From 28 June 2025, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) will come into force. This means that a large number of products and services must be accessible to people with disabilities from then on.
What is accessibility?
The purpose of this European Accessibility Act is that you can use products and services even if you are, for example, blind, visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing, or if you have a motor, cognitive or other disability. You should then be able to participate in society like everyone else. This is called accessibility, and when talking about websites, apps and online documents, it is called digital accessibility.
Which products and services does the EAA apply to?
The European Accessibility Act targets the following categories of products and services for consumers:
- E-commerce: online shops, booking sites and other online transaction services (such as an online insurance or subscription).
- Banking and other financial services: internet banking, mortgages, ATMs and more.
- Passenger transport: travel information, (online) tickets, check-in machines and more.
- Audiovisual media: public and commercial broadcasters and streaming services such as Netflix. The equipment needed for this must also be accessible.
- Telecommunications: calling, texting, emailing, surfing, social media and video calling. This covers such things as telecom providers and hosting providers, but also hardware, such as modems, phones and more.
- E-books: everything for being able to read digital books, such as e-books themselves, e-readers and software.
- Computers, smartphones, tablets and operating systems.
It concerns products and services supplied to European consumers, even if they are produced or conducted elsewhere.
What is mandatory for the European Accessibility Act?
In Sweden, the European Accessibility Act has been transposed into ‘Lagen om vissa produkters och tjänsters tillgänglighet’ (LPTT). In the Netherlands, the requirements of the European Accessibility Act are covered by several existing laws. These set out the following requirements for producers and service providers for the above-mentioned products and services:
- The product or service itself must be accessible to people with disabilities.
- You must provide information about your product or service in an accessible and understandable way. Think about a manual and general terms and conditions. Specifically for banking and financial services, the information needs to be understandable for people with language level B2.
- Communication with customer service must be accessible. Make sure there are always multiple ways to communicate. For example, someone who is deaf or has a speech disorder is not helped by just a phone number.
- People should be able to buy and pay for your product or service in a safe and accessible way. So the whole login and payment process must be accessible.
- Agreements and invoices must be accessible and understandable.
- You have to publish an accessibility statement or compliance statement, indicating how accessible your products and services are, how you ensure their accessibility and what you do to solve accessibility problems.
To determine whether an ICT product or service is accessible, you must comply with what is described in the European standard EN 301 549. This European standard refers to the international standard for accessibility, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), for websites, apps and online documents. Websites, apps and online documents must therefore comply with the WCAG as well as a number of additional criteria from EN 301 549. For other hardware and software, the European standard itself contains detailed descriptions.
What exceptions are there in the EAA?
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) concerns products and services offered to consumers. In other words, for B2C (business-to-consumer). If you supply your products and services to companies (B2B, business-to-business), then in principle the EAA does not apply. But note: the EAA applies to the entire value chain, so if you supply to a company that subsequently supplies to consumers, you may still be indirectly affected.
There is an exception for so-called micro-enterprises. If your company has fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover of less than €2 million, your products and services do not have to comply with the EAA. Again, however, you may still be indirectly affected if you supply to a company that then supplies to consumers.
For websites and apps, the following content is excluded:
- Pre-recorded audio and video published before 28 June 2025.
- Office file formats, such as PDF documents, published before 28 June 2025.
- Third-party content that was not funded or developed by the provider and over which the provider has no control.
- Archived content that is not updated or modified after 28 June 2025.
- Online maps and mapping services. For maps intended for navigation, essential information, such as an address, does need to be available in an accessible and digital way.
If your product or service needs to be modified so thoroughly that it is a fundamental change, in principle, you do not have to comply with the EAA. You do have to make it as accessible as possible, so this is no excuse for doing nothing at all.
If there is a disproportionate burden, in principle you do not have to comply with the EAA either. Again, you need to do as much as possible to make your product or service accessible. Be aware that you cannot apply this exception easily. For instance, lack of time or knowledge is not enough to call it a disproportionate burden.
There are also transition periods. For example, if you already have products in use that are not accessible, you can still use them for 5 years (i.e. until 28 June 2030). This also applies to services for which there is still a current contract. However, if this contract is renewed or changed, it must be accessible immediately. For self-service terminals, you may continue to use them until the end of their life cycle, but for a maximum of 20 years. Note that there are still some snags here, so get proper information on this from a lawyer.
What are the consequences if you do not comply with the EAA?
From 28 June 2025, various regulators will check whether your product or service complies with the European Accessibility Act (EAA). Exactly how they will do this is currently unknown. If they discover one or more accessibility problems during an audit, this could eventually lead to fines or periodic penalty payments. The amount of these is also not yet known.
In addition, you might imagine that it will also lead to reputational damage if it becomes known that your products and services are not accessible to people with disabilities. This may also lead to an increase in complaints and loss of customers.
Furthermore, it is also a disadvantage against your competition. If they are accessible, they have a better reputation and can reach more customers than you. Bear in mind that more than 20% of people have a permanent or temporary disability.
How do you prepare for the European Accessibility Act?
Not to scare you, but the EAA has a bigger impact than you might initially think. Despite the fact that the categories of products and services may seem limited, a lot is covered. For example, consider e-commerce: this is all types of transactions you can do online, not just web shops. In addition, it is not just the products and services themselves, but the whole chain and process. Think of the product information beforehand, the ordering and payment process during the transaction and customer service afterwards.
It is important to take steps now so that you are prepared for when the European Accessibility Act comes into force. This starts with knowing which of your products and services are covered by the law and how accessible they are. Next, you need to work on improving accessibility and publish an accessibility statement.
I can help you understand and improve the accessibility of your website or e-commerce. I can also support you in creating an accessibility statement. Do you offer e-books or related products and services? Then I would also be happy to help you. See my services for more information.
Disclaimer
This page is intended to give you a (hopefully) simple overview of what the European Accessibility Act (EAA) means for you. It is by no means exhaustive, nor can you view this as legal advice. The content of this page may also change or expand as new information becomes available.
If you see a mistake or miss information, please let me know.
Want to know more?
Post- och Telestyrelsen (PTS) is the regulator in Sweden for e-commerce services (websites and apps), among other things, and has a section on its website about it: Introduktion till tillgänglighetsdirektivet.
In the Netherlands, the Consumer & Market Authority (ACM) is the regulator for e-commerce services (websites and apps) and telecommunications. They offer more information on their website, including on page Accessibility of websites and apps.
The Financial Markets Authority (AFM) ensures that financial companies such as banks comply with the EAA in the Netherlands. AFM’s website features the Accessibility (digital) services theme page with more information.
Updates to this post
30 January 2024
- ‘Computers, smartphones etc.’ and ‘other financial services’ added to services and products and ‘Passenger transport’ moved.
- Added that it concerns products and services provided to European consumers.
- Added requirement of language level B2 for banking and financial services.
- Added exceptions for websites and apps.
- Transition period for services added.
- Link to contact form added.
- Link to AFM added.
Featured image by Antoine Schibler on Unsplash.