The European Accessibility Act

Who is covered

The EAA targets products and services considered essential to participation in society. On the digital side, that includes e-commerce services, consumer banking, electronic communications, e-books, transport booking and ticketing, and elements of audiovisual media services. If your client sells to EU consumers online, e-commerce alone likely brings them into scope.

Microenterprises providing services (fewer than 10 employees and under 2 million euro turnover) are exempt from the service requirements, though their larger clients and marketplace partners may still demand conformance contractually.

What it actually requires

The directive states functional requirements: perceivable, operable, understandable, robust. The presumption of conformity comes from meeting EN 301 549, the harmonized standard, which for web content means WCAG 2.1 Level AA. In practice: meet WCAG 2.1 AA, document it, and keep the documentation current.

How enforcement works

This is a directive, so each member state transposed it into national law and designated market surveillance authorities. Penalties differ by country, from administrative fines to exclusion from public procurement. Enforcement is complaint-driven in most states: a consumer or advocacy group reports a barrier, the authority investigates, and the service provider must demonstrate conformance or remediate on a schedule.

What to do about it

1. Establish where each site actually stands with a WCAG 2.1 AA audit.
2. Fix in priority order and keep records of what changed and when.
3. Publish an accessibility statement reflecting the true state, including known gaps.
4. Re-audit on a cadence, since sites drift.

That evidence trail matters as much as the fixes: an authority asking questions responds very differently to a documented remediation program than to silence. Complaudax exists to make that trail a byproduct of the work rather than a separate chore; see how the workflow fits together, or start with the longer EAA guide. For a first baseline on any public page, the free accessibility checker runs the automated checks with no signup.