European Accessibility Act (EAA)
- Official name
- Directive (EU) 2019/882
- In force
- 28 June 2025 (new products and services)
- Who must comply
- Businesses placing covered products or services on the EU market.
- Official source
- EUR-Lex - Directive (EU) 2019/882
The EU-wide accessibility directive. Sets uniform accessibility requirements for covered products and services across all 27 member states so businesses do not face 27 different national rulebooks.
What it is
Directive (EU) 2019/882 - commonly called the European Accessibility Act - was adopted on 17 April 2019 and applies from 28 June 2025 to new products placed on the market and services provided after that date. A transition period runs until 28 June 2030 for service contracts and self-service terminals already in use.
The directive's covered scope includes, among others:
- E-commerce websites and apps
- Banking services (consumer)
- E-books and e-readers
- Smartphones, PCs, operating systems
- Self-service terminals (ATMs, ticket machines, check-in kiosks)
- Electronic communications services
- Audiovisual media services access (EPGs, accessible video player UIs)
- Passenger transport websites, apps and self-service ticketing
Who it applies to
The directive applies to economic operators - manufacturers, importers, distributors of covered products, and service providers - that place those products or services on the EU market. Microenterprises (under 10 staff AND under EUR 2 million turnover) providing services are exempt from most substantive obligations but must still notify their competent authority.
The directive does not apply to:
- Pre-recorded time-based media published before 28 June 2025
- Online maps that are not navigation-essential
- Third-party content the service provider neither funds nor controls
- Archived intranet/extranet content not updated after 28 June 2025
Penalties and enforcement
Each member state designates its own competent authorities and sets its own penalty regime - the directive requires only that penalties be "effective, proportionate and dissuasive". In practice this has produced a patchwork: Germany caps fines at EUR 100,000 per violation; Italy uses a range tied to firm size; France uses the existing accessibility-fines framework of up to EUR 50,000 per service.
See the country pages for the local enforcement detail.
Standards
The harmonised standard EN 301 549 V3.2.1 (or its successor) gives a presumption of conformity. EN 301 549 in turn references WCAG 2.1 Level AA for web content. In practice, hitting WCAG 2.1 AA covers the web-content slice of the EAA, but the directive also covers hardware UX, support services, documentation and customer service channels - WCAG alone is not sufficient.
How EAAGuard helps
EAAGuard's automated scanner targets the WCAG 2.1 AA web slice of the EAA. Our axe-core engine catches roughly 30 to 40% of WCAG issues automatically - the rest needs a person, which is what the built-in marketplace of independent EU auditors is for.
We are not a legal authority and the scanner alone is not a conformance certificate. Use it as continuous monitoring; use a human audit through the marketplace (or another auditor of your choice) for any compliance claim that would be checked by a regulator.
This page summarises Directive (EU) 2019/882 for orientation. It is not legal advice. Always check the linked official source and consult a qualified lawyer for compliance decisions.