The European Accessibility Act has hovered on the horizon for several years, but the horizon is now in full view. From June 28th, 2025, any new digital product or service sold in the European Union must meet rigorous accessibility requirements.
Five years later, by June 28th, 2030, those same requirements will apply to everything already on the market. The countdown has entered its decisive phase.
Organizations that start preparing today can still make accessibility a genuine competitive advantage. Those who postpone the work risk six‑figure fines and the possibility of a silent exodus of customers.
Why it matters to business
Roughly one in five Europeans (more than 100 million people) live with a disability that affects the way they shop, bank, read, or travel using digital services.
When an eCommerce checkout traps the keyboard focus, when a banking app fails to label its icons, or when a streaming service offers no captions, those users simply leave.
Research by Click Away Pound found that 71% of people with access needs leave a site they find hard to use. Multiply that frustration by millions of potential online users, and the result is a major setback for digital growth and inclusion.
The European Accessibility Act addresses this inequity by making inclusive design a legal obligation. It applies to virtually every consumer‑facing sector or digital service, including:
- Online retail and marketplaces
- Banking and fintech portals
- Transport ticketing
- Media streaming
- Telecoms
- eReaders
- Self‑checkout kiosks
Only micro‑enterprises (fewer than ten employees and less than two million euros in annual revenue) are temporarily exempt. However, many choose to comply anyway because the business benefits outweigh the effort.
The consequences of doing nothing
The directive obliges every EU member state to set its own enforcement framework, and several have already published severe penalties. France can impose €50,000 for each inaccessible service and repeat the fine every six months until the issues are fixed.
Germany sets its ceiling at €100,000 per infringement, while Italy reserves the right to claim up to five percent of a company’s annual revenue for persistent non‑compliance. Belgium, Ireland, and Spain publish similar sanctions in the tens of thousands, and the United States has shown, through multiple Department of Justice settlements, that the global market is converging on a tough stance.
In other words, ignoring accessibility is an ethical failure and a material risk to revenue and reputation.
The four principles of web accessibility
The Act references the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at Level AA, distilled into four common‑sense principles:
- Perceivable – information should be seen, heard, or otherwise sensed. Alt‑text for images, high‑contrast color palettes, and captions for video all satisfy that imperative.
- Operable – interfaces should be navigated without frustration. Every interactive element must work from a keyboard, touch target areas should be generous, and users need the option to pause or extend time‑outs.
- Understandable – experiences must be clear, use predictable language, and use a standardized layout. Plain descriptions, consistent menus, and helpful error messages keep cognitive load low.
- Robust – your site’s code should be futureproof, with screen readers, browser updates, and emerging assistive technologies. Semantic HTML and well‑used ARIA attributes underpin this robustness.
When these principles are respected, the gains extend well beyond accessibility. Cleaner markup improves search‑engine visibility; larger touch zones benefit commuters on shaky trains; captions let anyone watch a video on mute.
If you trade anywhere in the EU, accessibility is no longer a “nice to have” but a baseline expectation from regulators, search engines, and (most importantly) your future customers. Take stock of your digital estate, secure senior buy-in, and ring-fence budget today, because the real work begins long before fines arrive.
Ready to move from awareness to action? Check out part two, where I break down a practical six-step roadmap to full compliance.
Written by Suzy Beech
