EU enforcement of privacy and accessibility laws

Three years after the GDPR took effect, the EU reports rising awareness of data‑subject rights but uneven enforcement, with national authorities varying in rigor and high‑profile fines such as Google’s €50 million penalty in 2019 and Meta’s €1.2 billion fine in 2023 illustrating the stakes. One year after the European Accessibility Act (EAA) entered force, most EU businesses remain behind U.S. peers: an analysis of over 166,000 web pages shows EU sites have about 25 % more accessibility issues per page, especially in professional services, public‑nonprofit and industrial sectors, while tech firms match U.S. standards. Enforcement of the EAA is beginning in fragments across member states. New data from AudioEye’s 2026 Digital Accessibility Index confirms these gaps, identifies the most common WCAG failures, and notes the first concrete enforcement actions—French disability organisations issuing legal notices to major retailers—though no headline fines have yet been imposed.