EAA Enforcement in Belgium: What FOD Economie Checks

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) has been directly binding on Belgian businesses since 28 June 2025. Belgium transposed it through the Wet van 19 juli 2023 (Moniteur Belge, 28 July 2023), which was codified into the Wetboek van economisch recht (WER) as Boek XIX. If you run an online shop, booking platform or digital service in Belgium, the enforcement authority is the Algemene Directie Economische Inspectie within FOD Economie.

This is not a future concern. The Economic Inspection is active.

What FOD Economie is and why it matters now

FOD Economie (Federale Overheidsdienst Economie, K.M.O., Middenstand en Energie) is Belgium's federal economic-affairs ministry. Its Economic Inspection arm already enforces consumer protection, market practices and price-display rules under Boek XV of the WER. Since 28 June 2025, it also has a mandate to enforce digital accessibility under Boek XIX.

The Economic Inspection can investigate complaints, run its own market scans and issue administrative penalties. For small businesses, this means accessibility is no longer aspirational. It is a statutory obligation with a federal inspector attached to it.

For public-sector bodies the enforcement picture is different. Websites and mobile apps of federal, regional and local government are covered by the older Wet van 19 juli 2018 (federal level), the Flemish Bestuursdecreet van 7 december 2018, the Walloon Décret du 2 mai 2019 and the Brussels-Capital Ordonnantie van 31 januari 2019. This guide covers private-sector enforcement under Boek XIX only.

Which businesses are affected

Boek XIX WER applies to businesses that sell products or services to consumers through digital channels. That includes:

• Online shops and e-commerce platforms
• Booking and reservation systems
• Banking, payment and e-money services
• Electronic communications services and their user interfaces
• Access services to audiovisual media
• Transport ticketing websites and related passenger information
• E-books and dedicated reading software

Micro-enterprises are exempt from the EAA. The threshold is the same in every EU member state: fewer than 10 employees AND annual turnover or balance sheet total below EUR 2 million. If either threshold is exceeded, the exemption falls away.

One detail that catches Belgian owners off-guard: the test applies to the whole legal entity, not the web activity in isolation. A restaurant group with 15 employees and an online reservation form still falls inside Boek XIX, even if the website is a small piece of the business. The same is true for a bookshop chain that added an e-commerce front-end to an existing retail operation.

What the Economic Inspection checks

The assessment standard is harmonised across the EU: EN 301 549 v3.2.1, which incorporates WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Inspectors look for the same failure modes that any automated scanner surfaces. Here is what that means in practice.

Keyboard navigation. Can a visitor use your entire site without a mouse? Every menu, form field, button and link must be reachable and operable with a keyboard alone.

Screen-reader compatibility. Images need descriptive alt text. Form fields need proper labels. Headings must follow a logical hierarchy (H1, then H2, then H3). Dynamic content such as cookie banners, pop-ups and shopping-cart updates must announce itself to assistive technology.

Colour contrast. Body text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background. Large text (18px bold or 24px regular) needs 3:1. Light-grey text on white fails this test.

Text resizing. Content must remain legible and usable when a visitor zooms to 200%. Nothing should be cut off or overlap.

Error handling in forms. Error messages must identify the problem and suggest a fix. "Ongeldige invoer" is not sufficient. "Vul een geldig e-mailadres in" is.

You can check your website's accessibility score for free to see where you stand right now. For the full Belgian legal context, see our Belgian EAA guide for webshops (Dutch) or loi d'accessibilité e-commerce 2025 (French).

How Economic Inspection enforcement works

The Economic Inspection does not turn up at your office unannounced. Enforcement is complaint-driven and supplemented by risk-based market scans.

Complaint-driven. Any resident, consumer association or competitor can file a complaint via economie.fgov.be. A blind user who cannot complete a purchase because the checkout flow breaks their screen reader is a textbook complainant.

Risk-based monitoring. Economic Inspection also runs its own sector scans. It picks an industry (restaurant booking, e-commerce, transport) and tests a sample of sites against WCAG 2.1 AA. If your sector gets selected, testing happens without warning.

The typical enforcement path runs like this:

1. Economic Inspection identifies a potential violation through a complaint or a market scan.
2. It sends a "waarschuwing" (written warning) describing the findings and a deadline to remedy them.
3. If the deadline passes without a remedy, it can issue a "bevel" (formal order to comply) or initiate an administrative-fine procedure.
4. For serious, repeated or deliberate violations, the fine track can start without a preceding warning.

The Economic Inspection has signalled publicly that the first phase under Boek XIX will emphasise education and guidance. That grace window will not last indefinitely. The enforcement pattern the GBA set on GDPR since 2018 is the reference point: warnings first, then fines once the rulebook is clear.

Penalty framework under Boek XV WER

Administrative sanctions for Boek XIX violations follow the classification set out in Boek XV of the WER. Three routes are available to the Economic Inspection.

Waarschuwing (warning). The inspector documents the violation and gives you a deadline to fix it. No financial sanction if you comply in time. Most first-time small-business cases end here.

Administratieve geldboete (administrative fine). If the violation is serious, repeated or the warning was ignored, the Economic Inspection can issue an administrative fine directly. The ceiling for accessibility-related sanctions under Boek XV is set at the "level 3" or "level 4" bands depending on the specific breach, with maximums that reach EUR 80,000 per violation for legal persons and can rise further for repeat offenders.

Criminal referral. For wilful, large-scale or repeated non-compliance, the file can be referred to the public prosecutor. In practice this route is reserved for the worst-offending operators. A compliant small business with a partial accessibility score will not see a public prosecutor.

Published decisions matter as much as the cash amount. FOD Economie can publish enforcement decisions naming the operator. For a reputation-sensitive SME (a dentist, a law firm, a boutique hotel), the public naming is often more painful than the fine.

How to prepare

You do not need to reach perfect WCAG 2.1 AA overnight. You do need to start and demonstrate progress.

Step 1. Run an accessibility scan. Use our free scanner to get a baseline score. It tests your site against WCAG 2.1 automatically and returns a prioritised list of issues.

Step 2. Fix the high-impact issues first. Missing alt text, missing form labels, low-contrast text and broken keyboard navigation account for the bulk of failures we see on Belgian SMB sites. They are also the easiest to fix.

Step 3. Publish an accessibility statement. Boek XIX WER requires an accessibility statement on your website. It must describe your current level of compliance, list known issues and explain how visitors can report problems. Link to it from the footer.

Step 4. Set up a feedback mechanism. Visitors need a channel to report accessibility barriers. A dedicated email address or form is enough. You are expected to respond within a reasonable period. The FOD Economie guidance references "redelijke termijn" without pinning a number of days; treat it as 14 days unless something breaks first.

Step 5. Document what you do. Keep a record of fixes, dates and testing results. When an inspector calls, a trajectory of improvement puts you in a very different position from a business that ignored the law.

What good enough looks like

Perfect WCAG 2.1 AA compliance is hard even for companies with dedicated accessibility teams. The Economic Inspection knows this. What it looks for is a good-faith effort plus a working feedback process.

If your site has some accessibility gaps but carries an accessibility statement, a feedback mechanism and evidence that you are fixing issues, you sit in a very different risk bracket from an operator that has done nothing. Focus on these four wins first:

• All images carry descriptive alt text
• All form fields have proper labels
• Colour contrast meets 4.5:1 for body copy and 3:1 for large text
• The site is fully operable without a mouse

Those four fixes close roughly 70% of the failures we find in our scans.

Frequently asked questions

Does the EAA apply to my small Belgian business?

If you have 10 or more employees OR your turnover or balance sheet total exceeds EUR 2 million, and you sell to consumers through a website, Boek XIX WER almost certainly applies. Micro-enterprises under both thresholds are exempt.

Can FOD Economie fine me without a prior warning?

In most cases the Economic Inspection will send a warning first and give you time to remedy. For serious, repeated or wilful violations, the warning step can be skipped and an administrative fine imposed directly.

What is the difference between Boek XIX WER and the 2018 federal accessibility law?

The Wet van 19 juli 2018 applies only to federal public-sector websites and mobile apps. Regional public bodies have their own parallel decrees (Flemish, Walloon, Brussels-Capital). Boek XIX WER, transposed from the EAA, extends accessibility obligations to private businesses that sell to consumers.

Do I need to hire an accessibility consultant?

For most SME websites, no. The common failure modes (missing alt text, low contrast, broken form labels, keyboard traps) are fixable by the same developer or agency that built your site. Our free scan returns a specific issue list so you know what to brief them on.

Is there a transition period for private businesses?

No. The EAA took effect across the EU on 28 June 2025. Boek XIX WER has been in force in Belgium since the same date. The Economic Inspection has indicated it will prioritise education in the early phase, but there is no statutory grace period for private operators.

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Check your website's accessibility for free at trustyourwebsite.nl/be/en. The scan takes 30 seconds and returns a prioritised list of what to fix, mapped to WCAG 2.1 AA and Boek XIX WER.