European Accessibility Act

Are you ready for the EAA?

You may have started hearing more about a new piece of legislation, called the European Accessibility Act (EAA), coming into force in June this year. But what’s it all about? What does it mean for businesses and who will be affected by it?

What is the European Accessibility Act?

The European Accessibility Act (Directive 2019/882)¹ is a landmark EU law which requires some everyday products and services to be accessible for persons with disabilities.

The European Accessibility Act (Directive 2019/882), or the EAA, is a landmark piece of accessibility legislation and one of the most wide reaching yet. It follows a commitment on accessibility made by the European Union (EU) and all Member States upon ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.² It's an EU wide law, which has been transposed into the laws of each individual EU member state, updating or replacing existing legislation.

Being a Directive, it declares minimum accessibility requirements but doesn’t dictate how members should meet them, so they have the freedom to exceed these goals and choose different ways to achieve them.

The European Commission describes it as “a directive that aims to improve the functioning of the internal market for accessible products and services, by removing barriers created by divergent rules in Member States.”

The EAA is not prescriptive; that is to say, it doesn’t list exactly how products and services must meet the goals of the Act. Instead, it refers to existing EU standards such as EN 301 549, which has the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at its core, as guidance for how to achieve accessibility compliance. This is by design, to avoid limiting creative and innovative solutions to accessibility problems.

Who does it apply to?

Any economic operator providing products or services to the EU. There are some exemptions for microenterprises (companies with less than 10 staff and an annual turnover of less than €2 million), however, all businesses should strive to meet and exceed accessibility compliance as far as possible. Member states are being encouraged to provide tools and guidance to microenterprises to help them achieve this.

While the EAA is an EU law, and the UK is no longer an EU member, the law still applies to relevant businesses and public bodies in the UK that do business with the EU.

For example: A successful resort spa and hotel in Northern Ireland advertises in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) and frequently takes bookings on their website from ROI residents. The hotel itself is based in the UK, but it has a turnover in excess of €2 million, employs a large staff and has a significant EU customer base who use its digital services. The hotel would need to comply with the EAA and make sure that its website was accessible in accordance with the law.

What products or services does it affect?

Digital goods and services are the main focus of the EAA, and it applies to any within scope that are placed on the market after 28 June 2025. These include:

• computers and operating systems
• ATMs, ticketing and check-in machines
• smartphones
• TV equipment related to digital television services
• telephony services and related equipment
• access to audio-visual media services such as television broadcast and related consumer equipment
• services related to air, bus, rail and waterborne passenger transport
• banking services
• e-books
• e-commerce

The above list was taken from the European Commission site.³ More detailed information can be found in Article 2 of the EAA itself.

How will it be monitored and enforced?

Each EU state has named a market surveillance authority that will be responsible for monitoring compliance and issuing warnings and/or penalties.

For example, in Ireland The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is the authority responsible for monitoring products covered by the Act. Different authorities are responsible for services in their relevant industries.

Members of the public will also be able to report violations for investigation. These organisations will be responsible for reporting on the application and success of the EAA in 2030 and every 5 years thereafter.

What are the consequences of violating it?

It is up to each member state to decide but generally speaking, you could be fined, have the affected products or services removed from the market until they are made accessible, and you may have to cease operations until this is done. In some countries, such as Ireland, there is also the possibility of imprisonment.

If an organisation is unable to make their goods or services compliant, they will be required to provide proof that doing so would place a disproportionate burden on the organisation and/or fundamentally change the nature of the goods or service offered.

While it’s likely organisations will be notified of violations and given time to remediate them, we may not know exactly what approach monitoring bodies will take until the EAA is in force, and there’s no guarantee this will be the same across all EU states.

Additionally, organisations may lose out on business opportunities, suffer reputational damage and a loss of trust in their brand from consumers.

So why is it a positive thing?

The EAA harmonises accessibility legislation throughout the EU, which should reduce confusion around what organisations need to do to be compliant. We may also see new innovative solutions to remove barriers to goods and services for disabled people. Quite likely, this will lead to more usable, better products for all consumers.

According to Eurostat estimates, 101 million people, or 1 in 4, have a disability in the EU.⁴ A high proportion of these people have struggled with inaccessible digital technologies. There’s great potential for businesses to gain new customers and become market leaders by becoming more accessible.

Most importantly, it will allow disabled people to access products and services that may previously have excluded them and ultimately, we should all be aiming for a fairer, more equitable society.