Seyfarth Synopsis: Disability advocates issue demands to retailers about their allegedly inaccessible websites shortly after the EAA takes effect.
U.S. businesses that provide consumer facing websites and mobile apps to customers in the European Union should take note that the European Accessibility Act ("EAA") took effect on June 28, 2025. The EAA also applies to some consumer technologies such as hardware systems and operating systems, self-service equipment, and e-readers.
The EAA requires all 27 EU Member States to ensure that certain consumer facing technology products, e-commerce websites and mobile apps, comply with the uniform accessibility requirements in the EAA. Member States must set penalties for non-compliance that are "effective, proportionate and dissuasive," appoint at least one competent authority to enforce the requirements and provide a pathway for consumers and others to submit complaints of non-compliance to such authorities or the courts.
Because each member state must set up its own enforcement framework, approach to enforcement will not necessarily be uniform across the EU. However, penalties must take into account the seriousness of the violation, the number of non-complying products or services involved and the number of persons affected. Depending on the country of enforcement, noncompliance may result in a fine and personal liability for officers, directors and managers. In addition, non-compliant websites and mobile apps may be shut down and products may be removed from the market.
Complaints by persons with disabilities or advocacy groups can trigger enforcement actions. For example, days after the June 28 effective date, the French associations for the visually impaired and blind, ApiDV and Droit Pluriel announced that they had notified four major French retailers that their websites and/or mobile apps providing online shopping were not accessible in several ways, in violation of the EAA. The associations informed the retailers that if they do not make their online shopping services accessible by September 1, 2025, they will bring legal actions in court.
The EAA also applies in some business-to-business contexts by requiring certain products and services to be accessible. Thus, manufacturers, importers, distributors, and service providers – at many different junctures in the stream of commerce – may also find themselves embroiled in EAA compliance issues.
The bottom line is that U.S. businesses that place consumer-facing technology products on the EU market, or provide services to EU consumers via e-commerce websites and/or mobile apps, should be assessing the EAA's impact on their business if they have not done so already.
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