The European Accessibility Act is now in force across the EU. If you sell products or services online to EU customers, it almost certainly applies to your store — regardless of where you are based. Here is what the law requires, what enforcement looks like, and a practical checklist.
Quick start: Run the free EUComply scanner on your store. In under 10 seconds you'll see whether you meet the baseline technical signals auditors look for — including an accessibility statement linked from your homepage.
The European Accessibility Act (Directive (EU) 2019/882) has applied since June 28, 2025. It covers "e-commerce services" explicitly — meaning any service that lets consumers conclude contracts online. That includes:
You do not need to be based in the EU. If you offer products or services to consumers in EU member states, the EAA reaches you — similar to how GDPR works.
The exemptions are narrow:
The EAA requires e-commerce services to be "perceivable, operable, understandable and robust" — the four POUR principles from WCAG. In practice, member states reference EN 301 549, which incorporates WCAG 2.1 Level AA as its web benchmark. Concretely, that means things like:
| Requirement area | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Perceivable | Alt text on product images, captions on video, sufficient color contrast, text resizes to 200% |
| Operable | Full keyboard navigation, visible focus states, no keyboard traps in checkout |
| Understandable | Clear form labels and error messages, consistent navigation, readable language |
| Robust | Valid HTML, works with screen readers, no broken ARIA roles |
| Information duty | A publicly available accessibility statement describing your service's accessibility and how to report problems |
Note: The accessibility statement is the single most visible requirement — it's what a regulator, competitor, or customer can check in minutes. The free EUComply scanner detects whether one is linked from your homepage.
Enforcement is national, so penalties vary by member state — but the direction is consistent:
Beyond legal risk: inaccessible stores lose customers outright. The EU's 87 million people with disabilities represent hundreds of billions of euros in annual spending power, and their friends and families buy too.
You cannot retrofit an entire catalogue overnight. Prioritise by risk and effort:
The EAA applies identically regardless of platform — Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, Wix, custom builds all fall under it:
Check your store's baseline in 10 seconds
The free scanner checks accessibility statement presence plus 8 other compliance signals — HTTPS, cookies, legal pages, security headers, and more. Works on any platform.
Scan your store free →The EAA targets consumer-facing services. A pure B2B store falls outside its scope — though many B2B buyers require supplier accessibility documentation anyway, and public-sector procurement mandates EN 301 549 directly.
If you offer goods or services to consumers in the EU, yes. Enforcement against non-EU sellers typically starts with marketplaces and payment providers, but national authorities can and do act directly.
The legal benchmark is EN 301 549 / WCAG 2.1 AA today. Some member states signal movement toward WCAG 2.2. Building to 2.2 AA now avoids rework later.
If your app lets consumers conclude contracts, it's covered too — same requirements, adapted to mobile platforms (also defined in EN 301 549).
This guide is general information about technical compliance signals, not legal advice. For binding answers about your specific obligations, consult a lawyer familiar with your member state's transposition law.
Related guides: EAA guide for website owners · NIS2 checklist for SaaS · Shopify GDPR guide
How does EUComply compare with the established tools? See our head-to-head comparison — pricing, features and where each one falls short.