One detail of the European Accessibility Act (EAA) that isn’t 100% clear comes courtesy of the first line Article 2, Scope:
“1. This Directive applies to the following products placed on the market after 28 June 2025:”
(Note: We’re only addressing products here, not services.)
Disclaimer: This post does not constitute legal advice. We recommend consulting with your counsel on EAA compliance.
We wanted to make sure whether this means the Directive applies to all existing product lines in the marketplace after the June 28, 2025, or only to newly created products entering the market after the deadline.
Our interpretation is the EAA applies to all products (or should we say, product lines), current or new, that are placed on the market, but not existing products that were already on the market.
Illustration of our interpretation:
There are 100 computers in inventory at a Best Buy retail location in the United States as of June 27, 2025. Those computers are sold and shipped throughout the world, including countries in the European Union. The EAA would not apply to those 100 computers in inventory. However, for any new computers that are added to inventory after June 28, 2025, those computers (and their associated economic operators) will need to comply with EAA obligations and technical requirements.
But that’s just our interpretation, let’s read through the statutory language.
Plain Language
A plain language reading of the sentence clearly states “products placed on the market after 28 June 2025.”
So does this mean only new products placed?
Or does this also include existing products that continue to sell on the market?
Recitals Confirmation
In the Directive, there is an initial block of 104 introductory paragraphs that start with “Whereas” and are numbered are recitals. Recitals serve multiple important functions:
- They explain why the law was created
- They provide context for interpreting the legal requirements
- They outline the reasoning behind specific provisions
- They help explain how different parts of the law work together
We were hoping this would lead us to the obvious answer.
Starting with paragraph 101, we get tangential additional context:
(101) In order to allow service providers sufficient time to adapt to the requirements of this Directive, it is necessary to provide for a transitional period of five years after the date of application of this Directive, during which products used for the provision of a service which were placed on the market before that date do not need to comply with the accessibility requirements of this Directive unless they are replaced by the service providers during the transitional period.
The second half of paragraph 101 gives us something:
“during which products used for the provision of a service which were placed on the market before that date do not need to comply with the accessibility requirements of this Directive”
But this says, “products used for the provision of a service.” We’re looking for language that helps us with products within scope, generally.
Paragraph 102 provides this:
(102) The accessibility requirements of this Directive should apply to products placed on the market and services provided after the date of application of the national measures transposing this Directive, including used and second-hand products imported from a third country and placed on the market after that date.
Okay, but we’re back to the same question with “products placed on the market” – does this include existing products / product lines that are still in the marketplace and resold after the deadline or just new products / newly created products “placed” on the market?
Conclusion
It wouldn’t make sense for the European Accessibility Act (Directive (EU) 2019/882) to provide so much time for compliance only for the directive only apply to new products. We’re confident the EAA applies to existing product lines where the products are placed into the marketplace after the June 28, 2025.
However, this isn’t an official interpretation.
Given how significant this language is, you’d think the drafters would have gone to greater lengths to ensure there was absolutely no ambiguity.
