EAA (European Accessibility Act)
The EAA (Directive 2019/882) is the European Union law setting functional accessibility requirements for covered products and services, including specified ecommerce services; enforcement began 28 June 2025.
Detailed explanation
The European Accessibility Act, formally Directive 2019/882, harmonizes accessibility requirements for specified products and services across the 27 EU member states. Its scope includes ecommerce services offered to consumers, subject to exclusions and exemptions including one for microenterprises providing services.
The Directive states functional requirements in Annex I rather than naming WCAG. EN 301 549 v3.2.1 is a commonly used technical benchmark and incorporates WCAG 2.1 Level AA for web content. Work is under way on a future EN revision that reflects WCAG 2.2.
Enforcement and penalties are implemented through member-state law and competent authorities. Merchants should verify the current national rules, exemptions, transitional provisions, and applicable technical standards rather than relying on a cross-country marketing summary.
How this applies to Shopify stores
EAA scope can reach merchants established outside the EU when they offer covered ecommerce services to EU consumers, subject to the Directive and national implementing law. AccessComply reports findings from selected automated WCAG-mapped rules and can map those findings to relevant EN 301 549 web clauses; this is not an EAA applicability or conformance determination.
What merchants should check next
Treat this term as a practical audit prompt, not just a definition. Check the storefront pages where the concept shows up in real customer journeys: product discovery, add-to-cart, cart drawer, checkout handoff, account login, and support contact flows. If the issue affects code, verify the rendered HTML and computed browser output after the theme change. If it affects copy or media, keep the merchant-facing wording accurate and easy to maintain.
Primary source: eur-lex.europa.eu