The EAA microenterprise exemption lets the smallest service providers skip the accessibility requirements of the European Accessibility Act. It sits in Article 4(5) of Directive (EU) 2019/882: microenterprises providing services are exempt from meeting those requirements and from the obligations attached to them. A microenterprise is an enterprise that employs fewer than 10 people and has an annual turnover, or a balance sheet total, of no more than €2 million (Article 3). Two things trip people up. First, the carve-out is for services only. If a microenterprise makes or sells a covered product, that product still has to meet the accessibility requirements. Second, it is a status, not a permanent right: cross 10 staff or €2 million and the exemption lapses. It also removes a legal duty, not the reason the duty exists. A customer using a screen reader still can't check out on a site that ignores keyboard access, exempt or not. This guide covers who qualifies, why products are treated differently, and when relying on the exemption is the wrong call even where it holds.
What is the EAA microenterprise exemption?
It is a full carve-out for service providers below a set size. Article 4(5) states that microenterprises providing services are exempt from complying with the accessibility requirements and from any obligations relating to that compliance (Directive (EU) 2019/882). No assessment, no documentation, no accessibility statement duty for the service itself.
The reasoning is in Recital 70. The legislators judged that the cost of compliance would fall on microenterprises as a disproportionate share of their financial and human resources (Recital 70, Directive (EU) 2019/882). So this is a blanket size-based relief, and it is unlike the disproportionate burden exemption, which any operator has to earn requirement by requirement with a written cost-benefit assessment. The microenterprise carve-out asks for none of that. If you qualify and you provide a service, the service requirements of the EAA don't apply.
Who counts as a microenterprise under the EAA?
You qualify only if you meet a staff test and a money test at the same time. The definition in Article 3 is an enterprise that employs fewer than 10 persons and that has an annual turnover not exceeding €2 million, or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding €2 million (Directive (EU) 2019/882).
Read the logic carefully, because it is easy to get backwards:
- Headcount is the hard gate. Fewer than 10 people. Ten or more and you are out, whatever your revenue.
- The money test is an "or". Turnover under €2 million or balance sheet under €2 million. You need one of the two, not both.
A nine-person consultancy turning over €1.5 million is a microenterprise. A nine-person firm turning over €4 million but with a balance sheet under €2 million still qualifies on the balance-sheet limb. An eleven-person studio with tiny revenue does not, because it fails the headcount test. The staff count is the line most teams get wrong when they assume "small business" and "microenterprise" mean the same thing. They don't. This is the EU's standard microenterprise definition, the smallest band of the SME scale, not a loose synonym for a startup.
Does the exemption cover products too?
No. The exemption in Article 4(5) is written for microenterprises providing services. It does not extend to microenterprises that manufacture, import, or distribute the products the EAA covers (Directive (EU) 2019/882). A two-person company making e-readers is in scope for the product requirements exactly like a large manufacturer.
Product-side microenterprises do get one narrower relief. They are exempt from having to document a disproportionate burden assessment, so the paperwork is lighter, but the duty to make the product accessible still stands, and an authority can still ask them to explain their reasoning (Article 14, Directive (EU) 2019/882). That is a documentation break, not a pass on the accessibility requirements themselves. Keep it separate in your head from the services carve-out. They are two different reliefs sitting under one word.
Does the exemption apply to my online shop?
Often, yes, if the shop is genuinely a microenterprise, because e-commerce is one of the services the EAA covers. Selling to consumers online is the covered service, so a real micro shop under 10 staff and €2 million is exempt from the service accessibility requirements for that shop.
The catch sits at the product line. If your micro business also makes or places a covered product on the EU market, that product is judged on its own and gets no services exemption. A five-person brand that resells third-party goods through its own store is relying on the service exemption. A five-person brand that manufactures a covered device and sells it through the same store is exempt as a service provider but still on the hook for the device. Same company, two different answers, because the EAA follows the thing being sold, not the size of the seller for products. If you want the full scope picture, we walk through it in who must comply with the EAA.
What happens when you grow past the threshold?
The exemption goes with the status. It is not a one-time stamp you keep. Hire your tenth person, or push turnover and balance sheet both past €2 million, and you become an operator that has to meet the accessibility requirements like everyone else. There is no separate grace period written into Article 4(5) for a business that has just outgrown the definition.
My honest read: treat the exemption as breathing room, not a strategy. If you are a seven-person shop growing fast, the day you cross the line you inherit the full set of duties, and retrofitting accessibility into a live product under time pressure costs more than building it in while you are small. The exemption buys you a window. It does not make the work go away. I'd rather see a growing team spend part of that window meeting EN 301 549 at a comfortable pace than hit the threshold cold.
Should you use the exemption even if you qualify?
Qualifying and relying on it are different decisions. The exemption clears a legal obligation. It does nothing about the customer who lands on your checkout, can't operate it with a keyboard, and leaves. Accessibility is a legal duty for larger firms and a usability fact for everyone, exemption or none.
There is a practical side too. Member States are told to provide microenterprises with guidelines and tools to help them apply the national rules (Article 4, Directive (EU) 2019/882), which signals that even exempt small firms are expected to move toward accessible services over time rather than treat the carve-out as the end of the conversation. Buyers and partners increasingly ask for an accessibility position regardless of what the law strictly requires of you.
If you do decide to close some of the gap voluntarily, start with measurement, and be realistic about what a tool can and can't tell you. Automated scanning catches part of the picture: analysis of more than 2,000 audits put automation at about 57% of issues by volume, while estimates based on the share of WCAG success criteria that can be machine-checked land nearer 30% (Deque). The rest needs a person with a keyboard and a screen reader. No scanner, and no overlay widget, makes a site conform on its own; the US Federal Trade Commission's $1 million order against the overlay vendor accessiBe, for advertising exactly that, is the caution (FTC). Our WCAG checklist covers the manual part so the share a scanner can't judge stays on the record.
Frequently asked questions
What is the EAA microenterprise exemption?
It is a relief in Article 4(5) of the European Accessibility Act that exempts microenterprises providing services from meeting the accessibility requirements and from the obligations attached to them. It applies to service providers only and is based purely on the enterprise's size, with no assessment required.
Who qualifies as a microenterprise under the EAA?
An enterprise that employs fewer than 10 people and has either an annual turnover of no more than €2 million or an annual balance sheet total of no more than €2 million. The staff limit is absolute; the €2 million test is satisfied by meeting either the turnover or the balance-sheet figure.
Does the microenterprise exemption apply to products?
No. Article 4(5) covers microenterprises providing services. A microenterprise that makes or sells a covered product must still meet the product accessibility requirements. Its only relief is being excused from documenting a disproportionate burden assessment, not from the requirements themselves.
Does the exemption apply to a small online store?
Usually yes, because online selling is a covered service, so a genuine microenterprise store is exempt from the service accessibility requirements. But if the same business makes or places a covered product on the market, that product is assessed separately and gets no services exemption.
Do you lose the exemption if you grow?
Yes. The exemption follows the microenterprise status. Once you employ 10 or more people, or exceed €2 million on both turnover and balance sheet, you no longer qualify and the full accessibility requirements apply.
Not sure which side of the line you're on?
Scope questions are easier to answer with real data than with a definition. Run a free scan of your key pages to see the machine-detectable issues, then work the manual checklist for what a scanner can't judge. Whether or not the exemption covers you today, you'll know what accessible actually takes before you cross the threshold and have to meet it.
Pavel Charkasau, founder, wcagc.com. Last updated 10 August 2026.
Sources
- Directive (EU) 2019/882 (European Accessibility Act), EUR-Lex — Article 3 (microenterprise definition: fewer than 10 persons and €2 million turnover or balance sheet), Article 4(5) (microenterprises providing services exempt from the accessibility requirements; services-only scope), Article 4 (Member States to provide guidelines and tools to microenterprises), Article 14 (microenterprises dealing with products relieved of documenting the disproportionate burden assessment), Recital 70 (disproportionate share of financial and human resources). Accessed 10 August 2026.
- Automated testing identifies 57% of accessibility issues, Deque — automated coverage figures. Accessed 10 August 2026.
- FTC approves final order requiring accessiBe to pay $1 million, Federal Trade Commission — deceptive WCAG-compliance claims by an overlay vendor. Accessed 10 August 2026.