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EAAWeb Accessibility DirectiveEN 301 549

EAA vs Web Accessibility Directive: private vs public

The EAA covers private products and services; the Web Accessibility Directive covers public sector sites. Here's which applies to you.

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Pavel Charkasau

The difference between the EAA and the Web Accessibility Directive comes down to who you are, not what you build. The European Accessibility Act, Directive (EU) 2019/882, is a private-sector law. It has applied since 28 June 2025 to businesses that sell a defined list of products and services to consumers in the EU. The Web Accessibility Directive, Directive (EU) 2016/2102, is the older public-sector law. Since 2016 it has required government websites and mobile apps across the EU to be accessible. If you run a shop, a bank, or a SaaS product, the EAA is your law. If you run a ministry, a city council, or a public university, the Web Accessibility Directive is yours. Some organisations, like a state-owned transport operator that also sells tickets commercially, land under both. The two laws lean on the same technical standard, EN 301 549, and the same web bar inside it, WCAG 2.1 Level AA, which is why teams mix them up. This guide sets out who each one covers, what it demands beyond the code, and how they overlap.

Are the EAA and the Web Accessibility Directive the same law?

No. They are two separate EU directives, passed three years apart, aimed at different organisations. The Web Accessibility Directive came first, in 2016, and it targets the public sector only (EUR-Lex). The European Accessibility Act followed in 2019 and reaches into the private sector, covering products and services that the earlier directive never touched (EUR-Lex).

People conflate them because both point at the same standard for the web. EN 301 549 is the harmonised standard behind the public-sector directive, and it is also the standard the EAA relies on for web and app conformity. One yardstick, two laws. The practical question is never "which standard do I meet" but "which law am I under", because the process wrapped around the code, the paperwork, the monitoring, the deadlines, is different for each.

Who does each one cover?

The Web Accessibility Directive covers public sector bodies: central and local government, ministries, municipalities, public hospitals, public universities, and the bodies governed by public law that run public services (W3C). If your organisation is funded and controlled by the state and provides a public service, you are almost certainly in scope.

The EAA covers economic operators in the private sector, though public bodies that provide the same covered services are caught too. It reaches manufacturers, importers, distributors, and service providers, and it applies by market: a business based outside the EU that sells covered products or services to EU consumers is in scope for those sales (European Commission). The EAA also carves out microenterprises that provide services (fewer than 10 people and under €2 million turnover), a relief the public-sector directive has no equivalent of.

What products and services fall under each?

This is where the two laws diverge most. The Web Accessibility Directive has a narrow technical footprint: the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies. That is it. A council's website, a tax portal, a university's student app.

The EAA covers a specific list of consumer products and services, and it goes well beyond the web. On the services side: e-commerce, consumer banking, e-books, electronic communications, and elements of passenger transport. On the products side: computers and operating systems, smartphones, e-readers, payment terminals, ATMs, ticketing machines, and check-in kiosks (EUR-Lex). So a public sector body worries about its site and its app. A private business under the EAA may have to think about physical hardware in a shop as well as its checkout page.

Which standard and WCAG version do they use?

Both point to EN 301 549 v3.2.1, published in March 2021, and both therefore set WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the bar for web content. For the public-sector directive, the European Commission named the standard in Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/1339, which cited EN 301 549 v3.2.1 in the Official Journal. Meet the relevant clauses and you get a presumption of conformity with the law.

The web requirement lives in Chapter 9 of the standard, which is WCAG 2.1 AA renumbered with a "9." prefix. Clause 9.1.4.3 is WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum); clause 9.2.4.7 is WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible. Public sector mobile apps pick up Chapter 11 on top. A draft update, EN 301 549 v4.1.0, went out for public comment in November 2025 and is expected to bring WCAG 2.2 into the standard. Until a version citing WCAG 2.2 is published in the Official Journal, the working bar for both laws stays at WCAG 2.1 AA. I'd still build new work to WCAG 2.2 now: the added criteria, accessible authentication and a 24-by-24-pixel target minimum among them, are cheap to design in and painful to retrofit. Our WCAG checklist tracks 2.1 AA and flags where 2.2 adds something new.

How is each one monitored and enforced?

The enforcement model is the sharpest practical difference, and it runs the opposite way to what most people assume. The public-sector directive is the one with proactive, scheduled monitoring. Article 8 requires each member state to designate a national monitoring body, sample public sector sites and apps on a fixed method, and report to the European Commission every three years. Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1524 defines that method: a simplified automated check across a broad sample, plus an in-depth human check of whole journeys with assistive technology. The Commission published the second cycle of reports, covering 2022 to 2024, on 13 February 2025 (European Commission). A public body under this regime gets checked on a schedule whether or not anyone complains.

The EAA works through market surveillance instead. Each member state designates authorities that can act on complaints and run their own checks, and can require an operator to bring a product or service into conformity or withdraw it, with penalties set nationally. There is no EU-wide three-year sampling cycle written into the EAA the way there is for the public sector. In day-to-day terms, a public body sits in a sampling frame; a private operator is more likely to be looked at after a complaint or a targeted surveillance action.

Can one organisation fall under both?

Yes, and it is more common than it looks. The test is not the organisation but the activity. A public transport operator's core information portal falls under the Web Accessibility Directive as a public sector service. The same operator's commercial ticketing app, sold to consumers, is an EAA service. A state-owned bank runs a public-facing site under one law and consumer banking services under the other.

When both apply, you do not get to pick the gentler one. You meet each law for the activity it governs. The saving grace is the shared standard: the engineering work to reach WCAG 2.1 AA is the same on both sides, so the technical remediation is one job. What differs is the paperwork and the reporting each law expects around it.

Does meeting one mean I've met the other?

For the web code, largely yes, because both set the same WCAG 2.1 AA bar through the same standard. Fix your contrast, your focus order, your form labels, and your keyboard operation, and that work counts under either law. The gaps are in the obligations around the code.

Both laws require an accessibility statement, but not the same one. The public-sector directive prescribes a model template set in Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1523, with a mandatory feedback mechanism and a link to the national enforcement procedure. The EAA asks service providers to explain how the service meets the requirements in their general terms, and asks product operators to keep conformity documentation. A statement written for one law is not automatically valid for the other. You can draft either with our accessibility statement generator.

And under both laws, "we meet WCAG" is harder to prove than to claim. Deque's analysis of more than 2,000 audits found automated testing caught about 57% of issues by volume, and estimates based on how many success criteria a scanner can even evaluate put the figure closer to 30% (Deque). The rest, meaningful alt text, focus order, errors announced to a screen reader, needs a person to confirm. This is why no scanner or overlay widget can declare a site conformant on its own. Claiming otherwise is what earned the overlay vendor accessiBe a $1 million order from the US Federal Trade Commission for representing that its product made sites WCAG compliant (FTC). Automation finds the machine-detectable issues; full conformance still needs human review.

Frequently asked questions

Is the EAA the same as the Web Accessibility Directive?

No. The EAA (Directive (EU) 2019/882) is a private-sector law covering consumer products and services. The Web Accessibility Directive (Directive (EU) 2016/2102) is a public-sector law covering government websites and apps. Both use EN 301 549 and WCAG 2.1 AA for the web, which is why they are easy to confuse.

Which one applies to my organisation?

If you are a public sector body, the Web Accessibility Directive applies. If you sell covered products or services to consumers in the EU, the EAA applies. Some organisations, like a public body running a commercial service, fall under both, and then each law governs its own activity.

Do both require an accessibility statement?

Yes, but different ones. The Web Accessibility Directive prescribes a model statement with a feedback mechanism and enforcement link (Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1523). The EAA asks service providers to describe conformity in their terms and product operators to keep conformity documentation.

Which WCAG version do they require?

WCAG 2.1 Level AA for both, through EN 301 549 v3.2.1. A draft update aligning the standard with WCAG 2.2 was out for comment in late 2025, but 2.1 AA is the working bar until a new version is cited in the Official Journal.

How is each one enforced?

The Web Accessibility Directive uses scheduled member-state monitoring with reports to the Commission every three years. The EAA uses market surveillance authorities that act on complaints and checks, with penalties set nationally. The public-sector regime samples proactively; the EAA is more complaint-driven.

Find out which requirements you actually meet

Whichever law you are under, the web work starts from the same place: measuring your site against WCAG 2.1 AA, the bar EN 301 549 sets. Run a free scan to surface the machine-detectable issues on your key pages and user journeys, then work through the manual checks a scanner cannot judge. You will have a real baseline for the web clauses of EN 301 549 and the evidence to write a truthful accessibility statement for whichever directive applies to you.

Pavel Charkasau, founder, wcagc.com. Last updated 3 August 2026.

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