Which supervisory authority checks webshop accessibility?

ACM supervises accessibility in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) is the supervisory body for the accessibility of webshops and comparable digital services. The ACM checks whether a site complies with the EN 301 549 standard, in practice WCAG 2.1 level AA, and can issue a notice to a webshop if it does not. Micro-enterprises providing services — fewer than ten employees and a turnover of at most two million euros — fall outside the scope of the law, and therefore also outside this supervision.

The ACM follows a fixed procedure: first a notice, then a remediation period of approximately three months, then a retest, and only if that yields no results a sanction. That sanction can amount to € 900,000 or a percentage of turnover, although as of mid-2026 no formal fines have yet been imposed — but public notices with required improvement plans have been issued. Anyone who reports themselves to the ACM as not yet compliant, with an action plan, receives lenient treatment in return.

Where this comes from: the Implementation Act and ACM supervision

This follows from the Implementation Act on accessibility requirements for products and services, which transposes the European Accessibility Directive (EU) 2019/882 into Dutch law, and from the ACM's publication in which the supervisory body calls on organisations to prepare for these rules. Supervision is a national implementation: in Germany this task lies with the Marktüberwachungsstelle der Länder (MLBF), in France with the DGCCRF together with ARCOM, and in Belgium with the Economic Inspection (FOD Economy), each with its own maximum sanction and reporting route. The technical requirement against which compliance is assessed — EN 301 549, in practice WCAG 2.1 level AA — is the same in all EU member states, because the directive refers to one harmonised European standard.