The first EAA court cases came from France

Daniel Kosbab4 min read

The European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025. The first court decisions under it that I can find came from France, in May and June 2026. A regulator didn't bring them. Two associations did, ApiDV and Droit Pluriel, with the lawyers' collective Intérêt à Agir.

"Under it" matters, because Spain had an inaccessible website in court two years earlier. In March 2024 the Audiencia Nacional upheld a 90,000 euro fine against Vueling, plus six months without access to public aid. Spain's Secretary of State for Social Rights had imposed it in 2020, under the general disability law, after an inspection found 4 of 38 requirements fully met. That is the older route: a ministry inspects and fines, a court confirms. The French cases are the new one: associations, a civil court, and the article of French law that carries the EAA.

In July 2025 they sent formal notices to four grocery retailers with online shops: Auchan, Carrefour, E.Leclerc and Picard. Then they took all four to court in summary proceedings, the French fast track for a "manifestly unlawful disturbance." Two have been decided.

Auchan, Lille, 5 May 2026

The court in Lille dismissed the case. The site wasn't the reason. The order cites Auchan's own accessibility statement: of 19 categories of non-conformity, 13 had a high to major impact. The judge called Auchan E-Commerce's lack of interest in accessibility "manifeste."

The case failed on one phrase. The article of the French consumer code that carries the EAA for e-commerce, L.412-13, opens with "sans préjudice des articles 47 et 48 de la loi n° 2005-102," without prejudice to the 2005 disability law. Article 47 of that law covers private companies above 250 million euros of average turnover in France. The judge read the phrase as keeping that threshold in play, found Auchan E-Commerce France below it, and saw no flagrant breach of a legal rule, which summary proceedings need.

Simon Parier, a lawyer, pointed out that this reading empties the rule for companies between 2 million and 250 million euros of turnover, and invites large groups to move their online shop into a smaller subsidiary. The EAA's own line is much lower: only microenterprises, under 10 employees and no more than 2 million euros, are exempt for services. The 250 million is a French number from before the EAA. The associations appealed to the Cour d'appel de Douai. No decision has been reported yet.

Carrefour, Caen, 4 June 2026

The court in Caen went the other way. Carrefour France is above 250 million euros, so the order rests on both texts, Article 47 and L.412-13, binding "de manière impérative depuis le 28 juin 2025." (The plaintiffs also published an accessible Word version of the order. The PDF from the court is not one.)

Carrefour argued that accessibility can only be judged as a whole, an "appréciation globale," not point by point. The judge disagreed. EN 301 549, assessed through the French RGAA method, "permet et impose une évaluation ciblée et complète de chaque critère." Carrefour's own statement said 71.21 percent, so Carrefour met its obligations to 71.21 percent, and "le site de e-commerce concerné ne peut pas être seulement un peu accessible, il doit l'être totalement."

I worked out what 71.21 percent means under the RGAA method in September: 47 of 66 criteria. The order lists 19 failures. Same number.

What the court ordered:

  • Carrefour has to provide e-commerce services that meet the accessibility requirements, on carrefour.fr and in the Carrefour app.
  • A penalty of 500 euros per day starts six months after the ruling, so in early December 2026.
  • 10,000 euros in provisional damages to the associations for moral harm, plus 3,000 euros in costs.
  • No suspension of the site and app, which the associations had asked for, and no publication of the decision on carrefour.fr.

Carrefour said it "se réserve le droit de faire appel" and plans to reach 100 percent by the end of 2026, according to Ecommerce Mag. No appeal has been reported.

Who else is enforcing

Not much, in public. The cases against E.Leclerc and Picard haven't been decided. Arcom, which supervises Article 47, put a ministry under formal notice in June. The DGCCRF, which supervises the EAA for consumer services, has announced checks of e-commerce sites for 2026. Neither has published a sanction amount. Outside France I haven't found an EAA court ruling at all. In Germany the market surveillance authority had received nearly 700 reports by June, as I wrote last week.

What the two orders say together

The first EAA enforcement with consequences came from associations, through the courts, and it took eleven months from formal notice to order in Caen. Two judges read the same law two ways, and for French companies between 2 million and 250 million euros of turnover, the question stays open until Douai decides. A conformance percentage on an accessibility statement was not a defense. In Caen it was the plaintiffs' best evidence.

The penalty in Caen starts running in early December. If Carrefour reaches its 100 percent by then, the case ends as a deadline that worked. If not, it becomes the first EAA case with a daily fine attached.