have to be accessible.
It can. The e-commerce rules cover services offered to consumers in the EU, and where your company is established is not what decides it. If you sell to EU consumers through your website the requirements can reach you from the US, the UK or anywhere else. This is not legal advice.
The directive sets functional accessibility requirements rather than one technical checklist. In practice conformity is demonstrated against EN 301 549, the European ICT accessibility standard, and its web-content clauses incorporate WCAG 2.1 at Level AA. Meeting WCAG 2.1 AA is the benchmark most e-commerce sites build and test against.
28 June 2025. That is the date from which member states apply their transposing laws. Service contracts agreed before it may continue unaltered until they expire, and no longer than five years from that date, so 28 June 2030 is the outer limit. New services are covered now.
Each member state sets its own, and the directive requires them to be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. They vary widely: up to €100,000 in Germany, up to €1,000,000 for the most serious infringements in Spain, and criminal liability including possible imprisonment in Ireland. Check the current position for your member state.
Yes, for microenterprises providing services. A microenterprise employs fewer than 10 people and has an annual turnover or balance-sheet total not exceeding €2 million, and the service accessibility requirements do not apply to it. The exemption works differently for products, so confirm your status before relying on it.
EN 301 549 is the European standard for the accessibility of ICT products and services, and its web-content requirements incorporate WCAG 2.1 Level AA. The EAA grants a presumption of conformity only to standards cited under it in the Official Journal, so treat WCAG 2.1 AA as the benchmark rather than a safe harbour.
It scans your site against WCAG 2.1 AA with the axe-core engine. From Starter up it monitors the pages you choose daily and emails you when a scan finds something new; Pro and Enterprise add dated PDF documentation. Automated testing catches roughly a third of barriers, and no tool guarantees compliance.
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