European Accessibility Act Compliance — Complete 2025 Guide

What is the European Accessibility Act?

The European Accessibility Act (EAA), also known as Directive 2019/882, is a European directive adopted on April 17, 2019 and enforceable since June 28, 2025 in all EU member states. Its objective is to harmonize accessibility requirements for digital products and services to ensure that people with disabilities can access them.

Each member state has transposed the directive into national law. In France, the EAA was transposed by ordinance n° 2023-1068 of November 20, 2023. It reinforces the existing RGAA obligations by extending their scope to the private sector. The technical standard referenced by the EAA is EN 301 549, which is based on WCAG 2.1 Level AA.

Who is affected by the EAA?

The EAA applies to a wide range of economic operators. This includes manufacturers, importers, distributors, and service providers that place products or services covered by the directive on the European market. In practice, this includes:

• ✓E-commerce sites — any online store selling products or services in the EU
• ✓Banking and financial services — online banks, insurance, payment services
• ✓Transport services — booking platforms, online ticketing
• ✓Telecommunications — operators, internet service providers
• ✓Digital publishing and media — e-books, audiovisual services

Micro-enterprises (fewer than 10 employees and less than €2 million turnover) are exempt, unless they provide public services.

Key dates of the EAA

The EAA timeline is now fully in effect. The directive was adopted in April 2019, the transposition deadline into national law was June 28, 2022, and the compliance obligation has been effective since June 28, 2025. Since that date, national authorities can inspect and penalize non-compliant businesses.

Penalties

Penalties are dissuasive: up to €50,000 per violation detected, doubled fines for repeat offenses, compliance injunctions with daily penalties, and possible withdrawal of the product or service from the market. Active enforcement has been underway since June 2025.

How to achieve compliance

Achieving EAA compliance means meeting WCAG 2.1 Level AA technical accessibility standards (referenced by EN 301 549). Concretely, three steps are necessary.

First, audit your site to identify issues. This is what Scrutia does automatically in 5 minutes, testing WCAG 2.1 AA criteria \u2014 validated against 9 official audits. Second, fix the identified issues. Scrutia's report provides HTML/CSS/JS fix code for each problem. Third, publish an accessibility statement on your site, mentioning your compliance rate and measures taken.