Office Secret: Our Company Will Not Meet the European Accessibility Act (EAA) Deadline

At Accessible.org Industries, our Spidey senses are telling us there may be a company or three that won’t have their new products or services be compliant with the European Accessibility Act (EAA) after the June 28, 2025 deadline.

To be sure, this is an unenviable spot to be in — did you know that the different member states have authorities who can impose penalties for non-compliance?

Per the EAA Directive:

Article 30: Penalties

1. Member States shall lay down the rules on penalties applicable to infringements of national provisions adopted pursuant to this Directive and shall take all measures necessary to ensure that they are implemented.

2. The penalties provided for shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. Those penalties shall also be accompanied by effective remedial action in case of non-compliance of the economic operator.

4. Penalties shall take into account the extent of the non-compliance, including its seriousness, and the number of units of non-complying products or services concerned, as well as the number of persons affected.

We’ve heard some regulators may not be looking to strictly penalize non-compliance right away, but, then again, other monitoring authorities may think differently.

Either way, EAA compliance requires a lot of work and you already know whether you’re realistically going to meet the June 28 deadline.

So what can you do if you know your company won’t be EAA compliant by the deadline?

1. Withdraw your product or stop providing the service, if possible.
2. Be as compliant as possible, take action now even if you know it won’t be enough.
3. Supply all of the necessary documentation.
4. Be honest and transparent about your state of compliance.
5. Invest in accessibility now (e.g., training, audits, consultants, etc.)
6. Create a plan moving forward that details how you will meet the compliance requirements and when.
7. Implement accessibility measures in your processes.
8. Track progress.
9. Continue pushing until you reach compliance.

If you can check off as many of these boxes as possible, it’s going to put you in a much better position moving forward.

If you’re still in the early stages, you’re not alone. Many organizations don’t realize how much accessibility and compliance entails until they finally start to look into the process of making their products and services accessible.

We just published an outline guide called, The EAA in Plain English that can help you quickly understand the obligations or administrative side of the EAA.

We’re currently working on part 2, where we simplify the technical requirements in the Annexes.

Of course, if you need help with EAA compliance, Accessible.org is happy to be of service.