Knowledge · European Accessibility Act

European Accessibility Act (EAA): mandatory since 28 June 2025 — what you need to know

28 June 2025 changed the rules of the game for e-commerce and online services across Europe. On that day the national laws transposing the European Accessibility Act (EAA) came into force — in Poland, for example, the Act of 26 April 2024 on ensuring that certain products and services meet accessibility requirements. If you run an online shop, electronic banking, a booking platform or sell e-books, this most likely applies to you.

What is the European Accessibility Act?

The EAA is a European Union directive (2019/882) aimed at equalising access to key products and services for people with disabilities. Until now, digital accessibility laws in most countries covered mainly public-sector bodies: government offices, schools, hospitals. The EAA extends this obligation to the private sector — and that is precisely the revolution that took effect in June 2025.

In practice, the point is that a website or app must also be usable by a blind person (using a screen reader), a person with low vision (magnifying text), a deaf person, someone with limited motor skills (navigating by keyboard only) or with cognitive difficulties. The technical point of reference is the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standard at level AA, linked to the EN 301 549 norm.

Who exactly does the obligation apply to?

The law covers, among others:

• online shops (e-commerce) — note: the obligation also applies to micro-enterprises; the exemption for micro-businesses covers selected services, but not the online sale of goods,
• banks and financial institutions (retail banking online),
• telecommunications operators,
• transport services: ticket sales, timetables, booking services (rail, buses, aviation, ferries),
• publishers and sellers of e-books, together with e-readers,
• providers of audiovisual services (VOD platforms).

The obligation applies to products and services placed on the market after 28 June 2025 — but in practice every new version of a website, every redesign or new shop feature should already be compliant.

What are the penalties for non-compliance?

The law provides for administrative financial penalties imposed by national market-surveillance authorities (which authority is responsible depends on the sector). The authorities can also order violations to be remedied within a set deadline, and in case of continued non-compliance — the withdrawal of the product or service from the market. Regardless of penalties: an inaccessible website means a real loss of customers, because people with disabilities make up around 15% of the population.

What does “WCAG AA compliance” mean in practice?

The key areas you need to put in order:

• Contrast — text must have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against the background,
• Alt text — every product photo needs a description (the alt attribute),
• Keyboard — the entire purchase process must be completable without a mouse,
• Forms — every field labelled, error messages easy to understand,
• Structure — correct heading hierarchy, navigation landmarks, page titles,
• Multimedia — captions for videos, transcripts.

Where to start? A 4-step plan

1. Check the current state. Start with a free automated scan — in a minute you will see the most common technical errors.
2. Fix the “cheap” errors. Contrast, alt attributes, field labels — this is usually a few days of a developer's work.
3. Publish an accessibility statement. Inform users about your compliance status and how to contact you — you can generate one with our free tool (currently available in Polish).
4. Consider a manual audit. Automated tools detect 30–50% of the criteria; the rest (e.g. real screen-reader operation) requires a specialist. Our PDF report is a good basis for commissioning such an audit.

The most common myths

“It only applies to large companies.” No — in e-commerce the obligation has no size threshold. “Installing a plugin/overlay is enough.” No — overlays do not ensure compliance and are criticised by disability communities. “Nobody checks.” Supervisory authorities have the tools and the ability to respond to user complaints — and any customer can file such a complaint.