EU Accessibility Act Product and Service Category Scoping

Start with products because the EAA uses product-law concepts such as placing on the market, making available, manufacturer, importer, distributor, conformity assessment, EU declaration of conformity, and CE marking. Article 2(1) covers only the named product categories placed on the market after the Directive's application date.

The covered product list is specific: consumer general purpose computer hardware systems and operating systems; payment terminals; certain self-service terminals for covered services; consumer terminal equipment with interactive computing capability for electronic communications services; consumer terminal equipment with interactive computing capability for accessing audiovisual media services; and e-readers.

Service scoping should not borrow product categories by analogy. Article 2(2) covers specified services provided to consumers, and Article 3 defines several service categories with narrower boundaries than their everyday business labels.

The covered service list includes electronic communications services except transmission services used for machine-to-machine services; services providing access to audiovisual media services; specified elements of air, bus, rail, and waterborne passenger transport services; consumer banking services; e-books and dedicated software; and e-commerce services. Article 2 also covers answering emergency communications to the single European emergency number 112.

A scope decision should quote the Article 3 definition that controls the category, not just the commercial name used internally. The same screen, app, terminal, book file, or payment journey can be classified differently depending on whether it is a product, a service, terminal equipment, a self-service terminal, an e-book service, or an e-commerce service.

Article 2(4) also excludes limited content of websites and mobile applications from the Directive. These exclusions are content-specific, so they should be recorded at content inventory level rather than applied as a blanket website or app exemption.

The EAA makes a material distinction between product-side and service-side microenterprises. Article 4 exempts microenterprises providing services from the accessibility requirements for services and related obligations. That is not a general exemption for every microenterprise activity.

For products, microenterprises can still be product economic operators. Article 14 gives microenterprises dealing with products a lighter documentation rule for fundamental-alteration or disproportionate-burden assessments, but they may still need to provide relevant facts if a market surveillance authority requests them.

The scope file should let a reviewer reconstruct why the offer was treated as in scope, out of scope, partially in scope, or escalated. Keep the record factual and tied to Article 2 categories, Article 3 definitions, content exclusions, product or service roles, and any Article 14 claim.

A practical record has one row per product, service, terminal, content set, or consumer journey. Avoid one broad label for a mixed offer: a transport booking app, payment terminal, e-book platform, and support website may need different EAA category answers.