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Article 14 is not a shortcut for missing evidence. If an economic operator relies on fundamental alteration or disproportionate burden, the response should include the documented assessment, the criteria applied, the result, and the accessibility requirements still implemented to the extent required. A microenterprise dealing with products is exempt from documenting the assessment but must provide the relevant facts if a market surveillance authority requests them.

Authorities can review whether the Article 14 assessment was carried out and whether its results were used correctly. Service providers relying on disproportionate burden also need to renew the assessment when the service changes, when requested by the service authority, and at least every five years.

If an authority identifies non-compliance, the response should focus on the corrective action the EAA framework actually describes: what is non-compliant, which requirement is affected, what action will bring the product or service into compliance, who owns it, and how completion will be evidenced.

For products, market surveillance authorities must require corrective action and, if adequate action is not taken within the prescribed period, must require withdrawal within an additional reasonable period. They must then take appropriate provisional measures to prohibit or restrict the product or withdraw it from the national market if adequate corrective action is still not taken. For services, Member State procedures must verify that the service provider has taken necessary corrective action. National penalties should be handled by country-specific counsel or verified national implementing law, not guessed in an FAQ response.

Article 4(5) exempts microenterprises providing services from complying with the EAA accessibility requirements for services and obligations relating to compliance with those requirements. The exemption is tied to service provision and microenterprise status; it is not a general group-company, product, or supply-chain exemption.

Article 3 defines a microenterprise by both headcount and financial limits: fewer than 10 persons and annual turnover not exceeding EUR 2 million or annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 2 million. The Directive incorporates the enterprise definition in Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC. Its partner- and linked-enterprise rules can require data from related businesses to be included, so a subsidiary should not test only its own payroll and accounts.

Article 14 limits EAA accessibility requirements only to the extent that compliance would require a significant change resulting in fundamental alteration of the product or service's basic nature, or would impose a disproportionate burden on the economic operator. The operator must still apply the accessibility requirements that do not create that result.

For disproportionate burden, Article 14 points to Annex VI. The Annex requires a documented assessment of cost ratios, one-off and ongoing costs, estimated costs and benefits for the operator, estimated benefit for persons with disabilities, amount and frequency of product or service use, and the ratio of net compliance costs to the operator's net turnover.

Article 14(3) requires economic operators to document the Article 14 assessment and keep all relevant results for five years from the last making available of the product on the market or after the service was last provided, as applicable. Authorities may request a copy of that assessment.

Microenterprises dealing with products get a specific derogation from the Article 14 documentation requirement. If they choose to rely on Article 14 and a market surveillance authority asks, they must still provide the facts relevant to the assessment. Product manufacturers also need technical documentation that can demonstrate an Article 14 claim where used, and the EU declaration of conformity must state which accessibility requirements are subject to the Article 14 exception.

Service providers relying on disproportionate burden must renew the assessment for each category or type of service when the service changes, when the service-compliance authority requests it, and in any event at least every five years.

The supported limits are narrow. Service microenterprise status removes the specified service accessibility compliance duties, but it should be evidenced with the Directive's definition. Article 14 is requirement-specific and product-or-service-specific. It does not remove the duty to comply with accessibility requirements that remain achievable without fundamental alteration or disproportionate burden.

Authority visibility also matters. Product market surveillance authorities check whether an Article 14 assessment was conducted, review the assessment and Annex VI criteria, and check compliance with applicable accessibility requirements. For services, the authorities responsible for checking service compliance also check the Article 14 assessment.

Start with scope. Identify whether the purchase is for an EAA-covered product, an EAA-covered service, or ICT that supports one of those services. The Commission describes the EAA as covering selected products and services important for persons with disabilities, and the Directive makes Annex I accessibility requirements mandatory for the products and services referred to in Article 2 when public procurement rules require accessibility criteria.

Article 24 connects the EAA to procurements governed by Directives 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU. It does not turn every private purchase or every ICT contract into an EAA procurement. A buyer can still require accessibility contractually, but should label that as a purchasing requirement rather than an EAA scope conclusion.

Then turn that scope into acceptance criteria. Each criterion should say which accessibility requirement is being accepted, what supplier evidence is required, how defects will be classified, what remediation proof is needed before acceptance, and which claims are not accepted without additional evidence.

EN 301 549 is useful procurement evidence for ICT because it defines accessibility requirements for ICT products and services, including software, hardware, and combinations of both. It can make supplier evidence more testable when the report identifies the exact version of the standard, the clauses assessed, the product or service version, the test method, and the result for each relevant requirement.

Under the EAA, harmonised standards or parts of standards create a presumption of conformity only for the accessibility requirements they cover and only where their references have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Procurement wording should ask suppliers to explain coverage gaps, partially applied standards, and alternative solutions instead of treating one standard name as a blanket conformity claim.

The acceptance pack should let a buyer, auditor, or authority understand what was assessed without relying on sales language. It should separate product evidence from service evidence because the Directive uses different documentation mechanisms for products and services.

For product purchases, the Directive points to technical documentation, conformity assessment, an EU declaration of conformity, CE marking, and records that authorities can request. For services, it requires information explaining how the service meets applicable accessibility requirements and procedures that keep the service conforming when the service, requirements, standards, or technical specifications change.

Procurement language should be narrow enough to be verifiable. Instead of saying that a supplier must be 'fully EAA compliant', require evidence that the named product or service meets the applicable EAA accessibility requirements for the bought configuration and use case, or identify the gaps and the corrective action plan.

Do not make the buyer's acceptance decision broader than the evidence. A standards report may support a clause set, a supplier declaration may support a product model, and service information may support a live service process; none of them automatically proves every EAA, procurement, CE-marking, or future-change obligation.

Start with the default rule: Member States apply the EAA national measures from 28 June 2025, and service providers must design and provide in-scope services in accordance with the applicable accessibility requirements.

Article 32 then narrows what may continue. During the transition period ending on 28 June 2030, service providers may continue providing services using products that they lawfully used to provide similar services before 28 June 2025. Recital 101 explains that this rule concerns products placed on the market before the application date and says the transition does not protect a replacement product. Record this as a product-use transition position, not as proof that the whole service is outside the EAA.

A separate contract rule applies to service contracts agreed before 28 June 2025. Those contracts may continue without alteration until they expire, but not for longer than five years from 28 June 2025. A renewal, amendment, replacement contract, new service launch, or materially changed service should therefore be treated as a trigger to reassess the service instead of relying on the old-contract position.

A service-provider transition file should prove why the transition rule applies to the specific service, contract, product, or terminal. It should not say only that the service existed before the EAA application date.

For services, Article 13 requires service providers to prepare information explaining how services meet applicable accessibility requirements, make that information publicly available in written and oral format including in an accessible manner, and keep it for as long as the service is in operation. Keep the Article 32 transition record next to that service information so a competent authority can understand both the conformity position and any temporary reliance on transition.

Article 13 requires service providers to keep procedures in place so the provision of services remains in conformity. It expressly calls out changes in the characteristics of the service, changes in applicable accessibility requirements, and changes in harmonised standards or technical specifications used for the conformity position.

Those same triggers should reopen any Article 32 transition position. A changed service, altered contract, replaced product, relocated or upgraded terminal, new supplier, new harmonised-standard claim, complaint, incident, or authority request may mean the old transition evidence no longer matches the service being provided.

Do not turn a narrow transition provision into an unsupported deadline. Apply Article 32 to specific records: an existing service contract, a product used to provide similar services, or a self-service terminal with an entry-into-use history.

Avoid relying on shorthand dates without the facts behind them. For example, a terminal analysis should not stop at a generic future removal date; it should show whether the Member State provided the Article 32(2) option, whether the terminal was lawfully used before 28 June 2025, when it entered into use, and when its economically useful life ends.

For this FAQ, the covered service categories are electronic communications services, services providing access to audiovisual media services, listed passenger transport service elements, consumer banking services, e-books and dedicated software, and e-commerce services provided to consumers.

Passenger transport scope is narrower than a whole transport business. The Act lists websites, mobile device-based services and apps, electronic tickets and ticketing services, transport service information including real-time travel information, and interactive self-service terminals located in the EU. For urban, suburban, and regional transport, Article 2 limits the service element to interactive self-service terminals.

Consumer banking services are also defined by category. Article 3 includes consumer credit agreements, specified investment and ancillary services, payment services, payment-account-linked services, and electronic money when provided to consumers.