Since June 28, 2025, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) has moved from slides to sprint boards. Monitoring bodies are in place, and penalties are on the table. But the real question is: Who checks compliance, and how does enforcement actually work?

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is an EU directive, fully in effect since June 2025, that requires all businesses serving EU users to make their websites, apps, and digital interfaces accessible to people with disabilities – from compatibility with assistive technologies to clear navigation and text alternatives.

While accessibility benefits all digital products, helping them reach more customers, boost satisfaction, and strengthen retention, the EAA specifically highlights key industries that must ensure their products and services are accessible.

Since accessibility is not only a legal requirement but also a clear business advantage, the EAA now gives you two strong reasons to make it a priority.

Let’s see how this plays out across European countries.

Early signals point to two complementary forces. For one thing, users and advocacy groups are pushing cases into the open. On the other hand, regulators are leaning into structured self-reporting, asking companies to disclose accessibility gaps and fix them on the clock.

Together, they’re setting a new baseline: accessibility you can prove.

Disability and advocacy groups have formally notified several major retailers of inaccessible online shopping experiences. It’s one of the first signs that strategic, plaintiff-led actions will quickly surface non-compliance.

These groups acted as soon as the EAA came into effect, and that timing says a lot: people have waited a long time to be heard. For many, this is about daily independence—buying groceries, managing time, living life.

This also hits the heart of digital commerce. People with disabilities shop online more often than the general population. Inaccessible flows don’t just violate rights, they block real demand.

Once a notice goes public, the impact is immediate. Headlines move faster than fixes. Legal teams scramble. Roadmaps derail. The French cases show that fixing accessibility early avoids this spiral.

You’ll need to meet the requirements anyway—so why not do it ahead of the curve and turn a potential legal or PR issue into a competitive advantage.

The Dutch have taken a different, rather pragmatic approach. Instead of waiting for complaints to pour in, companies serving Dutch consumers must self-report any WCAG 2.1 AA breaches and explain how they’ll fix them.

We believe this is the future: transparent, scalable, and fair. Other countries will follow.

Although the first deadline for self-reporting has just passed in the Netherlands (October 15), late reporting is still encouraged and a far better choice than silence and pasivity.

Short answer: any company serving Dutch consumers with a product that isn’t fully accessible.

It doesn’t matter where your HQ is, the EAA applies to the markets you serve.

If you are a Dutch company and your service was inaccessible on June 28, and you didn’t report by October 15, your legal and financial risk has increased, but late reporting is still the right move.

If an update introduces an accessibility issue later from October 15 onwards, report it by severity:

Note that if it’s detected and fully fixed within that window, you don’t need to report.

That depends on your sector:

Dutch regulators can issue fines up to €900,000, or 1–10% of annual turnover for larger companies. Media fines are typically lower (up to €90,000).

But proactive self-reporting and visible progress reduce exposure and signal control.

Even outside the Netherlands, this model applies. It provides documentation, reduces risk, and turns accessibility into a repeatable operational habit.

Most importantly, it addresses the scale problem.

The Dutch model rewards honesty and progress. You disclose issues, prioritize by impact, and work on a visible timeline. This directs effort to where it matters most: unblocking logins, checkouts, and support flows, and building system-level improvements across shared components.

Finally, it’s fair and portable. Whether you’re local or global, the rules and expectations are the same. Publish your current status. Maintain a severity-based backlog. Show ownership and updates.

That gives users access they can feel, provides regulators with proof of progress, and offers you a system that holds up over time.

Need help getting started? We’ve published foundational EAA resources and a practical accessibility handbook.

Start there, then go deeper with an audit and hands-on guidance.

Self-reporting is the future of EAA enforcement because it scales, creates evidence, and gets fixes where they matter most. It turns accessibility from a scramble into a steady rhythm, with clear owners and trackable dates.

If you lead product, now’s the time to set the cadence. Publish your current status, tackle the top blockers, and update on a schedule. Keep it simple, visible, and repeatable.

Let’s make accessibility something you can prove, and be proud of.