EAA one year on: Most Irish companies haven't got the memo.

One year since the European Accessibility Act came into force, enforcement has moved from theoretical to operational. The first court order has been issued. Formal investigations are running across Europe. And 94.8% of websites globally still fail basic accessibility standards.

The compliance gap the EAA was designed to close has not closed.

Enforcement is active across Europe

On June 4 2026, the Tribunal judiciaire de Caen (opens in a new tab) issued the first EAA court order: Carrefour must make its online commerce services fully accessible within six months, with daily penalties accruing until it complies. Proceedings are now pending against Auchan, E.Leclerc, and Picard Surgelés. France's civil society enforcement pattern is one other member states are watching closely.

Penalty structures vary, but we’re watching the same pattern emerge:

• France: first court order issued, daily fines attached, more cases in the pipeline.
• Germany: fines of up to €100,000 per individual accessibility violation, now active.
• Spain: up to €1 million for serious infractions, with the ability to suspend business activity for up to three years.
• Ireland: the only EU member state where non-compliance is a criminal offence — fines of up to €60,000 and up to 18 months' imprisonment, with personal liability extending to company directors and officers. The CCPC has activated enforcement. Most Irish businesses still haven't acted.

"The EAA was never going to be a soft launch. A year in, we're seeing the first court rulings, the first injunctions, and the first formal enforcement notices." — Cormac Chisholm, CEO and co-founder, DevAlly

AI is compounding the compliance gap

Teams using AI tools are shipping more code, more features, and more UI components than ever before. But AI-generated code doesn't automatically meet accessibility standards. Velocity is accelerating, and so is accessibility debt - and most of the time, teams don’t even realise it.

The gap between what companies believe they comply with and what the law requires widens with every release cycle.

Accessibility has become a procurement requirement

The commercial pressure has arrived alongside the legal one.

73% of enterprises now require accessibility compliance as part of their procurement process. What procurement teams ask for is specific: a VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) and a published accessibility statement. Most companies don't have either. For software companies selling into regulated industries like fintech, HR tech, and edtech, accessibility compliance has moved from a question on a questionnaire to a condition of doing business.

Last month, Forbes (opens in a new tab) described accessibility as having evolved from a legal mandate to "a bustling frontier of innovation, impact, and profit" - integral, its editors said, to a smart business.

"The companies that win enterprise deals in the next 12 months will be the ones that treat accessibility the way they treat other compliance standards like SOC 2. Not as a once off, but as an ongoing product commitment." — Cormac Chisholm, CEO, DevAlly

The global picture

The EAA is the most significant accessibility legislation currently in force, but we’re seeing the same thing across jurisdictions:

• Canada expanded its Accessible Canada Act requirements in December 2025.
• Australia mandated WCAG 2.2 in April 2025.
• US ADA web accessibility lawsuits increased 27% in 2025.

Across every major jurisdiction, accessibility compliance is becoming a legal baseline, not a regional requirement.

What this means for your product

The enforcement landscape can look like a compliance burden. It's also a product opportunity. A $675 billion market (opens in a new tab) to be more specific.

Companies building accessible products aren't just avoiding fines. They're opening procurement doors, expanding their addressable market, and building software that works for the one in five people globally who live with a disability.

DevAlly works with organizations across Europe and the US to audit digital products against WCAG 2.2, generate the VPAT reports and accessibility statements that enterprise procurement now demands, and help development teams remediate at speed. Our AI-powered platform combines automated scanning with expert guidance to compress what can otherwise be a months-long compliance program into a fraction of the time.

If you're not sure where your products stand today, that's the place to start.

Want to build accessible products? Get started with DevAlly (opens in a new tab)