Answers / one question
Which services does the European Accessibility Act cover?
Six service groups offered to consumers from 28 June 2025 are covered: electronic communications, access to audiovisual media, named elements of air, bus, rail and water transport, consumer banking, e-books and dedicated software, and e-commerce. All services meet Annex I Section IV; all except urban, suburban and regional transport also meet Section III.
The six groups in Article 2(2)
The covered services are electronic communications services other than machine-to-machine transmission; services that provide access to audiovisual media services; the websites, apps, electronic tickets, real time information and terminals of air, bus, rail and water passenger transport, with urban, suburban and regional transport limited to terminals; consumer banking services; e-books and the software dedicated to them; and e-commerce services.
What each service has to meet
Article 4(3) applies Annex I Section III to all services except urban, suburban and regional transport, and Section IV to all services. Section III covers accessible products used in the service, information through more than one channel, accessible websites and apps, and support services. Section IV adds the sector duties: real time text and total conversation for communications, programme guides and access services for audiovisual, travel information for transport, CEFR B2 information for banking, file and DRM duties for e-books, and checkout and payment duties for e-commerce.
The consumer condition
The service has to be provided to consumers. Article 3(22) defines a consumer as a natural person acting outside trade, business, craft or profession. A service sold only to businesses is not in the Article 2(2) list on that basis, although the product used to deliver it may still be covered. Service provider is wider: it includes a provider outside the Union that offers the service to consumers in the Union.
The content that is left out
Article 2(4) excludes five content categories from the website and app duties: time-based media first published before that date, office file formats first published before it, online maps where essential navigational information is available accessibly, third-party content that the operator neither funds nor controls, and archives not updated after 28 June 2025. The exclusion is for that content, not for the whole service, and a later update brings the content back in.
The provisions behind this answer
Check it against the source
Read the provision at EUR-Lex, CELEX 32019L0882. This page states the rule in our own words; the instrument governs. Not legal advice; does not certify.