Does the European Accessibility Act Apply to Non-EU Firms?

If your company sells online from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada or Australia, you may be asking whether the European Accessibility Act (EAA) applies to you. Many non-EU businesses assume it does not, because they have no office in Europe. That assumption is worth checking. This article explains who the EAA covers, how national laws in Germany, Austria and Poland set penalties, what your home-market rules look like, and what to do now.

What the European Accessibility Act covers

The EAA is Directive (EU) 2019/882. It sets accessibility requirements for certain products and for services provided to consumers. EU member states had to apply the rules from 28 June 2025, and each country implements them through its own law, with its own penalties and enforcement body.

For most websites, the relevant part is Article 2(2), which covers consumer services provided after 28 June 2025. The list includes e-commerce, consumer banking, e-books, passenger transport, telecom and audiovisual media access. The main lines are shown below.

The main exemption is for microenterprises, and it covers services only. Under Article 3(23), a microenterprise employs fewer than 10 people and has an annual turnover or balance-sheet total of no more than €2 million. Article 4(5) then exempts microenterprises that provide services. Products are not exempt in the same way.

Does the EAA apply to companies outside the EU?

The scope in Article 2 is defined by the service and the customer, not by where the provider is established. The directive covers services provided to consumers after 28 June 2025. Read that way, a company in New York, London, Toronto or Sydney that provides covered services to EU consumers can be in scope, subject to national law and the exemptions. Law-firm commentary we reviewed reads the text the same way.

That reading has a limit. The directive does not expressly address cross-border sales, so the text alone does not settle how an EU authority would treat a non-EU seller. That does not make the EAA optional for you. It means the answer depends on your facts.

As a hypothetical, consider an online shop in Toronto that sells home goods to consumers in France. It would need to check the French rules for those sales. A consulting firm that sells only to other businesses would generally fall outside the consumer scope. Whether a particular setup counts as selling to EU consumers is a question for a lawyer in that market.

What penalties look like in Germany, Austria and Poland

The EAA leaves penalties to each member state. Article 30 requires sanctions that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive. The figures below are maximum ceilings in national law, not typical fines.

Germany (BFSG). Under § 37, offering a service that does not meet the requirements of § 14 can be fined up to €100,000. Formal failures, such as missing information duties, can be fined up to €10,000. The market surveillance authority can also order a non-compliant service to stop (§ 29).

Austria (BaFG). Under § 36, fines for the most serious breaches reach €80,000. For small and medium-sized businesses the ceiling is €50,000. Consumers and certain named bodies can send a notice to the Sozialministeriumservice, which must reply in writing within eight weeks.

Poland. The 2024 act (Dz.U. 2024 poz. 731) fines service providers that fail to ensure compliance, skip the conformity assessment, or do not notify the authority of non-compliance. The ceiling is 10 times the average monthly wage, but not more than 10% of turnover, whichever is lower (art. 73). Before a decision, the authority can order corrective action within up to 120 days and prohibit the service for up to 180 days (art. 62).

Public information on enforcement is still thin. In the sources we reviewed, we did not find published individual fines under the German BFSG as of mid-2026, and we found no published enforcement statistics under the Polish act. That is a gap in public records, not a sign the rules are optional.

Your home-market rules

The EAA does not replace the rules in your own market. Each regime works differently, and they stack with EU obligations for EU customers.

United States. There is no federal web accessibility regulation for private businesses. Courts have applied Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act to websites, although the circuits differ on the test. Under federal law, private plaintiffs can obtain an injunction and attorney's fees, but not damages under Title III (42 U.S.C. §§ 12188 and 12205). The Department of Justice can seek civil penalties of up to $118,225 for a first violation and $236,451 for later ones. In July 2026 it said those amounts would not rise for 2026. California's Unruh Civil Rights Act carries a minimum of $4,000 per offense (Civil Code § 52). Law firm Seyfarth Shaw counted 3,117 federal website accessibility suits in 2025.

United Kingdom. The UK has no EAA equivalent and no statutory WCAG requirement for private websites. The Equality Act 2010 applies to service providers. They must not discriminate against disabled customers, and they must make reasonable adjustments (sections 20 and 29). Older guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission says the duty applies to websites that offer services.

Canada. The federal Accessible Canada Act covers federally regulated organizations, such as banks, telecoms, transport and broadcasters. Its ICT standard, CAN/ASC-EN 301 549, becomes mandatory on 5 December 2027 for federal public-sector web pages, and on 5 December 2028 for large and medium federally regulated private entities. Penalties can reach C$250,000 per violation (section 91(2)). Provinces have their own laws. Ontario's AODA has its own web rules for larger organizations, so check the rules where you operate.

Australia. The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 makes it unlawful for providers of goods and services to discriminate on the ground of disability (section 24). Complaints go to the Australian Human Rights Commission. Its April 2025 guidelines on digital goods and services recommend WCAG 2.2 AA as the minimum. The guidelines are not binding, but they are read alongside the Act.

Action plan: what to do now

Work through these steps in order. Record each one, because the same evidence helps if a regulator or a customer asks questions later.

1. 1Map your consumer services. List each service a consumer uses on your site or app, and note which EU countries your customers are in. Compare the list with Article 2 of the directive.
2. 2Test the microenterprise exemption. If you provide services, check the Article 3(23) thresholds: fewer than 10 people, and a turnover or balance-sheet total of €2 million or less. Use current figures. The exemption does not cover products.
3. 3Audit the in-scope pages against WCAG 2.1 AA. Cover checkout, account, booking and contact flows, not only the homepage. Automated scans find only part of the problems, so add manual keyboard and screen reader testing.
4. 4Fix what you find. Start with color contrast, missing alt text, keyboard traps, unlabeled form fields and unclear error messages. Our free contrast checker helps you check color pairs.
5. 5Publish accessibility information. In Germany, the information goes in your terms or another clearly visible place, and it must name the competent market surveillance authority (Annex 3 to the BFSG). In Poland, your terms must explain how the service meets the requirements (art. 32).
6. 6Set up a feedback channel. In Poland, a consumer complaint must be answered within 30 days (art. 37). Make the contact route easy to find, and log every request.
7. 7Keep records and review regularly. Keep your assessment and accessibility information for as long as you offer the service, and be ready to show proof on request. Poland also requires you to notify the authority without delay if a service does not comply.

For the EU timeline and what it means for a site like yours, see our European Union compliance page. This article is general information, not legal advice. Confirm how the rules apply to your business with a qualified lawyer in each market where you sell.