EU accessibility law for websites: the EAA, the Web Accessibility Directive and EN 301 549

This page maps the EU rules and links each one to its official text. For a step-by-step plan for an online store, read our practical EAA guide. For the rest of the world, see web accessibility laws worldwide, or answer a few questions in which accessibility laws apply to my website.

The European Accessibility Act (Directive (EU) 2019/882)

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) sets accessibility requirements for a defined list of consumer products and services. Under Article 31, member states apply their national rules from June 28, 2025. It applies to covered products and services placed on the EU market regardless of where the provider is established, so a US or UK business selling to EU consumers can be in scope.

What it covers

Article 2 lists the products and services in scope:

• Products: consumer computers and operating systems, payment terminals, self-service terminals, consumer communications terminals, terminals for accessing audiovisual media services, and e-readers.
• Services: electronic communications, access to audiovisual media services, elements of passenger transport services, consumer banking, e-books, and e-commerce.

For most websites the e-commerce line is the one that matters: a site that sells to consumers in the EU is providing an e-commerce service in the EAA's sense, whatever platform it runs on. If you run a store on Shopify, see our accessibility page for Shopify stores.

The microenterprise exemption covers services only

Article 4(5) says "Microenterprises providing services shall be exempt" from the accessibility requirements. Article 3(23) defines a microenterprise as one that employs fewer than 10 persons and has an annual turnover or balance sheet total not exceeding €2 million. Both conditions must hold. The exemption does not extend to products: a manufacturer of a covered product is in scope at any size.

Transition rules

Article 32 gives three transitional allowances:

• Service providers may keep using products they lawfully used to provide a service before June 28, 2025, during a transitional period ending June 28, 2030.
• Service contracts agreed before June 28, 2025 may continue unaltered until they expire, but no longer than five years from that date.
• Member states may let self-service terminals already in lawful use stay in use until the end of their economically useful life, but no longer than 20 years after entry into use. Germany sets a shorter limit of 15 years (see the table below).

None of these is a general grace period for a website. A store that was online before June 28, 2025 is not exempt until 2030 because of its age.

Information you must publish

Under Article 13(2), a service provider must prepare information in line with Annex V that explains how its services meet the accessibility requirements. That information must be available to the public "in written and oral format, including in a manner which is accessible to persons with disabilities", and kept for as long as the service is in operation. Annex V says it goes in the general terms and conditions, or an equivalent document, and, where applicable, includes:

• a general description of the service in accessible formats;
• the descriptions and explanations needed to understand how the service operates;
• a description of how the service meets the relevant accessibility requirements in Annex I.

Article 13(3) adds that service providers must have procedures in place so the service keeps meeting the requirements as it changes. Our accessibility statement generator can help you draft a structured description of your site's accessibility, which you then adapt to what your national law asks for.

Disproportionate burden (Article 14)

The requirements apply only to the extent that meeting them does not fundamentally alter a product or service or impose a disproportionate burden. An operator who relies on that must carry out an assessment against the criteria in Annex VI, document it, and keep the relevant results for five years. Article 14(8) adds that an operator relying on it must inform the relevant authorities of the member state concerned; that notification duty does not apply to microenterprises. An assessment is a documented judgment, not a blanket opt-out.

Penalties are set by each member state

Article 30 requires each member state to set penalties that are "effective, proportionate and dissuasive", and to pair them with remedial action. There is no single EU figure, and any page quoting an "EU fine range" is summarizing 27 different national laws. The verified national examples are in the table below.

Checking is also national. Each member state's market surveillance authorities check products (Article 19), and each member state must set up procedures to check services, follow up complaints and verify corrective action, and designate the authorities responsible for services (Article 23).

The Web Accessibility Directive (Directive (EU) 2016/2102)

The Web Accessibility Directive (WAD) applies to the websites and mobile apps of public sector bodies, not to private businesses. Under Article 7, each covered body must publish an accessibility statement that includes a feedback mechanism, so people can report content they cannot access.

For the WAD, Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/1339 cites EN 301 549 v3.2.1 (2021-03) and states that compliance with a harmonized standard "confers a presumption of conformity" with the requirements it covers. If you need to publish a statement, our accessibility statement generator produces a structured first draft.

EN 301 549: the technical standard behind both laws

EN 301 549 is the European standard for accessible ICT. For web content its requirements follow WCAG. Two versions matter in 2026:

• v3.2.1 (2021), aligned to WCAG 2.1 Level AA, is still the current reference.
• v4.1.1, aligned to WCAG 2.2, was published by ETSI on September 2, 2026. It is not yet cited in the Official Journal, and the European Commission's AccessibleEU center says there is no new compliance deadline linked to its publication.

Our dedicated page, EN 301 549: v3.2.1 now, v4.1.1 and WCAG 2.2 next, explains what changed and when the new version is expected to take effect. For the version question in general, see which WCAG version you need and what is new in WCAG 2.2.

National laws: verified examples

The EAA is a directive, so it works through national law. The table lists only the countries we have verified against the national legal text. Fine amounts are maximums set in law, not typical outcomes.

For any other member state, start with EUR-Lex's list of national transposition measures for Directive 2019/882. The member states report those measures themselves, and EUR-Lex notes that the listing does not prejudge the Commission's check of their completeness and correctness.

Enforcement so far

As of mid-2026 we have found no confirmed fine issued under any national EAA law. The pressure so far has come through the courts:

• In July 2025 the French associations for blind and visually impaired people ApiDV and Droit Pluriel announced formal notices to four grocery retailers, Auchan, Picard Surgelés, Carrefour and E.Leclerc, giving them until September 1 to make their online shopping services accessible, as reported by Handicap.fr on July 13, 2025. In November 2025 they brought emergency (référé) proceedings against the four companies, as reported by Clubic.
• On June 4, 2026, in emergency (référé) proceedings, the Caen judicial court ordered Carrefour France to make its carrefour.fr website and mobile app fully accessible within six months, under a penalty payment, as reported by Handicap.fr. According to that report, the court rejected Carrefour's argument that a 71% conformance rate was enough.
• A few weeks before the Caen ruling, the Lille judicial court rejected a similar action against Auchan E-Commerce, holding that the subsidiary fell below the €250 million turnover threshold of France's 2005 law, according to the same Handicap.fr article. The associations dispute that reading. French courts have so far read the rules differently.

The practical lesson: claims by disability associations can arrive before any regulator does. In Caen a partial conformance score was not accepted, while in Lille the claim failed on scope.

What to do now

1. Work out whether you are in scope

   Check whether you sell covered products or services to EU consumers and whether the service microenterprise exemption applies to you. Our laws checker walks through the questions.

2. Build to WCAG 2.2 Level AA

   v3.2.1 uses WCAG 2.1 AA and v4.1.1 uses WCAG 2.2. Each WCAG version keeps the earlier criteria, so meeting 2.2 AA also meets 2.1 AA. Our WCAG 2.2 checklist and the full list of all 86 WCAG 2.2 criteria are the working references.

3. Find what is broken, then check what machines cannot

   Start with a free scan and quick checks such as the contrast checker, heading checker and link text checker. Automated checks cover only part of WCAG; whether alt text is accurate needs judgment, which is what our alt text checker and deep audit are built for. Our comparison of rule scanners explains the gap.

4. Keep records

   Document what you tested, what you fixed and when, and any Article 14 assessment you rely on. If you provide a covered service, publish the Annex V information described above, in the form your national law requires. An overlay widget does not replace this work; see overlays and the FTC.