EAA microenterprise exemption: does the European Accessibility Act apply to small businesses?

“Does the European Accessibility Act apply to my small business?” is one of the most common questions we hear from shop owners, agencies, and freelancers. The honest answer is: it depends on your size, and on whether you provide services or products. This guide walks through the microenterprise exemption in Directive (EU) 2019/882 in plain English, with a short self-check at the end.

Not legal advice. This is an educational summary of the Directive. Each EU country has its own transposing law and regulator guidance. For a binding answer, ask a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction.

The short answer

• The EAA has applied since 28 June 2025 to in-scope products placed on the EU market and in-scope services provided to consumers.
• Microenterprises providing services are exempt from the service accessibility requirements and the obligations tied to them (Article 4(5)).
• Microenterprises dealing with products are not exempt from the requirements. They get lighter paperwork: no duty to document a disproportionate-burden assessment and no duty to notify the authority when relying on it (Article 14).
• Small and medium businesses above the thresholds get no size-based exemption. They can only use the general “fundamental alteration” or “disproportionate burden” exceptions, which have to be assessed and documented.

What counts as a microenterprise?

Article 3(23) of the Directive defines a microenterprise as an enterprise that employs fewer than 10 persons and has an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 2 million or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 2 million. Both parts matter: fewer than 10 people, plus at least one of the two financial limits.

Two details trip people up:

• Headcount is not just payroll. The Directive draws on the EU SME definition (Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC), which counts staff in annual work units and can include linked or partner companies. A “5-person” company owned by a larger group may not be a microenterprise at all.
• Status can change. If you hire your tenth person or pass the financial limits, the exemption for services no longer fits. Plan for that before it happens, not after.

Services vs products: why the difference matters

The exemption in Article 4(5) is written for services only. The Directive’s recitals explain the reason: asking the smallest service providers to do and document a proportionality assessment would itself be a disproportionate burden. Products are treated differently because they are placed on the single market once and then sold on by others.

Services in scope (Article 2(2)) include:

• E-commerce services: selling to consumers at a distance through websites and mobile apps. This is the category most SMEs fall into.
• Consumer banking services
• E-books and dedicated e-book software
• Electronic communications services and services providing access to audiovisual media services
• Certain elements of air, bus, rail and waterborne passenger transport services (websites, apps, e-tickets, real-time travel information)

Products in scope include consumer computers and operating systems, self-service terminals (payment terminals, ATMs, ticketing and check-in machines), smartphones and other consumer communication devices, TV equipment for digital services, and e-readers.

A brochure website that sells nothing online is usually not an “e-commerce service” under the Directive. A small online shop, booking flow, or subscription checkout usually is, which is why the microenterprise question matters so much for small sellers.

Transition periods worth knowing

• Service contracts agreed before 28 June 2025 may continue unchanged until they expire, but for no longer than five years from that date.
• Service providers may keep using products they lawfully used to provide similar services before 28 June 2025 until 28 June 2030.
• Member States may allow self-service terminals already in lawful use to stay until the end of their economically useful life, capped at 20 years.

These rules come from Article 32. Check how your country wrote them into national law.

Why exempt microenterprises still do a basic accessibility pass

• You may grow out of the exemption. Retrofitting a whole shop in a hurry costs more than building in basic accessibility now.
• Buyers ask. Larger B2B customers, marketplaces, and public-sector buyers often ask suppliers about WCAG and accessibility statements, whatever the EAA says about your size.
• National rules differ. Transposing laws follow the Directive, but guidance, enforcement, and related laws (consumer, equality, procurement) vary by country.
• Customers are real. The European Commission estimates that around 87 million people in the EU have some form of disability. Keyboard access, readable contrast, and labelled forms help them buy from you, and usually make checkout easier for everyone.

A 10-minute self-check

1. List what you sell to consumers online. Physical goods through a web shop? Bookings? Digital subscriptions? Note each channel.
2. Mark each one as a service or a product using the categories above. Most SME web shops are e-commerce services.
3. Count your staff properly (annual work units, including linked or partner companies) and check your latest turnover and balance sheet against EUR 2 million.
4. Write the result down with the date and the figures you used. If you rely on the exemption, you want a record of why.
5. Check your country’s transposing law or regulator guidance page for any national differences.
6. Decide your baseline anyway. Even if you are exempt, pick a practical target such as WCAG 2.2 Level AA for your key pages.

If you are not a microenterprise

Service providers in scope have to meet the accessibility requirements in Annex I and provide information explaining how the service meets them (Article 13 and Annex V), usually in terms and conditions or an equivalent public page. The harmonised European standard EN 301 549 gives a presumption of conformity for the parts it covers; its web requirements are based on WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Many teams aim for WCAG 2.2 AA as a practical, slightly stricter target.

Useful next steps on this site:

• Free one-page EAA website readiness checklist (printable HTML and PDF)
• EAA SME website checklist: practical first steps
• How to write an accessibility statement for an SME website
• WCAG 2.2 AA starter checklist for small sites

FAQ

Educational materials only. Not legal advice. Not ADA/EAA certification. Sources: Directive (EU) 2019/882, Articles 2, 3, 4, 13, 14, 32 and Annexes I, V, VI. Verify against the official text on EUR-Lex and your national transposing law. A11yReady does not guarantee legal outcomes.