What is the European Accessibility Act (EAA)

EAA stands for European Accessibility Act. It is a directive rather than a regulation, and that distinction has practical consequences: it does not apply directly to a Spanish company. What binds in Spain is the transposing instrument, Title I of Law 11/2023 of 8 May. When a tender, a client or an auditor asks about the EAA, the answer rests on Spanish articles.

One confusion turns up in almost every project. Accessibility of Spanish public sector websites comes from Real Decreto 1112/2018, which transposes an earlier directive, 2016/2102. The EAA is the missing piece for the private sector, and its logic differs: it does not cover «websites» as a block, but a closed list of products and of services aimed at consumers.

Another important limit: the instrument contains no technical criteria. Annex I sets functional requirements phrased as outcomes, and the detail arrives by another route. Article 17 presumes conformity for those meeting harmonised standards whose references have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, a role played by EN 301 549 and, within it, by the WCAG.

This entry describes the general framework; how a specific case fits belongs to a legal review.

Article 2 of Law 11/2023 lists the products first: general-purpose consumer computer systems and their operating systems, self-service terminals (payment, ATMs, ticketing, check-in, interactive information terminals and queue management devices), consumer terminal equipment for electronic communications and for access to audiovisual services, and e-readers.

The list of services matters more to anyone working on the web: electronic communications services, access to audiovisual media services, certain elements of air, bus, rail and waterborne passenger transport (website, apps, electronic tickets and travel information), consumer banking services, e-books and e-commerce. Spain went beyond the directive and added three categories of its own: the websites and apps of electricity, water and gas supply, those of travel agencies and tour operators, and social networks.

Microenterprises providing services are exempt under Article 3.3, with a double threshold: fewer than ten employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet no higher than two million euros. The exemption covers services, not products: anyone manufacturing, importing or distributing remains bound, although Article 16.4 spares them from documenting the assessment.

Title I has applied since 28 June 2025 (eighteenth final provision), and that day did not close the calendar. The single transitional provision allows services to continue being provided with products already lawfully in use until 28 June 2030, and contracts signed before the application date to run unchanged until they expire, capped at five years. Self-service terminals previously in lawful use may be kept until the end of their economically useful life, not exceeding ten years from entry into service. That figure is worth noting: the directive sets twenty years and the Spanish law halved it.

The first decision that depends on this instrument is whether a project falls within the scope of Article 2, and that answer changes the entire budget. «E-commerce» is a broad category, and many corporate websites that sell or allow contracting end up inside it without having planned for it. The answer is documented in writing, because it is the first thing an audit will ask for.

The second decision is the planning horizon. The transitional rules mean 28 June 2025 was the starting point rather than the end: earlier contracts expire by 2030 at the latest, and terminals run on their own clock. An inventory with dates prevents discovering a deadline with no room to procure.

The third is what evidence is kept. Article 16 allows requirements to be excepted for disproportionate burden or for fundamental alteration of the product or service, but demands an assessment under Annex V, documented and retained for five years. As for consequences, Article 30 refers to the infringement and penalty regime of the relevant sectoral legislation and, in the alternative, to Title III of Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2013. The figures circulating in commercial articles rarely cite that referral; how a specific case fits is a matter for legal advice.

• Determine in writing whether the product or service fits Article 2, including the three categories Spain added, and keep the reasoning with its date.
• Check the microenterprise condition against both thresholds at once, and remember that the Article 3.3 exemption covers the provision of services, not the manufacture, import or distribution of products.
• Adopt WCAG 2.2 level AA as an internal technical criterion even though the harmonised EN 301 549 still cites 2.1: it covers the current scenario and the next one.
• Inventory service contracts and self-service terminals with their dates, to place the 2030 deadlines and the useful-life ones within the investment plan.
• Publish within the service itself how it meets the accessibility requirements: level, evaluation method, date and a channel for reporting barriers.
• If you intend to invoke disproportionate burden, carry out the Annex V assessment beforehand, retain it for five years and give it a review date.

• Treating the matter as closed on 28 June 2025 and ignoring the single transitional provision, which keeps deadlines open until 2030 and, for terminals, until the end of their useful life.
• Confusing the EAA with Real Decreto 1112/2018: the latter governs public sector sites and comes from a different directive.
• Applying the microenterprise exemption to a company that manufactures, imports or distributes products, when Article 3.3 only exempts the provision of services.
• Assuming that meeting a WCAG level on its own grants a presumption of conformity. Under Article 17, that presumption comes from harmonised standards whose references are published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
• Copying penalty amounts from commercial articles. Article 30 refers to sectoral legislation and, where that is silent, to Title III of Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2013.