Services · Compliance & standards
EAA Audit: The EU Deadline Already Passed. Here is Where You Stand
For the business whose website is part of delivering something the European Accessibility Act actually lists, which mostly means e-commerce, consumer banking, e-books, electronic communications, and parts of passenger transport. Where you are based makes no difference to that. Whether your service is on the list makes all of it.
What We Keep Finding
One check is worth running before you spend anything at all. Microenterprises providing services are exempt outright, and the directive draws that line at fewer than 10 people plus either turnover or balance sheet total at or under two million euro. Get the boolean right, because it catches people in both directions. Headcount is the hard gate, so eleven people puts you in scope whatever the accounts say. Below that gate you only have to clear one of the two money tests, so a six-person company turning over three million is still exempt as long as its balance sheet total stays at or under two million.
If you are past that line, the Act has applied since June 28, 2025, and it is enforced nationally rather than from Brussels. Germany stood up a joint surveillance body for all 16 states in September 2025 and moved it into an active phase in January 2026. It pays to know where the pressure has actually come from there, though. The regulator has published no fine, and the thing landing on German sellers is the competitor-issued cease-and-desist under unfair competition law, which rose sharply through late 2025 and early 2026.
The part of your compliance anyone can see from outside is the accessibility information you publish, which is why that gets read first. In Germany it has to describe the service, explain how it meets the requirements, and name the contact details of the responsible market surveillance authority. A provider who spots its own non-conformity also has to report it rather than quietly fix it.
The technical bar is EN 301 549, and for a website that currently means WCAG 2.1 Level AA. A new edition that moves the web clauses to WCAG 2.2 AA has been drafted and is working through ETSI's process, though nothing is published yet and no date is fixed. We test all 55 of WCAG 2.2's Level A and AA rules, which carries 2.1 with it, so the evidence answers the version you are measured against today and the one arriving next.
What We Check
- Audit against the WCAG requirements inside EN 301 549
- Test the journeys a listed service turns on, so browsing, buying, and support
- Review your published accessibility information against what the directive asks for
- Check the statement names an authority and a route to complain, not just a promise
- Run real screen-reader sessions, because the law is written about real users
- Deliver findings your EU-market team can act on, every fix guide linked
What You Get
Every service on this site runs the same three-pass engine: an automated scan, an expert review of all 55 WCAG 2.2 A and AA rules, and a hands-on session with a professional blind screen-reader user. You get one report with every finding screenshotted, ranked by user impact, and linked to its fix. Your team fixes, we verify: the re-audit is half price within 3 months.
The format is not a mystery either. Read the sample report before you spend anything.
The Honest Limit
One honest limit. The EAA is enforced country by country, and national rules differ in their details, including what your published statement has to say and which authority it has to name. Our audit covers the technical standard every member state shares, and EN 301 549 is wider than the web, with separate clauses for documents, software and hardware that a website audit does not reach. For one country's filing quirks, pair it with local advice, because that part is law rather than testing.
What It Costs
Rapid Audit: $499, up to 10 pages you pick, report in 5 business days. Standard Audit: $1,499, up to 25 pages in 10 business days. Flat rates, no discovery calls, and a real blind screen-reader user on every engagement. Pick your pages. We bring the humans.
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Guides, checklists, tools, and terms that go with this service.