European Accessibility Act: What Websites Must Do

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is an EU directive that makes accessibility a legal requirement for many everyday products and services, from online shops to banking apps and e-books. It has applied since 28 June 2025. If you sell to consumers in the EU, wherever your company is based, the European Accessibility Act may already apply to your website. This guide covers who is in scope, what the law expects from websites, and how to work toward it. It is a practical overview, not legal advice.

Quick facts
Law	Directive (EU) 2019/882, implemented in each EU country's national law
Applies from	28 June 2025
Main standard	EN 301 549, which uses WCAG 2.1 Level AA for web content
Who enforces it	A market surveillance authority in each member state
Main exemption	Microenterprises providing services (fewer than 10 staff and turnover or balance sheet of 2 million euros or less)

What Is the European Accessibility Act?

The European Accessibility Act sets common accessibility requirements across the EU so that people with disabilities can use the same products and services as everyone else, and so businesses face one set of rules instead of 27. It was adopted in 2019, member states had until 2022 to turn it into national law, and the requirements started to apply in June 2025. Because each country writes its own law, penalties and enforcement details vary by country.

Who the European Accessibility Act Covers

The act covers specific products and services. For websites and apps, the services matter most:

• E-commerce: any website or app that sells products or services to consumers, including the product pages, account sign-up, cart and checkout.
• Consumer banking services: online banking, payment and credit services.
• E-books and the software used to read them.
• Electronic communications: phone, messaging and internet services.
• Passenger transport: websites, apps, e-tickets and travel information for air, bus, rail and water transport.
• Access to audiovisual media services, such as streaming platforms' apps and websites.

Hardware such as computers, smartphones, e-readers, ATMs and ticket machines is covered too. Business-to-business services are generally out of scope, as are many public sector websites, which already fall under the separate Web Accessibility Directive.

Location does not matter. A US or Indian company selling to consumers in Germany or France is in scope for those sales, in the same way GDPR applies to non-EU companies.

Exemptions and Transition Periods

• Microenterprises that provide services, meaning fewer than 10 employees and annual turnover or balance sheet total of no more than 2 million euros, are exempt from the service requirements.
• Disproportionate burden: a business can claim that a requirement would be a disproportionate burden or would fundamentally change the service. This must be assessed and documented, and authorities can ask for that assessment.
• Transition: services can keep using products that were already in use before June 2025 until 28 June 2030, and some contracts agreed before that date can continue until they expire. New content and new features need to meet the requirements now.

What the European Accessibility Act Requires From a Website

The directive describes requirements in general terms: services must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. In practice, the harmonized standard EN 301 549 is how you show you meet them, and for web content EN 301 549 points to WCAG 2.1 at Level AA. Meeting WCAG 2.2 AA covers WCAG 2.1 AA as well, so it is a sensible target. That means, among other things:

• Text alternatives for images and icons.
• Enough color contrast for text and controls.
• Every feature usable with a keyboard, with a visible focus indicator.
• Forms with proper labels, clear error messages and no hidden traps in the checkout.
• Captions for video, and content that works when zoomed or viewed on a small screen.
• Custom widgets that expose their name, role and state to screen readers.

The act also requires you to publish information about how your service meets the requirements, usually as an accessibility statement linked from the site or included in your terms. And it covers the parts around the website too, such as support channels and the information you give customers.

A Practical Plan for EAA Compliance

1. Check whether you are in scope. Do you sell to EU consumers? Are you above the microenterprise threshold? Which of your services are covered?
2. Test the pages that matter most. Start with the journeys the European Accessibility Act cares about: product pages, search, account sign-up, cart, checkout and payment.
3. Run automated checks first. The EAA compliance checker tests a page in a real browser against WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 rules and maps each failure to its success criterion. The accessibility audit gives the full report.
4. Fix the common failures. Missing alt text, low contrast, unlabeled form fields and buttons without names make up a large share of findings on most sites. See how to fix missing alt text.
5. Test manually. Navigate checkout using only a keyboard, try a screen reader such as NVDA or VoiceOver, and zoom to 200%. Automated tools cannot judge these.
6. Write and publish an accessibility statement describing your service, how it meets the requirements, any known gaps and how customers can report problems.
7. Keep it working. New features and content can break accessibility. Check pages while you build them, for example with the accessibility extension for Chrome, and rescan on a schedule.

What Automated Testing Can and Cannot Do

Automated tools reliably find a part of WCAG issues, such as missing labels, contrast failures and invalid ARIA. They cannot tell whether alt text is accurate, whether the focus order makes sense or whether a screen reader user can actually finish checkout. An automated scan with no errors does not prove compliance with the European Accessibility Act. Use it to find and fix the clear failures quickly, then test the key journeys by hand, and consider an expert audit for high-risk services. The accessibility testing guide explains how to combine both.

Summary

The European Accessibility Act turns accessibility from best practice into a legal requirement for e-commerce, banking, transport, telecoms and e-book services sold to EU consumers. Aim for WCAG 2.2 AA on your key journeys, publish an accessibility statement and keep testing as the site changes. Start with a free check of your checkout today.