European Accessibility Act (Directive (EU) 2019/882)

Article 4(1) Member States shall ensure that economic operators only place on the market products + only provide services that COMPLY with the accessibility requirements set out in Annex I. Article 4(2) the requirements differentiate by product / service category. Annex I sections: SECTION I - GENERAL accessibility requirements applicable to ALL Article 2(1) products (perceivable information + operable user interface + understandable information + robust implementation - the POUR principles applied to products); SECTION II - WEB + MOBILE accessibility requirements for service-provider websites + mobile applications (WCAG 2.x AA conformance); SECTION III - SELF-SERVICE TERMINALS (Article 2(1)(b)) including ATMs + ticketing + check-in + interactive information terminals; SECTION IV - GENERAL accessibility requirements for SERVICES (Article 2(2) general); SECTIONS V-VII - SECTOR-SPECIFIC re

• Annex I section-by-section compliance file per product / service in scope
• Functional performance criteria mapping where Annex I leaves implementation open
• Microenterprise Article 4(5) notification to competent authority

• Annex I compliance file missing section-by-section coverage
• Functional performance criteria not addressed for items where Annex I leaves implementation open
• Microenterprise providing services exempt without competent authority notification

Article 15 PRESUMPTION OF CONFORMITY: products and services which comply with harmonised standards or parts thereof, the references of which have been published in the OJEU, shall be presumed to be in conformity with the accessibility requirements of this Directive in so far as those standards or parts thereof cover those requirements (Article 15(1)). The harmonised standard for the EAA is EN 301 549 - the SAME harmonised standard that is the technical-conformance bar under the WAD (Directive 2016/2102). Article 15(2) where harmonised standards do not exist the Commission may adopt implementing acts establishing technical specifications providing presumption of conformity. The current Commission Implementing Decisions citing EN 301 549 v3.2.1 (and the v4.x development pipeline aligning with WCAG 2.2 + IT and ICT) establish the presumption of conformity for both EAA-in-scope products + se

• EN 301 549 (v3.2.1 or later) conformance report
• Cross-reference to specific EN 301 549 clauses for each EAA Annex I section
• Tracking of EN 301 549 v4.x transition + WCAG 2.2 alignment

• Conformance asserted at high level without EN 301 549 clause-by-clause mapping
• Failure to track EN 301 549 v4.x transition
• No alignment between WAD + EAA EN 301 549 conformance evidence files (where the entity has dual scope)

Article 16 EU DoC: the EU declaration of conformity shall state that the fulfilment of the applicable accessibility requirements set out in Annex I has been demonstrated; the EU DoC shall be drawn up in the format set out in Annex III to Decision No 768/2008/EC (the New Legislative Framework template); the EU DoC shall be kept up to date + translated as required by Member States. Article 17 general principles of CE marking: the CE marking shall be subject to the general principles set out in Article 30 of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008. Article 18 RULES + CONDITIONS for affixing the CE marking: the CE marking shall be affixed visibly + legibly + indelibly to the product or to its data plate before the product is placed on the market; the CE marking shall be affixed before the product is placed on the market + may be followed by a pictogram or other mark indicating a special risk or use; Mem

• EU DoC file per product in Annex III template
• CE marking affixed per Article 18
• Service-provider statement separately maintained (no CE marking for services)

• EU DoC missing or in non-Annex-III format
• CE marking affixed without underlying conformity-assessment procedure
• Service-provider statement missing or confused with CE marking regime

Article 19 MARKET SURVEILLANCE OF PRODUCTS: Articles 15(3) + 16-19 + 21 + 23-28 of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 (now superseded in part by Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 on market surveillance) apply to products covered by this Directive. Article 19(2) Member States shall ensure that market surveillance authorities have the resources + powers necessary for the proper performance of their tasks under this Directive. Article 19(3) market surveillance authorities shall cooperate + share information through ICSMS (the EU Information and Communication System on Market Surveillance) + RAPEX (Safety Gate Rapid Alert System) including for products presenting a risk of inadequate accessibility. The Article 19 market-surveillance framework runs IN PARALLEL with the GPSR Article 23-24 + the EU AI Act + the MR + the CRA market-surveillance regimes for products in dual scope.

• Market-surveillance engagement records
• ICSMS + RAPEX cross-reference for accessibility findings
• Coordination with GPSR + MR + EU AI Act + CRA market-surveillance

• Market-surveillance findings + corrective actions not tracked
• No coordination with the parallel GPSR / MR / AI Act / CRA market-surveillance authorities

Article 20 establishes the market-surveillance regime for SERVICES (parallel to the products regime in Article 19). Article 20(1) Member States shall establish + implement procedures: (a) to verify that services comply with this Directive; (b) to follow up complaints + reports of non-compliance; (c) to verify that economic operators have taken necessary corrective action. Article 21 reporting + transparency: market surveillance authorities + service-supervisory authorities + service-providers shall make information about non-compliance + corrective action publicly available. Article 22 cross-border cooperation on services: Member States shall cooperate to share information + best practices + to handle complaints involving cross-border service provision. The Article 20-22 services regime is operationalised by national service-sector supervisory bodies (national telecoms regulator for elec

• Engagement records with sectoral service-supervisory authorities (telecoms + banking + audiovisual + transport)
• Article 22 cross-border cooperation evidence for multi-Member-State service offerings

• Compliance program tracking only product-side market surveillance and missing the sector-specific service-side authorities
• No cross-border cooperation procedure for cross-border services

Article 14 sets the three exception categories. Article 14(1)(a) accessibility requirements do not apply where compliance would require A SIGNIFICANT CHANGE in a product or service that results in the FUNDAMENTAL ALTERATION of its basic nature. Article 14(1)(b) accessibility requirements do not apply where compliance would result in the imposition of a DISPROPORTIONATE BURDEN on the economic operators concerned. Article 14(2) economic operators must perform an Annex VI ASSESSMENT of whether Article 14(1) exceptions apply, considering: relationship of net costs of compliance to the costs (total expenditure - direct + indirect costs - capital + operational) + estimated costs + benefits relative to estimated benefits for persons with disabilities; benefits for accessibility considering the frequency + duration of use. Article 14(3) the Article 14(1)(b) disproportionate-burden invocation mus

• Annex VI assessment file per Article 14(1)(a) or (b) invocation
• 5-year review evidence
• Public-funding eligibility check
• Microenterprise Article 14(6) notification

• Article 14 invocation without Annex VI assessment
• Inadmissible Article 14(3) grounds cited
• No 5-year review of disproportionate-burden invocation
• Public-funded accessibility activity invoking Article 14(1)(b)

Article 27 BUILT ENVIRONMENT: Member States may decide that, in line with national law + practice, the built environment used by clients of services covered by this Directive must comply with the accessibility requirements set out in Annex III. The built-environment requirement is OPTIONAL - Member States may extend EAA-style accessibility to the built environment surrounding the service (e.g. bank branches + transport terminals + retail premises) under Annex III (which sets functional requirements covering use of the related areas + adjacent traffic routes + parking + entrances + reception + signage + facilities). Member States invoking Article 27 must publish their measures by 28 June 2025. This provision is the EAA's narrow on-ramp toward the wider UNCRPD (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) built-environment accessibility obligations.

• Tracking of which Member States have invoked Article 27
• Annex III compliance file where applicable
• Cross-reference to UNCRPD built-environment obligations

• Built environment accessibility ignored where the Member State has invoked Article 27
• No tracking of Article 27 implementation across Member States where the entity operates

Article 28 establishes the EAA Working Group (the Article 28 Committee, comprising representatives of Member States + Commission + persons with disabilities + economic operators + employers + workers + civil society) to facilitate the application of this Directive + adoption of harmonised standards. Article 29 ENFORCEMENT: Member States shall ensure that adequate + effective means exist to ensure compliance with this Directive. The means must include provisions whereby a consumer can take action under national law before national courts + administrative authorities (the consumer right of action) + that public bodies / organisations representing persons with disabilities + consumer associations may take action on behalf of consumers / collectively (the collective-redress right). Article 30 PENALTIES: Member States shall lay down rules on penalties applicable to infringements of national p

• Tracking of EAA Working Group outputs + harmonised-standard pipeline
• Consumer + collective complaint handling procedure
• Article 30 penalty exposure in compliance risk register

• Article 29 collective-redress procedure not implemented
• Penalty exposure not mapped (national transposition varies, from administrative fines to product withdrawal)

Article 31 TRANSPOSITION: Member States shall adopt + publish the laws + regulations + administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by 28 JUNE 2022 + apply those measures from 28 JUNE 2025 (the EAA application date). Article 32 TRANSITIONAL: Article 32(1) Member States may permit service providers to continue providing services using products that were lawfully used by the service provider for similar services before 28 June 2025 - until 28 June 2030 (the 5-YEAR SERVICE-PROVIDER TRANSITIONAL RULE). Article 32(2) self-service terminals lawfully used by service providers before 28 June 2025 may continue to be used in the provision of services until the end of their economic life but for no more than 20 YEARS after their first use. The 20-year self-service-terminal exception is the EAA's longest transitional rule and primarily benefits banking + transport + ticketing se

• National transposition cross-reference
• Transitional-rule documentation by service / self-service terminal
• 20-year service-life tracking for self-service terminals

• Compliance program assuming the 28 Jun 2025 date is the only deadline + ignoring transitional rules
• Self-service-terminal 20-year clock not documented + may be invoked beyond its scope
• Service-provider transitional 5-year rule applied to products outside Article 32(1) scope

Article 11 a distributor or importer shall be considered a manufacturer for the purposes of this Directive and shall be subject to the obligations of the manufacturer where the distributor or importer places a product on the market under their own name or trade mark or modifies a product already placed on the market in such a way that compliance with the requirements of this Directive may be affected. This is the same 'becomes the manufacturer' rule that applies in the PLD Article 4(18) substantial-modification regime + the GPSR + horizontal product-safety stack. Article 12 IDENTIFICATION OF ECONOMIC OPERATORS: economic operators shall, on request, identify the following to the market surveillance authorities for a period of 5 YEARS after they have been supplied with the product (Article 12(1)): (a) any economic operator who has supplied them with a product; (b) any economic operator to

• Substantial-modification governance process flagging when a change crosses the Article 11 threshold
• Article 12 economic-operator records (5-year backward + 5-year forward chain)

• Substantial modifier unaware that the Article 11 rule makes them a manufacturer for EAA
• Article 12 economic-operator records absent or older than 5 years

Article 7 MANUFACTURER OBLIGATIONS: manufacturers must ensure that products placed on the market are designed + manufactured in accordance with Annex I accessibility requirements (Article 7(1)); prepare technical documentation per Annex IV + carry out conformity-assessment procedure per Annex IV (Article 7(2)); draw up EU declaration of conformity per Article 16 + affix CE marking per Article 17 (Article 7(3)-(4)); keep technical documentation + EU DoC for 5 years after the product is placed on the market (Article 7(5)); ensure procedures for series production remain in conformity (Article 7(6)); take corrective action when the product is found not in conformity (Article 7(8)); identify themselves on the product including indication of trade name + registered office or address (Article 7(7)); cooperate with competent authority (Article 7(9)). Article 8 AUTHORISED REPRESENTATIVE: manufact

• Annex IV technical documentation file + conformity-assessment procedure evidence
• EU DoC + CE marking trail
• Authorised-representative written mandate + AR registration
• 5-year retention policy aligned with Article 7(5)

• Annex IV technical documentation incomplete or not maintained for 5 years
• AR mandate missing or AR not formally registered with the competent authority
• CE marking affixed without the underlying conformity-assessment procedure

Article 9 IMPORTER OBLIGATIONS: importers shall place on the market only products that comply with Annex I accessibility requirements (Article 9(1)); before placing the product on the market, importers must ensure that the manufacturer has carried out the conformity-assessment procedure + prepared technical documentation + that the product bears CE marking + is accompanied by the required documents + that the manufacturer has complied with Article 7 (Article 9(2)); importers must indicate their name + registered trade name + registered trademark + address on the product (Article 9(3)) - this is the importer-identification triple alongside the manufacturer triple in Article 7(7); keep documentation for 5 years (Article 9(5)); take corrective action where they have reason to believe the product is not in conformity (Article 9(7)); cooperate with competent authority (Article 9(8)). Article

• Importer verification trail: CE marking + accompanying documents + manufacturer Article 7 compliance + importer Article 9(3) identification
• Distributor verification trail: CE marking + accompanying documents + manufacturer + importer identification
• Storage + transport non-degradation evidence
• 5-year retention for importer documentation

• Distributor making product available without Article 10(2) verification
• Importer not affixing the Article 9(3) identification on the product
• No corrective action documented when non-conformity is found

Article 13 SERVICE PROVIDER OBLIGATIONS: service providers shall provide services in accordance with the accessibility requirements set out in Annex I that apply to those services (Article 13(1)); prepare the necessary information to demonstrate compliance with the accessibility requirements + the assessment of whether to invoke an Article 14 exception (Article 13(2) - the equivalent of the manufacturer-side technical-documentation rule but for services); make the information available to the public in written + oral form including for persons with disabilities (Article 13(3)); take all necessary measures to demonstrate that all relevant information used in the provision of services is in line with the accessibility requirements (Article 13(4)); inform consumers + persons with disabilities about the accessibility of the services + ensure that the information remains available throughout

• Service-provider accessibility statement (the EAA equivalent of the WAD Article 7 statement, but structured per Annex I)
• Article 14 exception assessment file
• Public-availability evidence (multiple formats including for persons with disabilities)
• Sub-contractor compliance flow-down clauses

• Service-provider accessibility statement missing or not differentiated by service in scope
• Article 14 exception invoked without the Article 13(2) assessment trail
• Sub-contractor flow-down absent

Article 5 free movement: Member States shall not impede the making available on the market in their territory of products + the provision of services that comply with this Directive (the free-movement clause that completes the internal-market logic of the EAA). Article 6 additional accessibility requirements: this Directive does not preclude Member States from maintaining or introducing higher levels of accessibility requirements for non-EAA-in-scope products and services in their territory, or for additional accessibility requirements on EAA-in-scope products and services where those higher requirements are necessary + proportionate. The interaction with Article 5 means that for in-scope products + services, EAA accessibility requirements are MAXIMUM HARMONISATION + free movement applies; for out-of-scope products + services, Member States may maintain stricter national requirements (no

• Cross-Member-State product / service rollout analysis confirming free-movement entitlement
• Tracking of higher national accessibility requirements that may apply for out-of-scope categories

• Compliance program assuming national requirements override EAA where they should not (in-scope products + services are subject to maximum harmonisation under Article 5)
• Higher national requirements not tracked for out-of-scope products / services

Article 1 establishes the directive's purpose: to contribute to the proper functioning of the internal market by approximating laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States as regards accessibility requirements for certain products + services - to remove and prevent barriers to the free movement of these products + services arising from divergent accessibility requirements. Article 2 sets the scope. Article 2(1) PRODUCTS: (a) consumer general-purpose computer hardware systems and operating systems for those hardware systems; (b) self-service terminals: payment terminals + ATMs + ticketing machines + check-in machines + interactive self-service terminals providing information; (c) consumer terminal equipment with interactive computing capability used for electronic communications services; (d) consumer terminal equipment with interactive computing capability used fo

• Internal scope memo identifying which products + services the entity provides under Article 2(1) / (2)
• Per-product / per-service classification trail

• Product or service treated as out-of-scope without per-category Article 2 analysis
• E-commerce-services Article 2(2)(f) carve-out scope not fully captured (covers websites + mobile applications + e-services + chat + checkout)

Article 3 contains 23 definitions including: (1) 'persons with disabilities'; (2) 'product'; (3) 'service' (per Directive 2006/123/EC); (4) 'service provider'; (5) 'audiovisual media services'; (6) 'electronic communications service' (per the European Electronic Communications Code); (7) 'consumer banking services'; (8) 'consumer'; (9) 'microenterprise' (< 10 staff + annual turnover OR balance-sheet total < EUR 2 million); (10) 'small + medium-sized enterprise' (SME); (11) 'harmonised standard'; (12) 'technical specification'; (14) 'withdrawal' / (15) 'recall'; (16) 'e-commerce services'; (17) 'e-book + dedicated software'; (18) 'air, rail, water, bus passenger transport service'; (19) 'urban + suburban transport service' (out of scope); (20) 'regional transport service' (out of scope); (21) 'support service'; (22) 'interoperability'. Article 3 also cross-references definitions in Regula

• Internal definitional walk-through identifying which Article 3 definition applies + cross-referenced to applicable horizontal / sectoral act
• Microenterprise determination + annual review evidence (< 10 staff + < EUR 2M turnover + < EUR 2M balance-sheet)
• Out-of-scope urban / suburban / regional transport service classification trail

• Microenterprise claim without annual review against the EUR 2M thresholds
• Urban / suburban / regional transport service mis-classified as out-of-scope (EAA Article 3(20) excludes them but the specific scope coordinates with national-law definitions)