Guide

You received an EAA warning letter. The first week.

Since the European Accessibility Act's June 2025 deadline passed, accessibility letters have become a European reality the way demand letters are an American one: German BFSG Abmahnungen from competitors and associations, market surveillance inquiries, consumer complaints escalated to national authorities, and in France, private enforcement actions against retailers. The letters differ; the productive response is the same shape.

Read the letter for three things

1. Who sent it. A market surveillance authority (regulator), a competitor or association (Germany's Abmahnung route, which typically demands a cease-and-desist declaration), or a consumer organisation. Each has different powers and different settlement logic; your lawyer will care which it is before anything else.
2. What it claims. Specific barriers on specific pages, or a generic assertion of non-conformity with EN 301 549 / WCAG 2.1 AA. Generic claims are common and are exactly where an independent audit moves the conversation to facts.
3. The deadline and the demand. Abmahnung deadlines are typically short, one to a few weeks. Do not sign a cease-and-desist declaration, which creates contractual penalties for future violations, without legal advice.

The sequence that resolves it

1. Lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction first. Especially for a German Abmahnung: the declaration you are asked to sign is the trap, not the fine.
2. Preserve the current state. Dated screenshots of the pages named. Then stop changing things rashly; panic-installing an overlay widget is as counterproductive in the EU as in the US, since regulators evaluate the underlying site.
3. Get the factual picture. An independent audit against WCAG 2.1 AA, the standard EN 301 549 points at, tells your lawyer which claims are real and gives your developer the fix list. Our signed audit ($490 for 10 pages, 48-72 hours, reviewed and signed by an IAAP-certified specialist) is built to be read by the other side's expert.
4. Remediate and publish an accessibility statement. The statement is an EAA expectation in its own right, and a letter is the moment it stops being optional paperwork. State what conforms, what does not yet, and the plan; honesty is the design, the same as ours.

Country notes, briefly

• Germany (BFSG): the Abmahnung route means a competitor can enforce, not just the state. Fast deadlines, cease-and-desist mechanics, fines in national law.
• France: enforcement actions against large retailers began in late 2025; RGAA is the national reference alongside EN 301 549.
• Netherlands: market surveillance audits announced for 2026; inquiries arrive as questionnaires before they arrive as sanctions.
• Ireland: fines in national implementing law reach EUR 60,000; enforcement sits with the CCPC.

Common questions

Is this like a US demand letter? Can it be a shakedown?

The German Abmahnung system has a documented abusive-use problem and national law has tightened against it, but as with US letters, "opportunistic" and "fake" are different questions. Verify the sender, then respond through counsel.

We are a US company. Can an EU authority actually reach us?

The practical lever is your EU revenue: payment providers, marketplaces, and the threat of being ordered off the market. Whether and how to respond is a legal strategy question; ignoring cross-border letters because enforcement seems far away is a bet, and your lawyer should price it, not your inbox.

Will fixing the site end it?

Remediation plus a credible statement resolves most regulator-initiated contact, because conformity is what the authority actually wants. Competitor-initiated routes can still want their declaration and costs; again, counsel. No audit or fix makes you immune, and we will never claim otherwise.