What are the penalties for breaching the European Accessibility Act?

Who sets the penalty?

Directive (EU) 2019/882 requires member states to establish penalties for breaches of national rules. Read the relevant provision rather than a general table of “the EAA fine”. A maximum does not mean that amount is automatically payable for every website error.

First check whether the product or service is covered and what role the business has. Then identify the duty allegedly breached, the relevant period and the national provision. A penalty figure is not evidence that the activity itself is covered.

Why the offence matters

Germany’s BFSG section 37 distinguishes categories: up to EUR 100,000 for specified offences, including the stated offering or provision of a service contrary to requirements, and up to EUR 10,000 for the other listed cases. These are statutory ceilings for particular offences, not a universal tariff for an inaccessible website.

Check which offence the conduct is assigned to. A gap in required information, a product-duty breach and failure to cooperate should not be replaced with one generic number. Do not carry the German ceiling into a Bulgarian case without establishing applicable law.

What to check for Bulgaria

The originally published Bulgarian law separates failure to carry out a required assessment, failure to supply information, obstruction of supervision and a residual provision for other service-duty breaches. These are different situations. The person or entity sanctioned and repeat-offence status also matter.

Before relying on a euro amount, check the provision in force and applicable currency and rounding rules. A conversion from the original lev text is not independent evidence of the current statutory amount. Identify the authority by service type rather than assuming a single office covers every case.

Prepare the following:

• The product or service, market and basis for being in scope.
• The cited provision, period and alleged breach.
• The notice or act received, its issuer and stated deadline.
• Available checks, information supplied and corrective actions completed.

Sanction, order or private claim?

When reading a news report, check what was actually decided. A requirement to make repairs by a deadline is not necessarily an administrative fine already imposed. A conditional payment for failure to obey a court order has a different basis too. A private party’s demand is not automatically a public authority’s decision.

Do not assess risk only by whether you found a published fine. Nor should a foreign court case be treated as predicting the same outcome for you. For a particular notice or proceeding, establish the legal basis and response deadline with appropriate legal assistance.

Questions

Sources

• Directive (EU) 2019/882: national penalties
• Bulgarian law: originally published text
• Germany: BFSG section 37

Related reading

• Who does the European Accessibility Act apply to?
• Do you need an accessibility statement?