Belgique · Belgïe · EAA compliance guide
EAA in Belgium — the 28 November 2022 law for developers
Belgium transposed the European Accessibility Act through the federal Loi du 28 novembre 2022 / Wet van 28 november 2022 relating to the accessibility of products and services. Enforcement took effect 28 June 2025. Market surveillance and administrative fines fall primarily to the SPF Économie / FOD Economie (Inspection économique / Economische Inspectie), with sector authorities covering banking (BNB/NBB, FSMA) and telecoms (BIPT/IBPT). Penalties run to €80,000 per violationand can escalate to criminal sanctions in egregious cases, given Belgium's broader Code de droit économique / Wetboek van economisch recht enforcement machinery.
Legal framework — three regions, one federal law
Belgian accessibility law operates across two levels:
- Public sector — Loi / Wet 19 juillet / 19 juli 2018: transposed Directive 2016/2102. BOSA (Service public fédéral Stratégie et Appui / Federale Overheidsdienst Beleid en Ondersteuning) publishes the register of public-sector accessibility statements.
- Private sector — Loi / Wet 28 novembre / 28 november 2022: transposes Directive 2019/882 (the EAA). Effective 28 June 2025.
- EN 301 549 v3.2.1 — harmonised standard referenced by both laws; embeds WCAG 2.1 Level AA for web content.
- Code de droit économique / Wetboek van economisch recht — the SPF/FOD's general fining and criminal-sanction toolkit.
The federal level defines the substantive accessibility requirements. The regions (Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels-Capital, German-speaking Community) apply the law through their own enforcement channels for sector-specific public services, but the consumer-facing private-sector surface — covered by the EAA — is uniformly federal.
Who it applies to
In-scope services offered to consumers in Belgium:
- E-commerce, online marketplaces, booking platforms.
- Consumer-facing banking and financial services.
- E-books, e-readers, and associated software.
- Consumer-facing electronic communications (messaging, VoIP, 112 emergency calls).
- Passenger transport ticketing, real-time info, NMBS/SNCB self-service terminals.
- Consumer hardware terminals and their operating systems.
Microenterprise exemption per Article 4(5) EAA: fewer than 10 employees and annual turnover / balance sheet under €2M, providing services. Product manufacturers are not exempt regardless of size.
Non-Belgian operators serving Belgian consumers fall within SPF/FOD reach. Given Belgium hosts EU institutions and attracts cross-border consumer spend, the practical reach is broader than the resident population suggests.
Technical requirements — EN 301 549
EN 301 549 v3.2.1 is the referenced harmonised standard. For web content, WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the conformance target. Key technical expectations:
- Perceivable — alt text, captions for prerecorded video, 4.5:1 body contrast, 3:1 large text.
- Operable — full keyboard navigation, no flashing above 3 Hz, visible focus indicator.
- Understandable —
<html lang="fr-BE">,"nl-BE", or"de-BE"as appropriate; predictable navigation; explicit form labels and error messages. - Robust — valid HTML, ARIA consistent with DOM semantics.
Multi-language sites must declare the correct language per page / per content block (lang attributes on mixed-language fragments). Screen readers rely on this to switch pronunciation profiles.
Penalties and enforcement
- Administrative fines from the Inspection économique / Economische Inspectie: up to €80,000 per violation.
- Transactional fines (amendes administratives) settled without court proceedings — common outcome for first-offence non-compliance.
- Criminal referral under the Code de droit économique for repeat or aggravated offences — fines can exceed €1M with corporate-multiplier provisions.
- Public decision publication via SPF Économie press pages — reputational cost comparable to a GDPR APD/GBA decision.
- Sector regulators (FSMA for investment services, BNB/NBB for banks, BIPT/IBPT for telecoms) apply separate fining frameworks on top.
Belgian DPOs (associations représentatives / representatieve verenigingen) including Unia and the Conseil Supérieur National des Personnes Handicapées have standing to lodge complaints with the SPF/FOD. Expect complaint volume to skew toward high-traffic e-commerce and banking consumer apps.
Accessibility statement — three languages
The statement (déclaration d'accessibilité / toegankelijkheidsverklaring / Erklärung zur Barrierefreiheit) must be published in the language(s) of the region(s) you operate in. National consumer brands typically publish all three: French, Dutch, and German. Content requirements:
- Conformance status: conforme / partiellement conforme / non conforme to EN 301 549.
- List of non-accessible content with justification (disproportionate burden, pending remediation, exemption).
- Named accessibility contact (email recommended; phone optional).
- Escalation procedure — SPF Économie / FOD Economie as default federal escalation; sector regulator where applicable.
- Assessment methodology (self-assessment, third-party audit) with date.
- Preparation and last-review dates.
- The statement itself must be accessible and linked from the site footer.
How to comply — CI-first approach
- Baseline scan — axe-core 4.11 against the homepage and 10 critical consumer flows, per language variant. Cross-language issues surface best with per-locale scan passes.
- Fix at source — overlay widgets do not satisfy EN 301 549; the Inspection économique evaluates the served HTML.
- CI gate — fail PRs that add serious-severity regressions; prevents drift between audits.
- Annual human audit — axe-core catches ~57% of WCAG issues; commission an IAAP-certified auditor to cover the rest. Belgium-based auditors (AnySurfer, BlindSurfer) are established references.
- Publish statements in FR, NL, and DE as relevant, with SPF/FOD escalation details.
- Retain evidence — per-PR axe-core scan history is the most defensible ongoing-diligence record in an SPF/FOD proceeding.