EAA and web accessibility: what changes for your business in 2026
Since June 28, 2025, any French company with more than 10 employees that sells products or services online to consumers must make its digital interfaces accessible. Penalties can reach €50,000 per non-compliant service. Most affected companies have yet to take action.
Obligations, risks, and a concrete action plan
#Is your website covered by the new obligations?
The European Accessibility Act (EAA), transposed into French law by law 2023-171, applies to any company providing digital services to consumers, except microenterprises (fewer than 10 employees AND less than €2 million in turnover). If you exceed either of these thresholds, you are covered.
Free test: is my organization covered by the EAA?The services covered by directive 2019/882 encompass a broad scope:
| Type of service | Covered since June 2025 |
|---|---|
| E-commerce | Yes |
| Online banking, financial services | Yes |
| Telecommunications | Yes |
| Passenger transport (air, rail, maritime) | Yes |
| Audiovisual media | Yes |
| Digital books | Yes |
| Pure B2B SaaS (not intended for consumers) | No |
An e-commerce site with 15 employees and €1 million in turnover is covered. Your legal director asks "Are we affected?" and you answer "We're an SME, it doesn't concern us." That's wrong. The threshold is the European microenterprise threshold: 10 employees OR €2 million in turnover.
Pure B2B services are not covered by the EAA, which targets services offered to consumers. But be careful: if your B2B tool also has a public interface, that part is covered.
#EAA, RGAA, WCAG, EN 301 549: which standard applies to your company?
Four acronyms, one overarching logic of nesting. Here's how they connect, from broadest to most concrete:
- The EAA (directive 2019/882) sets the legal obligation. It's the law.
- French law (law 2023-171 and decree 2023-931) transposes the EAA into French law.
- EN 301 549 is the harmonized European technical standard that the EAA references for conformity. It incorporates WCAG and adds requirements for non-web products (software, hardware).
- WCAG 2.1 level AA are the concrete technical criteria: 78 rules to follow for web content.
What about RGAA in all this? RGAA (General Framework for Improving Accessibility) is a technical verification method: 106 criteria and tests to measure whether a site conforms to WCAG. It's not a law. It's not limited to the public sector. Any private company can use it as an audit framework to verify its EAA compliance.
Administrative, not technical. The difference is administrative, not technical. The public sector has the legal obligation to use RGAA as its conformity benchmark (article 47 of the 2005 law). The private sector can use it as a verification method to meet EAA requirements, which reference EN 301 549, itself based on the same WCAG.
The trap. You'll be told "RGAA is for the public sector, it doesn't concern us." Don't fall into this trap. A site conforming to all 106 RGAA criteria is conforming to WCAG 2.1 AA, and thus to the technical foundation of the EAA. The EAA adds documentary and support obligations (statement, conformity documentation), but on the technical side, RGAA covers what's necessary.
A note on WCAG 2.2, published in October 2023 with 9 additional criteria: the version harmonized by the EU remains EN 301 549 v3.2.1 based on WCAG 2.1. Aiming for WCAG 2.2 is a good practice, but legally, WCAG 2.1 AA is sufficient for the EAA.
#What changed since June 28, 2025
Digital accessibility didn't start in 2025. What changed is the scope and inspections.
Before 2016: only the public sector was affected (law 2005-102, article 47). And no one was checking.
2016: the Digital Republic law adds large enterprises (turnover exceeding €250 million) and public service delegates. Declarative requirements: accessibility statement, multi-year plan. Still no effective inspections.
2023: law 2023-171 transposes the EAA. The September 6, 2023 ordinance entrusts inspection to ARCOM.
Since June 2025: obligations extend to the entire private sector above the microenterprise threshold. ARCOM and DGCCRF actively inspect.
| Before June 2025 | Since June 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Who is affected | Public sector and large enterprises (turnover > €250M) | All private sector above 10 employees / €2M turnover |
| Who inspects | No one (in practice) | ARCOM and DGCCRF |
| Penalties | Theoretical | Real and quantified |
"2025 marks the twentieth anniversary of the 2005 law on equal rights and opportunities. Yet millions of French people with disabilities remain excluded from routine digital use. Only 3 to 4% of websites are accessible to them."
Henri Gauffriau
Front-End Web Developer and Accessibility Expert, Onepoint
Twenty years of law. 3 to 4% compliance. The problem was never lack of regulation. It was lack of inspection.
"[The ministry] failed to or could not assume this role [of inspecting digital accessibility], leaving the issue untouched for 4 years."
Luce Carevic
Access42
That's over. ARCOM now has the authority and mandate to inspect.
#The penalties you risk if you're non-compliant
Let's take the concrete case of an e-commerce SME with 25 employees whose site is not compliant. Here's what happens, step by step.
Step 1: inspection. A DGCCRF agent finds the absence of an accessibility statement or technical non-conformities on your site.
Step 2: injunction. The DGCCRF gives you a reasonable period to correct. After that deadline, a penalty of €3,000 per day can apply, capped at €300,000.
Step 3: fine. Article R451-4 of the consumer code provides for a class 5 fine: €7,500 for a legal entity.
Step 4: repeat offense. If the violation persists, the fine rises to €15,000.
Step 5: publication. Your company name can be published. The fine passes, the reputational damage remains.
Two authorities share inspection duties, with distinct scopes:
- The DGCCRF inspects the actual level of conformity: it verifies that your digital services are truly accessible. Its scope covers all sectors, private and public.
- ARCOM inspects declarative obligations (accessibility statement, multi-year plan) for large enterprises (turnover exceeding €250 million) and the public sector. Penalties: €25,000 for declarative violations, €50,000 for failure to address accessibility in the public sector.
The most frequently observed violation: missing or false accessibility statement. It's also the simplest to fix.
You must also document your compliance continuously and retain evidence for five years. Inspections can review history.
"Before, we had a law but no radar, no means of pressure."
The radars are in place.
For European context: Ireland provides penalties up to €60,000 and/or 18 months imprisonment. Norway imposes daily penalties. France sits in the European average.
Web accessibility: what does it cost, what does it return
#Why accessibility is an investment, not a cost
12 million people are in situations of disability in France according to INSEE, or 1 in 6 French people. In the EU, that's 87 million people, 23.9% of the population. These are not marginal cases. This is your audience.
Add seniors, people with temporary limitations (broken arm, migraine, screen in sunlight), and you see why ignoring accessibility means closing your door to a large part of your market.
The WebAIM Million 2025 report analyzed 1 million homepages: 94.8% had automatically detectable accessibility errors, averaging 51 errors per page. Out of 20 randomly selected sites, 19 have issues. Yours likely does too.
Concrete benefits of an accessible site:
- Expanded market: the global disability market represents 1.9 trillion dollars in annual purchasing power.
- Better SEO: accessibility criteria largely overlap with good SEO practices. Alt text, heading hierarchy, keyboard navigation: Google values the same signals.
- Reduced legal risk: compliance protects you from fines and publication.
- Overall quality: an accessible site is better designed for everyone.
The CFO asks "what's the ROI?" The answer: compare the cost of progressive remediation to the cost of a €50,000 fine, public listing, and loss of customers your site excludes. The choice should be obvious.
#Where to start: the 5 steps to achieve compliance
Achieving compliance isn't a six-figure project if you approach it methodically. Here are the 5 steps, in order.
#Step 1: diagnose
Scan your web pages to identify existing errors. Free tools like Lighthouse detect only about 30% of issues. Tools like Includdy cover the complete workflow: detection, plain-language explanation, prioritization by impact. Scanning a page takes 5 seconds with the browser extension.
Don't commission a formal audit at this stage. Diagnose first, fix obvious errors, then audit.
#Step 2: prioritize
The 6 most common errors account for 96% of detected issues:
- Low text contrast (79.1% of pages)
- Missing alt text on images (55.5%)
- Missing form labels
- Empty links
- Empty buttons
- Unspecified document language
4 out of 5 pages have text that's hard to read for someone with low vision. More than half the images on the web are invisible to screen readers. These are often simple fixes: a few hours of development, not months.
#Step 3: fix
Start with high-impact, low-effort errors. Text contrast is fixed in CSS. Missing alt text is fixed in the CMS. Form labels are fixed in HTML. With a tool like Includdy, each error comes with a correction guide and code suggestions.
#Step 4: have it audited by an expert
Once obvious errors are fixed, have a formal audit conducted. Legally, nothing prevents you from doing it in-house. But an audit conducted without recognized expertise is a red flag for inspectors.
Prioritize an auditor whose expertise is verifiable: the "Audit digital accessibility with RGAA" certification (RS6582), registered in France Competences' Specific Repository, is a good indicator.
The auditor will produce the accessibility statement and conformity report. A complete RGAA audit costs between €5,000 and €15,000 depending on site size. Having fixed obvious errors beforehand reduces the scope and thus audit cost.
Includdy offers RGAA audits conducted by certified auditors at more accessible rates than traditional firms. If you're looking for end-to-end support, from diagnosis to formal audit, it's a good starting point.
#Step 5: maintain
Accessibility is not a one-time project. Each new feature, each content update can introduce new errors. Integrate accessibility into your development cycle: automated scanning at each deployment, acceptance criteria including accessibility, team training.
Includdy lets you track compliance over time and catch regressions before they accumulate.
Forgotten Accessibility in Specifications: Who Pays the Bill?
Don't know where your site stands? Scan it free with Includdy: in 5 seconds, you get the error list, plain-language explanations, and concrete correction ideas. It's the first step toward compliance.
Frequently asked questions
Is my mobile application also covered by the EAA?
Yes. The EAA covers digital services in the broad sense, including mobile applications. The EN 301 549 standard goes beyond the web and includes specific requirements for mobile applications and software. If your company provides an application to consumers, it is subject to the same obligations as your website.
Does the EAA apply to companies based outside the EU?
Yes, as long as you provide services to consumers in the EU. The EAA applies to services offered to EU consumers, regardless of where the service provider is established. An American company that sells online to French customers is covered.
Can an accessibility overlay be enough to be compliant?
No. Overlays fix nothing in your website's source code. They add a superficial layer that doesn't withstand technical audit. No overlay makes a site compliant with RGAA, WCAG, or the EAA.
What happens if I demonstrate a disproportionate burden?
The EAA provides for this exception, but it is strictly regulated. You must document why conformity would represent an excessive burden given your resources. Basic requirements (accessibility statement, remediation plan) remain mandatory even in case of disproportionate burden.
How do I integrate accessibility into an ongoing development project?
By integrating it from the specifications phase, not at the end. Fixing accessibility after delivery costs 10 to 30 times more than planning for it from the start. Require acceptance criteria that include accessibility, plan automated scanning at each deployment, and verify your provider's expertise before signing.
