# European Accessibility Act: what websites must do > The European Accessibility Act website rules apply from 28 June 2025. Who is covered, what WCAG level to aim for, and a practical plan for the next 11 days. Canonical page: https://kyvrel.com/blog/european-accessibility-act-website Published: 2025-06-17 · 6 min read · Kyvrel From 28 June 2025, the European Accessibility Act will apply to many consumer-facing websites and apps sold into the EU. If your European Accessibility Act website obligations are unclear, start here: check whether your service is in scope, test against WCAG 2.1 level AA, fix the blocking issues first, and publish an accessibility statement. Eleven days is short, but it is enough to start properly. This article explains the law in plain terms. It is not legal advice. National laws transpose the directive, and the details differ by country, so confirm the specifics with counsel in the markets you serve. ## What is the European Accessibility Act? The European Accessibility Act is [Directive (EU) 2019/882](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/882/oj), adopted in 2019. It sets common accessibility requirements for certain products and services across the EU. Member states had to turn it into national law by 28 June 2022. The rules will apply from 28 June 2025. Before the act, each country had its own rules, and most covered only public sector websites. The EAA extends accessibility duties to private companies for the first time at EU level. It covers both products, like computers, ATMs and e-readers, and services. For websites, the services part is what matters. ## Which websites does the act cover? The act applies to specific consumer services, not to every website. The ones most relevant to digital teams are: - **E-commerce services.** Any website or app that sells products or services to consumers online. This is the broadest category. - **Consumer banking services.** Including online banking and payment flows. - **Electronic communications services.** Such as messaging and calling services. - **Passenger transport services.** Websites, apps, e-tickets and real-time travel information for air, bus, rail and waterborne transport. - **Access to audiovisual media services.** For example, the websites and apps of streaming services. - **E-books and dedicated reading software.** Location does not decide it. A company based outside the EU that sells to EU consumers is covered for those sales. There is one important exemption. Microenterprises that provide services are exempt from the service requirements. The directive defines a microenterprise as having fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of no more than EUR 2 million. What about B2B sites? The act focuses on services offered to consumers. A marketing site for a B2B software company that does not sell to consumers online is generally outside the core scope. That said, accessibility still affects who can use your site, and buyers increasingly ask about it in procurement. ![Grid of service categories covered by the act: e-commerce, banking, transport, communications, media and e-books](https://kyvrel.com/blog/inline/european-accessibility-act-website-1.png) ## European Accessibility Act website requirements The directive lists functional requirements rather than a technical checklist. Your service must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. Those four words will sound familiar if you know WCAG, and that is no accident. In practice, conformity is measured against harmonised standards. The current European standard, EN 301 549, uses [WCAG 2.1](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/) level AA for web content. So the working target for most teams is clear: **meet WCAG 2.1 AA**. If you are building something new, aim for WCAG 2.2 AA, which adds a few criteria and costs little extra at design stage. Beyond the interface itself, service providers also need to: - **Publish accessibility information.** Explain how your service meets the requirements, in your terms and conditions or a similar public place. An accessibility statement page is the usual format. - **Document any exemption.** If you claim that a requirement would be a disproportionate burden, you must assess it in writing and keep it under review. You cannot simply declare it. - **Keep it up.** New features and content must stay accessible after the deadline, not just on launch day. There are transition rules. Service contracts agreed before 28 June 2025 can continue unchanged until they expire, but for no longer than five years. These rules are narrow. They do not exempt a website you keep updating. ## Who enforces it, and what happens if you ignore it? Each member state appoints market surveillance authorities to check compliance and handle complaints. Penalties are set nationally, so they vary by country. They can include fines and orders to fix or withdraw a service. The more practical risk is commercial. Users who cannot complete a checkout leave. Large clients add accessibility to their vendor questionnaires. And a complaint from a single customer can start a formal review. ## The issues that come up most often Most accessibility failures on marketing and e-commerce sites come from the same short list. Fix these first. 1. **Low color contrast.** Light gray text on white, or white text on a pale brand color. WCAG AA asks for a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text. 2. **Missing or unhelpful alt text.** Product images without descriptions, or decorative images that read out file names. 3. **Keyboard traps and invisible focus.** Menus, modals and cookie banners that cannot be closed or reached with the Tab key. 4. **Unlabeled form fields.** Placeholder text used instead of a label, and error messages that only appear in red. 5. **Custom controls without roles.** Dropdowns and sliders built from plain `div` elements that screen readers cannot operate. 6. **Videos without captions.** And autoplaying media that cannot be paused. 7. **Broken heading structure.** Headings chosen for their size, not their meaning, so the page outline makes no sense. Automated tools catch some of these, mostly contrast, missing alt and missing labels. They cannot tell you whether a checkout flow works with a screen reader. That still needs a person testing with a keyboard and assistive technology. ## A practical plan if you have days, not months You will not reach full conformance on a large site in eleven days. You can show a credible, documented start. Regulators and customers both look for good faith and progress. ![Timeline of the response plan: scope check, audit, fix critical flows, publish statement, ongoing fixes](https://kyvrel.com/blog/inline/european-accessibility-act-website-2.png) 1. **Confirm scope.** List which of your services are consumer-facing and sold in the EU. Check the microenterprise threshold. 2. **Audit the key journeys.** Home, product or service pages, signup, cart, checkout, contact form. Test each with a keyboard only, then with a screen reader. 3. **Fix blockers first.** Anything that stops a user from completing a task: keyboard traps, unlabeled payment fields, unreadable error messages. 4. **Publish an accessibility statement.** Say which standard you target, what is known not to conform yet, and how users can report problems or get help another way. 5. **Plan the rest.** Turn the remaining issues into a dated backlog. Add accessibility checks to your design review and QA, so new pages do not add new issues. If a redesign is already on your roadmap, fold accessibility into it rather than patching the old site. It is cheaper to design accessible components once than to retrofit dozens of pages. Our [website redesign checklist](https://kyvrel.com/blog/website-redesign-checklist) has a section on what to audit before you start. ## How accessibility fits into a design project Accessibility is much cheaper at design stage than after launch. Color palettes are tested for contrast before anyone writes code. Components get focus states, labels and roles from the start. Content gets a sensible heading structure in the wireframes. That is how we run projects. Accessibility checks are part of the design review and the QA checklist at each sign-off gate, which you can see on our [process page](https://kyvrel.com/process). For existing sites, we offer a standalone accessibility audit for $1,200: a written report against WCAG 2.1 AA, with issues ranked by impact and a fix list your team can work from. ## Next step: make your interface usable for everyone If you sell to consumers online, our [online store](https://kyvrel.com/products/online-store) package starts at $18,000 for 12 page templates, with 3 revision rounds over 10-12 weeks. Contrast, focus states, labels and keyboard paths are designed in, not added at the end. You can see fixed prices for every product, and for the accessibility audit add-on, on our [pricing page](https://kyvrel.com/pricing).