An EU accessibility law exempts microenterprises, not their growth

The workload

Directive (EU) 2019/882, the European Accessibility Act (EAA), requires covered digital consumer services sold into the EU to meet the accessibility requirements set out in its Annex I once the directive applies. For a one-person SaaS business, the relevant question is whether the obligation attaches at all. The directive's own text defines a 'microenterprise' at Article 3(23) as an enterprise employing fewer than 10 persons with annual turnover or balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 2 million, and Article 4(5) exempts microenterprises providing services from the accessibility requirements and any obligations tied to them. A solo founder who fits that definition has no Annex I build-out to perform under the EAA itself, though other law can impose separate duties the EAA does not touch.

What the documents show

Verified: Article 2 lists the services covered from 28 June 2025, including e-commerce, consumer banking, e-books, electronic communications services and access to audiovisual media services. Verified: Article 31 required Member States to adopt transposing laws by 28 June 2022 and apply them from 28 June 2025, the date most commonly cited as the EAA's enforcement start. Verified: the Article 4(5) exemption applies only to microenterprises providing services; recital 71 gives microenterprises dealing in products lighter obligations rather than a full exemption. The European Commission's own summary page describes the EAA, as it reads on 16 September 2026, as setting EU-wide accessibility requirements, without adding detail on the thresholds beyond what the directive itself states.

The operating cost

The directive sets no fee; it sets a compliance requirement and leaves penalties to Member States. Article 30 instructs Member States to lay down penalties that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive, but the EAA's own text does not name a euro figure, and no national transposing statute is cited here, so no specific amount can be stated. What is document-verifiable is the size test itself: fewer than 10 employees and turnover or balance sheet at or under EUR 2 million.

The stop condition

Editorially: the exemption is not a status a business keeps once earned. It is tied to the same two figures every time they are checked, so the moment either headcount reaches 10 or turnover or balance sheet exceeds EUR 2 million, the exemption stops applying by operation of the definition, not by any transitional notice the directive provides for. The sources do not describe a grace period for a microenterprise that grows past the threshold.

• Does the business currently sit under both the headcount and the turnover or balance-sheet threshold, and is that checked on a schedule rather than assumed?
• Which of the Article 2 service categories does the product actually fall into, since that determines which Annex I sections would apply if the exemption stopped?
• Has the relevant national transposing law been checked for its penalty regime, since the directive itself leaves that to Member States?

The EAA's microenterprise exemption is real and specific, not a loophole to interpret loosely. It rewards knowing the two numbers that define it and watching them, rather than assuming a small team is permanently outside the directive's reach.