EAA Penalties — What Happens If Your Website Isn't Accessible
The European Accessibility Act became applicable on 28 June 2025. If your digital products or services fall within scope and you haven't addressed accessibility, the question is no longer "should we comply?" but "what happens if we don't?"
The answer depends on where your customers are — because each EU member state sets its own penalties. But across the board, the consequences are real and growing.
What the law says about penalties
Article 30 of the EAA requires each member state to define penalties that are "effective, proportionate, and dissuasive." The directive does not set specific fine amounts — each country decides its own enforcement framework. But the directive is clear: penalties must be serious enough to change behaviour.
Member states must also ensure that enforcement authorities can:
- Order corrective actions with deadlines
- Require product withdrawal or service suspension from the market
- Issue fines for continued non-compliance
Enforcement by country
Each EU member state has designated its own enforcement authorities and penalty frameworks:
| Country | Enforcement authority | Penalty framework |
|---|---|---|
| Finland | Tukes (products/services), Etelä-Suomen AVI (digital services) | Corrective orders, conditional fines (uhkasakko), public reporting |
| Sweden | Konsumentverket (private sector), DIGG (public sector) | Injunctions (förelägganden), penalty payments (vite), market withdrawal |
| Germany | Federal and state market surveillance authorities | Fines up to €100,000 per infringement under BFSG (Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz) |
| France | ARCOM and sectoral regulators | Fines, corrective orders, public naming |
| Netherlands | ACM (Authority for Consumers and Markets) | Administrative fines, corrective orders |
| Italy | AgID (public sector), market surveillance (private sector) | Fines, corrective orders |
| Spain | Consumer protection authorities | Fines ranging from €3,001 to €1,000,000 depending on severity |
The pattern is consistent: corrective orders first, then escalating fines for non-compliance, and ultimately market withdrawal for the worst cases.
Beyond regulatory fines — the legal risks
Regulatory penalties are only part of the picture. Accessibility failures create legal exposure on multiple fronts:
Discrimination complaints
In most EU member states, accessibility failures can constitute discrimination under national equality legislation. Individuals and advocacy groups can file complaints, and courts can award compensation. This route bypasses the regulatory enforcement timeline entirely — a user who encounters a barrier can file a complaint directly.
Collective action
The EAA explicitly allows consumer organisations and disability advocacy groups to bring legal action on behalf of affected users (Article 29). This means a single complaint from an advocacy group can represent thousands of affected users.
The Domino's precedent
While the Domino's Pizza case was a US lawsuit under the ADA (not the EAA), it set an international precedent. A blind customer sued because he couldn't order from the website or app. Domino's argued that websites weren't covered by the ADA — the Supreme Court declined to hear their appeal, effectively confirming that digital services must be accessible. European courts are watching.
The cost you're already paying
Fines and lawsuits are dramatic, but the quiet cost is bigger. Every day an inaccessible website is live, you're losing customers:
- 1.3 billion people globally live with a significant disability (WHO). In Europe, that's approximately 87 million people (Eurostat).
- The combined spending power of people with disabilities and their families is estimated at over one trillion dollars globally.
- Every inaccessible checkout, form, or navigation turns these potential customers away — silently, without complaint, every single day.
Unlike a regulatory fine, this revenue loss is continuous. And unlike a fine, it doesn't show up in a letter from an authority — it just shows up as lower conversion rates and higher bounce rates that nobody can explain.
Askem's web analytics helps you see where users drop off, and the feedback tool tells you why.
Who is and isn't exempt
Micro-enterprise exemption
The EAA exempts micro-enterprises providing services — defined as fewer than 10 employees and turnover under €2 million. Key details:
- The exemption applies only to service providers, not product manufacturers
- Both thresholds must be met (under 10 employees AND under €2M turnover)
- The exemption covers only service-related obligations, not product accessibility
B2B services
The EAA primarily targets consumer-facing (B2C) products and services. Pure B2B services are generally outside scope. However:
- If your platform serves both businesses and consumers, consumer-facing elements must comply
- Self-service terminals must comply regardless of business model
- If your B2B product is resold to consumers, the end product must comply
The disproportionate burden defence
Article 14 of the EAA allows economic operators to claim that compliance would impose a "disproportionate burden" — but this is a narrow defence:
- You must document a formal assessment
- Market surveillance authorities can review and reject your claim
- The defence must be renewed whenever the product or service changes
- It doesn't exempt you from requirements that aren't disproportionate
In practice, this defence is difficult to sustain for web accessibility, where the most impactful fixes (alt text, contrast, form labels) are low-cost.
How to avoid penalties
1. Know where you stand
Request a free accessibility report from Askem — enter your website URL and email, and we'll send you a WCAG analysis within 24 hours. The report shows your most critical issues and helps you prioritise.
2. Fix the high-impact issues first
Start with template-level fixes — your header, navigation, footer, and page templates. A single fix in a shared component can resolve hundreds of individual failures across your site. Use our EAA compliance checklist to track organisational requirements and the WCAG checklist for technical criteria.
3. Set up continuous monitoring
The worst scenario is fixing everything once and then letting new issues creep in with every content update. Askem's quality assurance monitors your site automatically and alerts you when accessibility issues appear — before an enforcement authority or a user complaint does.
4. Document your compliance
The EAA requires economic operators to maintain technical documentation demonstrating conformity. Publish an accessibility statement — it shows good faith, provides a feedback channel for users, and creates a paper trail that demonstrates your commitment to compliance.
The bottom line
The EAA penalties are real, country-specific, and escalating. But the biggest cost isn't the fine — it's the customers you lose every day to an inaccessible website. Fixing accessibility is almost always cheaper than the consequences of not fixing it.
Request a free accessibility report from Askem and take the first step. Free, no commitment, results within 24 hours.