Disproportionate Burden Under the EAA: What Article 14 and Annex VI Actually Allow
The European Accessibility Act became enforceable on 28 June 2025, and online shops selling into the EU are now expected to meet its accessibility requirements. If you have looked at what compliance actually involves and thought "this will cost far more than my business can absorb", you may have wondered whether the law has a way out. It does: the disproportionate burden exception in Article 14 of Directive (EU) 2019/882. But that exception is far narrower than most vendors suggest, and misunderstanding it is itself a compliance risk.
What the disproportionate burden exception actually is
Article 14(1) of the Directive says that accessibility requirements apply only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change that results in the fundamental alteration of the basic nature of the product or service, and does not impose a disproportionate burden on the economic operator. Both conditions must be met before a specific requirement can be set aside. You cannot simply declare that your whole shop is too expensive to make accessible.
The two tests are applied to each specific accessibility requirement in Annex I, not to your service as a whole. This matters: even if you successfully argue that one particular feature cannot be made accessible at reasonable cost, every other requirement in Annex I still applies to your shop.
The three Annex VI criteria
When an economic operator invokes disproportionate burden, Article 14(2) and (3) require a formal assessment. Annex VI sets three criteria that this assessment must consider.
The ratio of net compliance costs to overall operator costs. You must weigh the specific costs of making a particular requirement accessible against everything your business spends to run, including capital expenditure.
Estimated costs and benefits for the operator against the estimated benefit for persons with disabilities, taking into account the amount and frequency of use of the product or service. A requirement that is rarely used by customers and costs a great deal to change looks different from one that affects many users frequently. The Directive explicitly asks you to make this comparison.
The ratio of net compliance costs to operator net turnover. A requirement that represents a manageable percentage of turnover for a large retailer may represent a genuinely unsustainable burden for a small one. This criterion is what gives small businesses a real basis for the exception, but it must be documented, not assumed.
What the Directive explicitly rejects
Recital 66 of the Directive is blunt: lack of priority, lack of time, and lack of knowledge are not legitimate reasons for claiming disproportionate burden. The Directive also states in Article 14(6) that if you receive public or private funding from sources other than your own resources specifically for the purpose of improving accessibility, you cannot rely on the disproportionate burden exception at all. If a grant, subsidy, or third-party investment was given to make your shop more accessible, the exception is closed to you on that requirement.
What Recital 66 makes clear is that even when you invoke the exception, you must still make the product or service as accessible as possible within what is reasonably achievable. The exception reduces your obligations on specific points; it does not allow you to do nothing.
It applies to the specific requirement, not to your whole shop
Because the test is applied requirement by requirement, the disproportionate burden exception cannot be used as a blanket waiver for your entire online shop. If alt text for product images is too costly, that specific requirement may be waived. Your checkout process, your contact form, and your navigation structure are separate requirements and each must be assessed separately.
This is a point where many small businesses are misadvised. A vendor that tells you the EAA is "too expensive for a small shop" and sells you a full exemption or a badge claiming your site is compliant is not describing what the law actually does. No authority issues any EAA certificate, label, or seal.
What you must document
Article 14(2) and (3) require the economic operator that invokes the exception to carry out and document the assessment, keep all relevant results for 5 years from the last making available of the product or the last provision of the service, and provide a copy to the authorities on request. If your national law requires it, you may also need to include this information in a publicly available accessibility statement.
One simplification applies to microenterprises dealing with products: under Article 14(4), they are exempt from the formal documentation obligation but must still give the market surveillance authority the relevant facts if it requests them. Microenterprises providing services have a broader exemption under Article 4(5), but that exemption applies to the service accessibility requirements themselves, not to the disproportionate burden test for requirements that do apply.
What to do now
Do not assume the exception covers you without working through the three Annex VI criteria. The steps below are practical, not a substitute for legal advice.
- Identify each specific requirement in Annex I that you believe you cannot meet and why.
- Work through each one against the three Annex VI criteria: cost ratio, benefit comparison, and turnover ratio. Document the figures you use.
- Check whether you have received any funding specifically for accessibility improvements. If you have, Article 14(6) means you cannot invoke disproportionate burden for that requirement.
- Make everything else as accessible as possible. Recital 66 is clear: the exception does not allow you to stop at a partially inaccessible shop.
- Keep your assessment for 5 years. If your national enforcement authority asks for it, you must be able to produce it.
- Get professional advice if you are uncertain whether a specific requirement genuinely meets the disproportionate burden test under your national law, which is where enforcement will actually happen.
The disproportionate burden exception is real and it is there for businesses that genuinely face unsustainable costs on specific requirements. But it is a precise legal tool, not a safety net for inaction. Used correctly, it can focus your compliance effort on what actually matters for your customers and your business.
For more on what the EAA actually requires and how enforcement works in practice, see our guide to The European Accessibility Act for online shops: 2026 practical guide and Who is actually enforcing the European Accessibility Act in 2026?.