EAA

The European Accessibility Act — Directive (EU) 2019/882 — is the EU law that, from 28 June 2025, requires a wide range of consumer-facing products and services across all 27 member states to be accessible.

What’s in scope

The EAA’s product/service scope was drafted to cover the parts of the digital economy where accessibility failures cause the most exclusion:

• E-commerce — online retail, marketplaces, classifieds.
• Banking services — including online banking, mobile payment apps, and ATMs.
• E-books and dedicated reading software.
• Transport services — air, bus, rail, waterborne (websites, mobile apps, electronic tickets, real-time information).
• Telephone services and emergency communications (112).
• Audiovisual media access services — captioning and audio-description delivery (the content itself remains regulated separately under the AVMSD).
• Consumer terminal equipment with interactive capabilities — smartphones, computers, smart TVs, e-readers, payment terminals.

Micro-enterprises providing services are exempt; micro-enterprises selling products are not.

Effective dates

The headline date is 28 June 2025 — the obligation to comply applies from that day for new products placed on the market and services provided after that date. Older products in service can continue under transition provisions, and contracts entered into before 28 June 2025 can run their course until 28 June 2030.

The technical standard

The EAA is a directive, not a regulation. It sets accessibility outcomes (Annex I) and leaves the technical “how” to harmonised standards. The harmonised standard for ICT — explicitly cited by member-state implementations — is EN 301 549, which for web content is equivalent to WCAG 2.1 Level AA.

Enforcement and penalties

The EAA itself does not set the penalty regime; member states do, under Article 30. Implementations vary substantially:

• Germany’s BFSG sets administrative fines up to €100,000.
• France’s implementation transposed via decree imposes fines of up to €75,000 plus daily penalties for continued violations.
• Italy transposes with fines up to 5% of annual turnover for serious breaches.

Across all jurisdictions the enforcement mechanism is broadly similar: market surveillance authorities receive complaints, request remediation, and escalate to fines or service prohibition only if the operator ignores the corrective order.

What changes operationally for non-EU companies

Any company selling into the EU market — regardless of headquarters location — is bound by the EAA for products and services in scope. US- and UK-headquartered e-commerce platforms, banking apps, and SaaS products serving consumers in the EU need to meet EN 301 549 standards or face market-access risk.