How the European Accessibility Act is actually enforced
The directive does not enforce anything by itself. It tells member states to build two separate machines — one for products, one for services — and leaves the penalties to them. If you run an online shop, only one of those machines points at you.
There are two tracks, and a shop is on the services one
Products go through market surveillance: the familiar CE-marking regime, with authorities that can test goods and pull them from the market. Services are handled separately, under Article 23. An online shop is a service, so the products machinery is not the one to read.
| Chapter | Subject | Articles |
|---|---|---|
| Chapter VIII | Market surveillance of products and Union safeguard procedure | Articles 19, 20, 21, 22 |
| Chapter IX | Compliance of services | Articles 23 |
| Chapter XI | Delegated acts, implementing powers and final provisions | Articles 29, 30 |
Who checks a service, and how
Article 23 requires each member state to:
- Member states must set up, run and periodically update procedures to check that services meet the requirements, to follow up complaints and reports of non-compliance, and to verify that the operator has actually taken corrective action.
- Member states must designate the authorities responsible for running those procedures, and must ensure the public is informed of those authorities — their existence, responsibilities, identity, work and decisions.
Note what that second point means in practice. Each member state designates its own authority and must publish who it is — so the answer to “who enforces this for me” depends entirely on which market you sell into.
Why this site does not list the authority per country
Because the obligation to publish sits with each member state rather than with the Commission, there is no single official EU register of the bodies designated under Article 23. The list that does exist for products under the market surveillance regulation is a different thing and, in most countries, a different body.
Naming the wrong authority would send someone to the wrong door on a matter with legal consequences. So until each one is read from its own national source, we name none. The transposition page gives you the national law to start from.
How a complaint turns into action
Article 29 is the part that makes the rest real:
- Member states must ensure adequate and effective means exist to secure compliance.
- Those means must include a route for a consumer to act before the courts or the competent administrative bodies.
- They must also let public bodies, associations or other entities with a legitimate interest act on behalf of, or in support of, a complainant with that person's approval.
The third point is the one most people miss. It is not only individual customers who can act — representative organisations can bring or support a case on a complainant's behalf. That is the mechanism behind the first EAA cases rather than a regulator sweeping the market.
Penalties, and why no number appears on this site
Article 30 leaves the amounts to member states:
- Member states lay down the rules on penalties themselves; the directive sets no figure.
- Penalties must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive, and must be accompanied by effective remedial action.
- They must take into account the extent of the non-compliance — its seriousness, the number of units of non-complying products or services, and the number of people affected.
There is no EU-wide figure to quote, because the directive deliberately does not set one. Any single number you see attributed to “the EAA” is a national maximum from one member state, and the figures circulating in secondary sources contradict each other.
That is why no penalty amount appears anywhere on this site. We would rather tell you the shape of the exposure — scaled to seriousness, to how many services are affected and to how many people — than print a number you might plan around.
The documented way out
Article 14 lets an operator argue that meeting a requirement would be a disproportionate burden — but it is an assessment you have to carry out and be able to produce, not a position you simply assert. Article 13 sets out what a service provider owes in the first place.
This is exactly what an accessibility statement is for: it is where that assessment, and the record behind it, becomes something you can show.
Sources
- Directive (EU) 2019/882 — canonical text on EUR-Lex
- The same directive on legislation.gov.uk Article numbers and titles on this page were read here on 2026-09-03.
- Re-checked against the canonical text On 2026-09-04 the articles this page rests on were read again from the EUR-Lex text itself rather than the mirror. Article 3(23), Article 4(5) and Article 23(1) and (2) matched word for word, and the conclusion below is unchanged: it is the member states that designate these authorities, and the directive puts no duty on the Commission to keep a central list of them.
This page is informational and is not legal advice. National transpositions differ; the text that binds you is the one in the market you sell into.