The EAA and in-person payments: what you should know

The EAA includes several transitional provisions that vary depending on the situation. These periods are designed to give users time to adjust to the new requirements before enforcement of the directive.

For merchants, this means that payment services already provided before 28 June 2025 may benefit from a transition period until 28 June 2030. During this time, these services may continue without fully meeting the new accessibility requirements.

Separately, and subject to applicable national law, self-service terminals (SSTs) already in use before 28 June 2025 may continue to be used until the end of their economic life. This is up to a maximum of 20 years from the date of first deployment. However, this duration could be shorter depending on local regulations.

Whether a given terminal qualifies as a ‘self-service terminal’ under the EAA and national law (as opposed to a staffed point-of-sale terminal) is a factual and legal question. The answer depends on how the terminal is used and how the EAA has been implemented in your country.

It depends. Terminals used with customers may need to meet the relevant accessibility requirements depending on national law. EAA implementation must be done within the timelines set by each country. EAA obligations will depend on when the terminal was first deployed, its location, and how it is used.

As a merchant providing services to customers using payment terminals, you may be subject to accessibility requirements under the EAA, as per national law. In this context, merchants are required to use a payment solution that complies with applicable national regulations by the relevant deadlines.

Practical steps you can take are: selecting terminals with appropriate built-in accessibility features, enabling those features on your terminals, training staff to assist customers who may need support, and keeping terminal firmware and software up to date.

The EAA is a directive, and its requirements are not fully uniform across the European Union; Member States have some flexibility in how they apply it. Compliance is assessed country by country and depends on a range of factors, including the specific terminal model, how it is deployed, and national law.

Worldline distributes terminals whose manufacturers have designed accessibility features intended to support compliance. However, Worldline does not make any warranty or representation that any specific terminal is compliant with the EAA or any applicable national implementing law in any particular jurisdiction.

The terminals Worldline distributes can include different built-in accessibility features – both for Android devices and those with keypads – depending on individual models and the manufacturer's specifications. Refer to the section ‘Adapting in-person payments for the EAA’ to learn more.

You can get in touch with your Worldline account manager or your local support team.  

No. For security reasons, PIN digits are not spoken aloud. Text-to-speech may vocalise prompts and non-sensitive guidance, but digits remain masked.  

Worldline acts as a distributor of payment terminals manufactured by third parties. Under the EAA, product-level accessibility obligations (including product conformity and technical documentation) apply primarily to manufacturers. As a distributor, Worldline verifies that terminals made available on the market bear the required markings and are accompanied by the necessary documentation.

Worldline's commercial role is to offer terminals with accessibility features designed to support merchants in addressing their service-related accessibility obligations under the EAA. This includes adapting interfaces and solutions within the terminals themselves.