European Accessibility Act enforcement: authorities and fines by country

General information, not legal advice. Laws differ by country; for your situation, ask a lawyer.

By Sieghart Michielsen · Published October 25, 2026

Search for "European Accessibility Act fines" and you will find large numbers, often without a source. Some of them are wrong. The EAA (Directive (EU) 2019/882) does not set a fine at all: each member state sets its own penalties in its national law, and each names its own authority. This guide collects what we could verify from the legal texts and the authorities' own pages for nine countries, and says plainly where we have not verified a figure.

In short

• The directive leaves penalties to the member states (Art. 30). Amounts differ a lot between countries.
• Each country has a market surveillance authority for e-commerce, for example the MLBF in Germany and the ACM in the Netherlands.
• Verified maximum fines range from €7,500 per offence for a company in France to €250,000 or 6% of turnover in bad faith in Belgium.
• As of 25 October 2026 we found no published EAA fine against a small or mid-sized online store. Authorities are checking and asking for improvements.
• Microenterprises providing services are exempt in most countries; Belgium's exemption ends on 28 June 2030.

What the directive says about enforcement

Under the European Accessibility Act, each member state must have procedures to check that services meet the accessibility requirements, follow up complaints and check that providers take corrective action (Art. 23). Article 30 then leaves the penalties to national law: they must be "effective, proportionate and dissuasive" and be "followed by effective remedial action". When deciding, authorities are to consider how serious the breach is and how many people are affected.

Two consequences for merchants. First, there is no single EU fine; the figure that matters is the one in the law of the country whose consumers you serve. Second, the law is built around getting barriers fixed. A fine is one tool; an order to correct the service is the more common first step.

Authorities and maximum fines in nine countries

The table lists the authority that supervises online stores and the maximum fine where we verified it in the official text on 25 October 2026. "Not verified" means exactly that: the national law sets penalties, but we have not checked the figure ourselves, so we do not print one.

Figures you may see elsewhere and should not rely on: a French figure ten times the €7,500 maximum has no basis in the French EAA texts; a Spanish "up to €1 million" applies only to very serious infringements; an Italian "5% of turnover" applies only to companies above €500 million average turnover; and older Belgian figures were calculated with an outdated surcharge.

Country notes

Germany

The Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG) is enforced by the MLBF, a joint authority of the federal states (mlbf-barrierefrei.de). Under § 37 BFSG, offering or providing a service contrary to the accessibility requirements can be fined up to €100,000; other offences, such as not giving the authority requested information, up to €10,000. The online store must also publish information on how it meets the requirements (§ 14 BFSG and Annex 3).

Belgium

FOD Economie set out its approach in a guideline of 7 October 2026 (Toegankelijke e-handelsdiensten, § 7.2). The higher range applies to bad faith. Belgian microenterprises are outside the law only until 28 June 2030.

France

A breach of the information and accessibility duties in the Code de la consommation is a 5th-class contravention, enforced by the DGCCRF. For a company that means up to €7,500 per offence. A September 2026 decree (n° 2026-883) changed definitions and the authorities' duties, not the penalties.

Italy

Under art. 24 of D.lgs. 82/2022, AgID can impose fines from €5,000 to €40,000. The percentage-of-turnover rule is reserved for very large companies that ignore an AgID order.

Spain

Ley 11/2023 points to the sanctions regime of Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2013. Enforcement is regional; a royal decree of February 2026 (RD 143/2026) set up the national coordination unit UTAC, which also takes complaints and acts where no regional authority was designated.

Netherlands

The ACM explains on its accessibility page that consumers can report inaccessible websites and that it also selects sites to investigate itself, and that its enforcement "depends on the magnitude of the problems, and on what steps companies are taking to solve those problems". In March 2026 it published a check of about 100 of the largest Dutch online stores: 61% were not digitally accessible. The ACM said it would point the companies with the worst results to improvements, and that companies that do not improve enough risk enforcement action.

Austria, Ireland, Sweden

The Sozialministeriumservice (Austria), the CCPC (Ireland) and PTS (Sweden) supervise e-commerce under their national laws. We have not verified their fine amounts and leave them out until we have. If you sell into these countries, read the national law or ask a local lawyer.

What enforcement looks like so far

As of 25 October 2026, we have not found a published EAA fine against a small or mid-sized online store in any of these countries. What authorities have published are checks, guidance and complaint routes, as the ACM example shows. That can change, and national procedures differ, so treat this as a snapshot.

The pattern in the published material is consistent: authorities look at whether a store is accessible, whether it publishes the required information, and what it is doing about known problems. That makes three things worth having in place, whatever country you sell into:

1. Know whether the law applies. Most countries exempt microenterprises providing services; see our guide to the EAA microenterprise exemption.
2. Publish the required information. Annex V of the directive and each national law describe it; our guide to the accessibility statement for Shopify stores explains the content and placement.
3. Keep a dated record of your work. What you checked, what you fixed and when. If an authority asks what steps you are taking, that record is your answer.

Stores based outside the EU are covered too when they offer their services to EU consumers; our guide for US and UK brands selling into the EU covers that case.

To see where your own store stands on the barriers a machine can detect, run the free check. Automated checks find only part of the barriers, so a manual keyboard and screen reader test is still needed, and the check is not a legal assessment.

How Testamur helps

Testamur is a Shopify app in development. It checks your theme for accessibility barriers at code level, suggests fixes and keeps a dated record of scans, fixes and the accessibility information you publish, per country. It helps you document what you checked, fixed and published, with dates. It does not replace legal advice, and it does not promise any outcome with an authority.

Sources

• Directive (EU) 2019/882 (European Accessibility Act): Art. 23, 29, 30
• Germany: BFSG § 37 (fines) · MLBF
• Belgium: FOD Economie guideline, 7 October 2026, § 7.2 · Code of Economic Law (WER)
• France: Code de la consommation, R. 451-4
• Italy: D.lgs. 82/2022, art. 24
• Spain: Ley 11/2023 · RDL 1/2013 · RD 143/2026
• ACM (Netherlands): majority of large online stores not accessible, 24 March 2026
• ACM: accessibility of e-commerce services

Check your store free

See which barriers an automated check finds on your own Shopify store: the home page and, where your robots.txt allows, collection, product and legal pages, mapped to WCAG and EN 301 549. Free, result by email. Automated checks find part of the barriers, not all of them.

Check your store free

Frequently asked questions

What is the maximum fine under the European Accessibility Act?

The directive itself sets no amount. Article 30 leaves penalties to each member state, which must make them effective, proportionate and dissuasive. So the maximum depends on the country: for example up to 100,000 euros in Germany for offering a service that does not meet the requirements, and up to 7,500 euros per offence for a company in France.

Who enforces the EAA for online stores?

A national market surveillance authority in each country. For e-commerce that is, for example, the MLBF in Germany, the Sozialministeriumservice in Austria, the ACM in the Netherlands, FOD Economie in Belgium, the DGCCRF in France, AgID in Italy, the CCPC in Ireland and PTS in Sweden. In Spain, regional authorities enforce, coordinated by the national UTAC.

Have any online stores been fined under the EAA yet?

As of 25 October 2026 we have not found a published EAA fine against a small or mid-sized online store. Authorities have so far published checks and announced follow-up: the Dutch ACM, for example, found in March 2026 that 61% of about 100 of the largest Dutch online stores were not digitally accessible.

Which country's fines apply to my store?

Generally those of the country whose consumers you serve, because each member state supervises the services offered on its market. A store selling into several EU countries can therefore deal with several authorities. Ask a lawyer how this applies to your setup.

About the author

Sieghart Michielsen. Sieghart Michielsen builds Testamur, a Shopify app that checks EU storefronts for accessibility barriers and keeps a dated record of scans, fixes and accessibility statements. He writes these guides from the legal texts, the authorities’ own pages and public data. He is not a lawyer.