The European Accessibility Act: What U.S. Businesses Selling Online Need to Know

The European Accessibility Act has applied since June 28, 2025. A U.S. business that sells to consumers in the European Union may fall under it, but the scope is narrower than many summaries suggest, and some small businesses are exempt.

What the EAA Is

The EAA is Directive (EU) 2019/882, adopted in 2019. Member states had to write it into national law and apply those measures from June 28, 2025. It sets accessibility requirements for a list of products and services.

The Directive does not cover digital services in general. For services, it covers those on its list that are provided to consumers: electronic communications, access to audiovisual media, parts of passenger transport, consumer banking, e-books and e-commerce services. The Directive defines a consumer as a natural person acting outside a trade or business. Services sold only to other businesses fall outside it unless they fit a listed category.

Penalties are set by each member state and must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. Enforcement is by national authorities, and the rules differ from one country to the next. This is a different model from ADA Title III in the United States, where DOJ says it has no regulation setting detailed standards for business websites and enforcement has come mostly through private lawsuits.

Why U.S. Businesses Are Not Automatically Exempt

The Directive defines a service provider as anyone who provides a service on the Union market or makes offers to provide a service to consumers in the Union. Headquarters location does not decide that. A U.S. company that offers an in-scope service to consumers in Germany or France can be a service provider under the Directive.

That makes the question one of fit. A U.S. online store selling to EU consumers is offering an e-commerce service. A U.S. consulting firm whose website describes its work and takes inquiries is much harder to place on the list. Many small U.S. owners have never heard of the EAA, so the first task is usually working out which side of that line the business sits on.

The Microenterprise Exemption

Article 4(5) exempts microenterprises that provide services from the accessibility requirements and from the obligations that go with them. The Directive defines a microenterprise as fewer than 10 people with annual turnover or balance sheet of at most EUR 2 million.

For a small service business, this may settle the question. A business that is under both thresholds and only provides services is outside the requirements. A business above either threshold, or one that sells products covered by the Directive, needs a closer look. Member states write their own national rules, so a business that is close to the line should check the law of the country where it sells.

Separate from the exemption, the Directive lets any operator argue that meeting a requirement would fundamentally alter the service or impose a disproportionate burden. That claim has to be documented and reported to the authorities, so it is a process and not a free pass.

What the Technical Standard Is

The Directive names no WCAG version. It sets functional accessibility requirements in Annex I and presumes conformity for services that meet harmonised standards. The standard associated with this work is EN 301 549, which incorporates the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

The current version, V3.2.1, is built on WCAG 2.1 Level AA. A revision, V4.1.1, is based on WCAG 2.2 Level AA. ETSI published it on 2 September 2026. Per Ireland’s National Disability Authority, it carries no legal effect until the Commission cites it in the Official Journal, expected on 16 December 2026, and V3.2.1 stays in force until then. A site that conforms to WCAG 2.2 Level AA meets the 2.1 criteria as well, so 2.2 is a reasonable target while the formal references settle. I could not confirm that the current version has been cited under the EAA, so this is worth checking with counsel for any business that is clearly in scope.

In-scope service providers also have an information duty under Annex V. They must publish how the service meets the accessibility requirements, usually in the general terms and conditions.

What the Requirements Look Like on a Website

The EAA does not list website fixes. WCAG does, and EN 301 549 maps to it. For a service website, the WCAG criteria include text alternatives for images, captions for video, labels on form fields, full keyboard operation, and a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text. These same criteria appear in U.S. accessibility testing.

Where to Start

The first step is finding out the current state of the site against WCAG 2.2 Level AA. Automated scanners help, and they have limits. Deque, an accessibility testing vendor, analyzed more than 13,000 page states and about 295,000 issues and found that automated testing detected 57.38% of issues by volume. The rest needed manual review.

The same gap shows up in a smaller test. A UK government test of 10 free tools ran against a page built with 143 known failures. The best tool found 41% of them.

Failures are also common. The 2026 WebAIM Million ran automated checks on the home pages of one million sites and found detectable WCAG failures on 95.9% of them. That sample covers popular sites and not small businesses specifically, but it suggests how often the basics are missed.

For more on the U.S. side, including what a thorough review covers, see The Small Business Owner’s Guide to Website Accessibility.

If the EAA may apply to your business and you are unsure where your site stands, a 15-minute conversation is a good place to start.