Ireland accessibility law: EAA Regulations 2023 explained

Who has to comply

Consumer-facing private services; existing public-sector accessibility under separate 2020 regulations.

Ireland punches far above its population size because it hosts the European headquarters of a large share of US technology, SaaS and consumer-platform companies, so many services legally established in Ireland reach the entire EU market. For a US company, the Irish entity is often the EU-facing operator that the EAA Regulations 2023 bite on directly, not just via the consumer's location. Any store or service selling to Irish consumers is also covered under the country-of-consumption rule, and Ireland's English-language market gives US sellers no localisation excuse for missing an accessibility statement.

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, Ireland requires the following operational items, which auditors check first because they are simple to verify:

• EN 301 549 / WCAG 2.1 AA

• Accessibility statement

• CCPC and NDA reporting if requested

Penalties and how enforcement actually works

Up to €60,000 or 12 months imprisonment for repeated non-compliance.

Ireland splits responsibility between the CCPC (Competition and Consumer Protection Commission), which carries the market-enforcement and penalty powers, and the NDA (National Disability Authority), which provides accessibility expertise and guidance. The regime is largely complaint- and request-driven: covered operators must be able to produce conformity information and reporting if the CCPC or NDA asks, and repeated non-compliance can escalate to fines up to €60,000 or, unusually, up to 12 months' imprisonment. Because so many pan-EU platforms are Irish-established, the CCPC's decisions can have reach well beyond Ireland.

Practical first steps for a Ireland 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 (Ireland regulators expect this discoverable)

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

• Re-scan after every major release; track regressions