EAA (European Accessibility Act)
The EAA (Directive 2019/882) is the European Union accessibility law requiring ecommerce services sold to EU consumers to meet WCAG 2.1 + 2.2 AA; enforcement began 28 June 2025.
Detailed explanation
The European Accessibility Act, formally Directive 2019/882, harmonizes accessibility requirements for digital products and services across the 27 EU member states. Its scope explicitly includes ecommerce services — every Shopify storefront sold to EU consumers.
The directive does not specify WCAG by name; it defers to the harmonized European standard EN 301 549 v3.2.1, which incorporates WCAG 2.1 (and now 2.2) Level AA as the technical baseline.
Enforcement is delegated to each member state. Germany (BFSG) can fine up to €500,000 per infringement; France uses administrative fines plus mandatory remediation orders; the Netherlands relies on regulatory enforcement actions.
How this applies to Shopify stores
EAA scope is jurisdiction-of-customer, not jurisdiction-of-merchant. A US Shopify store accepting orders from any EU country must comply for those customer-facing surfaces. AccessComply scans the same WCAG 2.1 + 2.2 AA criteria EN 301 549 references.
Primary source: eur-lex.europa.eu