European Accessibility Act website compliance in Amsterdam: 2026 cost

The verdict in three sentences

If your company sells an online service to consumers (booking, subscriptions, banking, e-commerce, transport), the European Accessibility Act has applied to you since 28 June 2025, unless you are a microenterprise with fewer than 10 employees and under 2 million euros in turnover. The total budget for serious compliance work sits between 7,500 and 26,000 EUR excl. VAT for a medium-sized site, audit included. The realistic timeline is 2 to 4 months, and the most expensive path is always retrofitting a site built without accessibility rather than building it in during a redesign.

What the EAA and the audit standards require in 2026

Across EU member states, including the Netherlands and France, the EAA relies on the European standard EN 301 549, which is aligned with WCAG 2.1 level AA. In France, the RGAA 4.1 is the most widely used audit method: 106 criteria across 13 themes (images, colours, forms, navigation, scripts...); in the Netherlands, audits follow WCAG-EM against the same success criteria. The obligation goes beyond code: you must publish an accessibility statement, document exemptions, provide a contact channel for blocked users and, for the organisations concerned, a multi-year accessibility plan.

Enforcement is handled by national market surveillance authorities. In France, persistent non-compliance after formal notice can lead to an administrative fine of up to 50,000 EUR per service, renewable, on top of reputational risk and actions by disability associations.

Where the remediation hours really go

On the online service sites we audit, 70 to 80 % of non-conformities concentrate in five areas. Forms (missing labels, errors not announced to screen readers) come first, followed by home-made JavaScript components: dropdown menus, modals, carousels, date pickers. Then come brand colour contrast, keyboard navigation and downloadable PDF documents, which are often forgotten.

At a day rate of 550 to 750 EUR excl. VAT for a front-end developer trained in accessibility, 12 to 25 days explains the 5,000 to 20,000 EUR range. If your site relies on a theme or component library that is not accessible, it is sometimes cheaper to replace the library than to patch it.

Typical 2 to 4 month plan

Weeks 1 to 3: audit, screen reader testing and prioritised findings. Weeks 4 to 10: fixes in batches, starting with the revenue journey (sign-up, payment, customer area). Weeks 11 to 14: re-audit, statement drafting, editor training so new content stays compliant. Adding automated tests (axe-core, Pa11y) to the deployment pipeline prevents regressions at every release.

Mini case study

Thomas, digital director of an online service company (wellness subscriptions, 60 employees, 4.5 million EUR turnover), receives the audit: 48 % compliance rate. Budget committed: audit 4,200 EUR, user testing 2,400 EUR, 18 days of fixes at 650 EUR or 11,700 EUR, statement and plan 1,600 EUR, re-audit 2,000 EUR. Total: 21,900 EUR excl. VAT, over 13 weeks. The rate rises to 91 %. Measured side effect on the subscription funnel: clearer forms, abandonment down 3 points, about 140 extra subscriptions per year at 15 EUR per month, close to 25,000 EUR of annual revenue. Compliance pays for itself in under a year.

FAQ

Is my 30-employee company covered by the EAA?

Yes, if you provide a covered online service (e-commerce, banking, transport, communications, e-books). Only microenterprises with fewer than 10 employees and under 2 million EUR turnover are exempt for services.

Is an accessibility overlay or widget enough?

No. These overlays at 50 to 500 EUR per month do not fix the source code and are regularly criticised by screen reader users. They do not make you compliant with EN 301 549 or WCAG 2.1 AA.

What compliance rate should we target?

The legal target is 100 % of applicable criteria, but a rate above 90 % with a dated plan for the rest is a defensible position in 2026. Below 50 %, a site is considered non-compliant.

How much does it cost to stay compliant each year?

Budget 2,000 to 6,000 EUR excl. VAT per year: annual re-audit, statement update and checks on new pages. Automated tests in the pipeline cut that cost by about 30 %.

Should we rebuild the site or fix the existing one?

If the initial rate is above 40 % and the stack is recent, fixing is almost always cheaper. If a redesign is planned within 12 months, write accessibility into the specification: the extra cost is then only 10 to 15 %.

Let's scope your project. Send us your site URL and critical journeys: we price the audit, fixes and re-audit, with an indicative budget and a 2 to 4 month schedule. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.