The Netherlands' EAA Fine: Why It's €103,000, Not €900,000
The Netherlands is quoted at €900,000 almost everywhere. The real accessibility fine is €103,000 — and the €900,000 figure is a double mistake. Here's the statute.
Quick answer
The Netherlands didn't write its own EAA fine. Its law plugs enforcement into existing statutes, and the accessibility fine is capped at the Dutch Criminal Code's fifth category — €103,000 (2024), via the Commodities Act (Warenwet), Art. 35e. The widely quoted €900,000 is wrong twice over: it's the sixth category (general product safety, not accessibility), and it's out of date (that category is now €1,030,000). Enforcement is split across five regulators, and the market regulator ACM has already found that 94% of the top Dutch webshops it checked had serious accessibility failures.
Where the €900,000 myth comes from
The Netherlands is the clearest case of a wrong number going viral. Almost every "EAA fines by country" list puts the Dutch ceiling at €900,000. It isn't — and understanding why is worth two minutes, because it shows exactly how these figures go wrong.
The Dutch transposition (the Implementatiewet toegankelijkheidsvoorschriften producten en diensten) doesn't set a fine of its own. It amends existing laws, and for products the relevant one is the Commodities Act (Warenwet). That Act contains two different fine ceilings, both defined by reference to the Criminal Code's standard "fine categories":
- The general product-safety fine (Art. 32a) is capped at the sixth category.
- The accessibility fine (Art. 35e) is deliberately set lower — the fifth category.
Whoever first published €900,000 grabbed the wrong ceiling (the sixth, not the accessibility fifth) — and an outdated value of it at that. The number then got copied down the line, unchecked.
| What gets quoted | What the law says | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Sixth (general product safety, Art. 32a) | Fifth (accessibility, Art. 35e) |
| Amount | €900,000 (old value) | €103,000 (since 1 January 2024) |
| Current value of the sixth category | — | €1,030,000 (not the EAA ceiling) |
What the law says
The accessibility-specific cap is explicit in the Warenwet:
"The administrative fine… shall not exceed the amount determined for the fifth category, as referred to in Article 23, fourth paragraph, of the Criminal Code."
— Warenwet, Art. 35e(2) (wetten.overheid.nl)
And the Criminal Code sets the categories:
Fifth category: €103,000. Sixth category: €1,030,000 (both as of 1 January 2024).
— Wetboek van Strafrecht, Art. 23(4) (wetten.overheid.nl)
Put them together and the Dutch EAA accessibility fine is up to €103,000 — not €900,000. (The same fifth-category hook is used for the media and transport enforcement tracks below, so €103,000 is the consistent statutory ceiling across them.)
Who enforces it — five regulators, not one
Because the Netherlands amended five existing laws rather than writing one, enforcement is spread across five bodies by sector:
| Regulator | Sector |
|---|---|
| RDI (Digital Infrastructure Inspectorate) | Physical products — electronics, e-readers, terminals (Warenwet; fifth-category cap, €103,000) |
| ACM (Authority for Consumers & Markets) | E-commerce, electronic communications |
| AFM (Authority for the Financial Markets) | Banking and financial services |
| CvdM (Dutch Media Authority) | Audiovisual media access, e-books |
| ILT (Environment & Transport Inspectorate) | Passenger transport services |
A practical warning for multi-sector businesses: a fintech that also runs a webshop can answer to both AFM and ACM at once. One company, two regulators, two bodies of rules.
One honest caveat on the numbers: the €103,000 fifth-category ceiling is confirmed for the products, media and transport tracks. The e-commerce (ACM) and banking (AFM) tracks are enforced under those regulators' own powers, and ACM in particular has broader consumer-enforcement fining tools (practitioner sources suggest turnover-based fines may be available for large-scale breaches). If you're a large e-commerce or financial operator, treat €103,000 as the confirmed statutory starting point, not necessarily ACM's ceiling — and check ACM's own guidance for your case.
Has it been enforced yet? Yes — and the results are striking
The Netherlands has the strongest confirmed enforcement activity of any EU country so far. On 24 March 2026, ACM published its first systematic check — an investigation of roughly 100 of the largest Dutch webshops. The findings:
- 61% made it impossible for users with disabilities to place an order at all;
- a further 33% had serious problems that strongly hindered ordering;
- combined, 94% of the top webshops checked had a significant accessibility failure.
An independent 2025 study of the top 300 Dutch e-commerce platforms found the same pattern — 6 of the 15 largest were non-compliant. This isn't theoretical risk; it's a regulator that has already gone looking and published its results.
How ACM approaches it — effort counts
One useful nuance: ACM has said it's starting with the critical failures (things that stop disabled users completing a task), not cosmetic ones — and that it weighs the visible effort a business is making. A company that can show a genuine remediation plan is treated more supportively; one that ignores or obstructs the process risks formal enforcement. Businesses aren't fined on day one — authorities reach out and give time to fix first.
What this means for your business
If you sell to Dutch consumers, two things are true at once: the statutory fine is lower than the internet claims (€103,000, not €900,000), but the enforcement is more real than almost anywhere else — ACM has already audited the market and found 94% failing. The takeaway isn't "the fine is small, relax"; it's "the regulator is actively looking, and showing visible progress toward EN 301 549 / WCAG 2.1 AA is what keeps you on the supportive side of the line." Start now, document it, and you're in ACM's good-faith lane rather than its enforcement one.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Dutch EAA fine €900,000?
No. The accessibility fine is capped at the Criminal Code's fifth category — €103,000 (2024). The €900,000 figure is the old sixth-category amount for general product-safety breaches, not accessibility.
Why do so many sites say €900,000?
They cited the wrong Criminal Code category (the sixth instead of the accessibility fifth) and an out-of-date value of it. It got copied widely without being checked against the statute.
Who enforces the EAA in the Netherlands?
Five regulators by sector: RDI (products), ACM (e-commerce and telecom), AFM (banking), CvdM (media and e-books) and ILT (transport).
Has anyone been penalised yet?
No headline fines yet, but ACM's March 2026 audit found 94% of the top webshops it checked had significant accessibility failures — so active enforcement has clearly begun.
Related
- ← Back to EAA Fines by Country — the full 27-state comparison
- Germany's EAA fines — the other big-market, multi-track regime
- How we verified all 27 national laws — why we check every figure against the statute
