Compliance22 June 20268 min read
The European Accessibility Act: what EU websites must do now
The EAA has been in force since June 2025 — first lawsuits are already running. Who it applies to, what WCAG 2.1 AA really requires, and how to comply without panic.
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) has applied since 28 June 2025: e-commerce and many consumer-facing digital services sold to EU customers must be accessible, in practice meaning WCAG 2.1 AA compliance. Enforcement is no longer theoretical — the first lawsuits were filed in France in late 2025, and fines range from thousands of euros to percentages of turnover depending on the member state. If your site sells to EU consumers, this applies to you — wherever your company is based.
Who is actually in scope
E-commerce services are the headline category: if consumers can buy on your site, the purchase journey must be accessible. Banking, transport booking, e-books and telecom services are also named. The notable carve-out: micro-enterprises providing services — fewer than 10 employees and under €2M turnover — are exempt, though their larger clients increasingly demand compliance anyway. And crucially, the law follows the customer: a US or UK shop selling into the EU is in scope.
What WCAG 2.1 AA means in practice
- Perceivable: text alternatives for images, sufficient color contrast, content that works at 200% zoom.
- Operable: everything usable by keyboard alone — menus, forms, carts, checkout.
- Understandable: labeled form fields, clear error messages, consistent navigation.
- Robust: clean semantic markup and correct ARIA so assistive technologies can parse dynamic elements like carts and modals.
- Plus an accessibility statement describing how your service meets the requirements.
Enforcement is real now
A French court ordered Carrefour to make its e-commerce site and app fully accessible within six months, under daily penalties. Member-state fines range from roughly €5,000–40,000 for smaller violations to €900,000 in Sweden or up to 5% of turnover for large companies — and authorities can order non-compliant services off the market entirely. The pattern from GDPR is repeating: a slow first year, then enforcement finds its rhythm.
The upside nobody markets
Accessible sites are simply better-built sites: semantic markup that search engines and AI answer engines parse cleanly, keyboard-friendly interfaces that work for everyone, contrast that helps every phone user in sunlight. Accessibility, performance and SEO are the same engineering discipline wearing three names — which is why compliance built into the architecture costs a fraction of compliance bolted on after a legal letter.
A pragmatic compliance path
- Audit against WCAG 2.1 AA — automated scan first, then manual keyboard and screen-reader testing of the money paths: search, product, cart, checkout.
- Fix by traffic priority: the purchase journey first, content pages after.
- Publish the accessibility statement and a feedback channel.
- Bake it into the workflow: component-level accessibility in the design system, checks in the build pipeline — so it never regresses.
Frequently asked questions
My company is outside the EU — does the EAA apply?
If you sell products or in-scope services to EU consumers, yes. Like GDPR, the law follows the customer, not the company address.
Are accessibility overlay widgets enough for compliance?
No. Overlays patch symptoms on top of inaccessible markup, are widely criticized by the accessibility community, and have not protected companies from legal action. Real compliance lives in the code.
What does EAA compliance cost?
On an existing site: an audit plus remediation, typically a few thousand euros for a standard business site and more for complex e-commerce. Built into a new project from the start: close to zero extra — which is a strong argument for timing a redesign now.
Written by the iweb.eu studio — twelve years of building fast websites, sharp brands and search visibility. Talk to us about your project.