Croatia accessibility law: Zakon 17/2019 + EAA explained

Who has to comply

Public-sector since 2019; consumer services from 28 June 2025.

Croatia is a smaller market with a strong seasonal tourism economy, so many foreign sellers and booking platforms reach Croatian consumers, particularly around travel and hospitality. Under the EAA transposition, a non-EU store selling to Croatian consumers is covered on the country-of-consumption basis. A Croatian-language accessibility statement is expected, which tourist-facing foreign operators accustomed to English-only interfaces frequently overlook.

What the law actually requires

The technical baseline is WCAG 2.1 Level AA via EN 301 549. EN 301 549 references WCAG 2.1 Level AA in full and adds a few requirements specific to mobile apps and documents. Beyond the technical bar, Croatia requires the following operational items, which auditors check first because they are simple to verify:

• EN 301 549 / WCAG 2.1 AA

• Croatian-language statement

Penalties and how enforcement actually works

HRK-denominated administrative fines under the EAA implementing act.

Enforcement is centralised in the Central State Office for the Development of the Digital Society (Središnji državni ured za razvoj digitalnog društva), which administered the 2019 public-sector regime and now extends to covered consumer services. The approach is centrally coordinated and complaint-driven, with administrative fines under the EAA implementing act. As a relatively new and smaller enforcement operation, Croatia is likely to concentrate its first enforcement cycle on obvious, visible non-compliance rather than exhaustive technical audits.

Practical first steps for a Croatia site

If you are starting now and want to land before enforcement, run an automated audit, fix the high-impact issues (contrast, labels, keyboard, focus), publish an accessibility statement, and set up a feedback inbox. That sequence covers 80% of what auditors look for in a first sweep.

• Run a baseline scan to know your current score

• Fix critical and serious issues in priority order — these are the ones cited in complaints

• Publish a public accessibility statement on a stable URL (Croatia regulators expect this discoverable)

• Add a feedback channel and answer within the country-specified window

• Re-scan after every major release; track regressions