If you sell products or services in multiple EU countries, you will sooner or later notice that accessibility requirements are not implemented in exactly the same way everywhere. European accessibility legislation establishes a common framework, but each country implements that framework in its own national legislation. This means that the exact requirements, the method of oversight, and the authority you can contact may differ by country.
This is because this type of European regulation often takes the form of a directive: a common objective that each EU country then translates into its own law. The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France can each have a slightly different national text, with its own supervisory authority and its own enforcement method. For the exact requirements that apply in a specific country, the national legal text or the designated supervisory authority there is the authoritative source, not a general summary.
Why a directive does not produce the same outcome everywhere
A European directive requires member states to achieve a certain result, but leaves room in how they do so. This means that the core of the obligation is comparable across the entire EU, while details such as the exact scope, exceptions for smaller businesses, or the form of an accessibility statement, may vary from country to country. For a business that only sells in the Netherlands, this is rarely a problem. Once you are also active in Germany or France, it is something to take into account.
Oversight is also regulated nationally. Each country designates its own supervisory authority, with its own method of complaint handling and its own preferences for how a business demonstrates that it meets the requirements. A statement that is common in one country does not automatically suffice in another country.
What this means if you are active in multiple countries
For a business that supplies multiple EU countries via a webshop, this usually does not arrive as one clear moment, but as a series of separate signals: a question from a customer in another country, an announcement from a platform, or a colleague who hears something different at a trade fair than what you are used to. Without a fixed point to collect this, it is difficult to see whether something is a local peculiarity or a change that applies to your entire business.
It is therefore advisable to find out for each country in which you are active which authority is competent there and which national text applies, rather than relying on a single general explanation that would have to apply across the entire EU. For the substantive question of whether and how the requirements apply in a specific country to your products or services, a lawyer or the national supervisory authority is the appropriate party.
Where reglia does and does not help
Reglia does not itself explain what the accessibility requirements in a particular country precisely entail; that is done by the platform that specializes in that field. What reglia does do is help ensure you do not have to keep track in multiple separate environments of which platform has which information about you and when something changes there. Via the overview of connected platforms you can see which platforms focus on accessibility, product safety, packaging or personal data, and what each platform does individually.
The business and product dossier that you complete once is read by the platforms you give access to for that purpose. This way you do not have to enter the same data repeatedly whenever you add a new country or a new obligation. How this works exactly, and what reglia does and does not do with your data, is described on the page about how reglia works.
Do you have questions about what a reglia account entails, what is free and what is not, or how insight into shared data works, you will find that on the frequently asked questions page. You can create a business account via the registration page, and that account remains free, regardless of how many platforms you connect to it later.
If you want to know which platforms are available and which specific field each platform focuses on, check the overview of connected platforms and see for yourself which combination suits your business.