What is the European Accessibility Act and when does it apply?

The European Accessibility Act has been in force since 28 June 2025

The European Accessibility Act is Directive (EU) 2019/882, the European directive that requires a range of products and services to be accessible to people with disabilities. For online retailers and digital service providers, this means in practice that websites and apps must comply with one fixed technical standard: EN 301 549, which amounts to WCAG 2.1 level AA. This requirement has been in force since 28 June 2025 and has been enforceable in all twenty-seven EU member states since then.

The directive itself only establishes the European framework; each member state has implemented the requirement in national legislation, with its own regulator and its own sanctions regime. In the Netherlands, this was done through the Accessibility Requirements for Products and Services Implementation Act, with the Dutch Consumer and Market Authority as the regulator. Who falls within the scope of the law depends on the type of service and the size of the business: micro-enterprises providing services — fewer than ten employees and annual turnover of at most two million euros, both — are exempt from the obligation.

Where this is stated in the directive

That the date of 28 June 2025 and the standard EN 301 549 are the starting point follows from the text of Directive (EU) 2019/882 itself, which sets out the transposition and application deadline for member states and refers to the harmonised European accessibility standard. That regulators in member states are now actively engaged with this is evident from ACM's announcement in which companies are called upon to prepare for the rules. A successor to the standard, EN 301 549 V4.1.x based on WCAG 2.2, is expected in 2026 but is not yet a binding requirement.