European Accessibility Act Compliance in Spain

Title I applies to businesses that place covered products on the Spanish market or provide covered services to consumers in Spain. It covers e-commerce, consumer banking, e-books, electronic communications, access to audiovisual media services and parts of passenger transport. Spain went further than the Directive and added the websites and apps of electricity and gas suppliers and of water suppliers, the websites and apps of travel agencies and tour operators, social networks, and queue management terminals.

Article 2(1) lists the products: consumer general purpose computer hardware and its operating systems, payment terminals, cash machines, ticketing and check-in machines, interactive information terminals, queue management terminals, consumer terminal equipment used for electronic communications or for access to audiovisual media services, and e-readers. Article 2(2) lists the services: electronic communications, access to audiovisual media services, listed elements of air, scheduled bus, rail and waterborne passenger transport, consumer banking, e-books and dedicated software, e-commerce, the websites and apps of electricity and gas suppliers and of water suppliers, the websites and apps of travel agencies and tour operators, and social networks.

Annex VII, point 32, defines e-commerce services as distance services provided electronically through websites and mobile device-based services at the individual request of a consumer, with a view to concluding a consumer contract. Article 2(3) adds the answering of emergency communications to the single European emergency number 112, and final provision 18 gives this part no later start date, although Article 31(3) of the Directive allowed member states to wait until 28 June 2027.

Article 3(3) exempts micro-enterprises that provide services from the service accessibility requirements and from every obligation tied to them. Annex VII, point 16, defines a microempresa as employing fewer than 10 persons with an annual turnover of no more than EUR 2 million or an annual balance sheet total of no more than EUR 2 million. The exemption covers services only, so a micro-enterprise that deals in covered products keeps the product requirements, although Article 16(4) frees it from documenting its assessment of a fundamental alteration or disproportionate burden.

Article 2(4) leaves out some website and app content, such as pre-recorded time-based media published before 28 June 2025 and archives that are not updated or edited after that date. Article 3(2) also requires the built environment used by customers of covered services to meet the requirements in Annex III, in line with the sector rules in force, while Article 4(4) of the Directive leaves that choice to each member state.

Article 13(2) requires service providers to include information on how the service meets the accessibility requirements in their general terms and conditions or an equivalent document. Under Article 13(4) that information has to be public in written and oral form, and it has to be accessible to persons with disabilities. Article 15 requires service providers to give their staff adequate and continuous training in how to use accessible products and services.

The transposing law is Ley 11/2023, de 8 de mayo, de trasposición de Directivas de la Unión Europea en materia de accesibilidad de determinados productos y servicios, migración de personas altamente cualificadas, tributaria y digitalización de actuaciones notariales y registrales; y por la que se modifica la Ley 12/2011, de 27 de mayo, sobre responsabilidad civil por daños nucleares o producidos por materiales radiactivos, published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE) no. 110 of 9 May 2023, pages 64035 to 64201, reference BOE-A-2023-11022.

The law transposes several directives. Title I, Articles 1 to 31, holds most of the transposition of Directive (EU) 2019/882. Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the disposición transitoria única (sole transitional provision) set the transitional measures that Article 32 of the Directive provides for, and the disposición adicional tercera (additional provision 3) adds a Spanish rule for websites. Final provision 15 names Directive (EU) 2019/882 as incorporated into Spanish law. Under final provision 18 the law entered into force on 10 May 2023, with several exceptions, and Title I on 28 June 2025, apart from Article 27(4) on cooperation between the State and the autonomous communities, which entered into force on 29 May 2023. As of September 2026 the consolidated text on the BOE website shows no amendment since publication.

Article 28 required a national technical support and coordination unit, which Real Decreto 143/2026, de 25 de febrero, created. It was published in BOE no. 52 of 27 February 2026 and has been in force since 28 February 2026. EUR-Lex lists a second Spanish transposition measure, Orden TMA/851/2021, de 23 de julio, which develops the technical document on basic conditions of accessibility and non-discrimination for access to and use of urbanised public spaces.

Transposition was late. The deadline was 28 June 2022, and the Commission sent Spain a letter of formal notice on 19 July 2022 in case INFR(2022)0300. The Commission's infringement database records no reasoned opinion in that case and shows it closed on 18 June 2025.

Ley 11/2023 sets a national reference for websites. Its disposición adicional tercera (additional provision 3) requires websites within Title I to meet at least the nivel medio (medium level) of the generally recognised web content accessibility criteria, with the standard UNE 139803, or the standard that replaces it, as the reference, without prejudice to the technical criteria of Real Decreto 1112/2018 for public sector websites and apps. UNE, the Spanish standardisation body, lists UNE 139803:2012 as the edition in force.

Article 17 gives a presumption of conformity to products and services that meet harmonised standards whose references are published in the Official Journal of the European Union, and Article 13(3) lets service providers apply those standards when they prepare their accessibility information. The Commission's list shows no harmonised standard cited under Directive (EU) 2019/882 so far. EN 301 549, the European standard for ICT accessibility, is not named in Ley 11/2023. EN 301 549 V3.2.1 applies the WCAG 2.1 level AA success criteria to web content. EN 301 549 V4.1.1, which adopts WCAG 2.2 AA, was published on 2 September 2026 and is not yet cited in the Official Journal.

Under Article 27(3) of Ley 11/2023, each autonomous community, and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, designates its own autoridades de vigilancia (surveillance authorities) within its powers, without prejudice to the powers other authorities may hold under complementary regulations on the covered products and services. Those authorities check the accessibility requirements and apply the sanctions regime. Article 24(1) makes them responsible for the procedures that check whether services conform and that follow up complaints about them. Title I names no sector authority for e-commerce or for any other service.

At national level, Real Decreto 143/2026 gives the Dirección General de Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad the role of the Unidad técnica de apoyo y coordinación de las autoridades de vigilancia en materia de requisitos de accesibilidad (UTAC), the unit Article 28 of Ley 11/2023 requires. Under Article 3(g) of that decree the UTAC is the contact point for the public and businesses on Title I and provides the means to receive complaints. Under Article 3(h) it acts as surveillance authority in any field where none has been designated.

The UTAC page of the Ministerio de Derechos Sociales, Consumo y Agenda 2030 gives the mailbox utac@dsca.gob.es for questions and suggestions. It says a complaint procedure on the ministry's e-office will open soon and, until then, points complainants to the complaint form on its Infracciones y sanciones page. Article 29(2) of Ley 11/2023 also lets consumers and their representatives, public bodies, associations, organisations, bodies of the disability sector and other legal persons with a legitimate interest go to the competent administrative bodies and courts.

Ley 11/2023 sets no fines of its own. Article 30(1) applies the sanctions regime of the relevant sector legislation, without naming it, and where that legislation is silent, Title III of the Texto Refundido de la Ley General de derechos de las personas con discapacidad y de su inclusión social, approved by Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2013. Article 83 of that text sets fines as fixed amounts from EUR 301 to EUR 1,000,000, with a cap of EUR 30,000 for a minor infringement and EUR 90,000 for a serious one, so only a very serious infringement can bring a fine above EUR 90,000. Article 78 makes this regime common to the whole country and leaves the definition of infringements to regional legislation.

Where the conduct reaches beyond one autonomous community, Article 94 gives the sanctioning power to the State, and Article 96 sets its fines for very serious infringements at EUR 90,001 to EUR 1,000,000. Under Article 85(1), the competent bodies also propose a ban on applying for public aid in the sector concerned, for up to one year after a serious infringement and up to two years after a very serious one.