Since 28 June 2025, a European law asks businesses that sell to consumers online to make their websites, apps and checkouts usable for people with disabilities. That law is the European Accessibility Act, officially Directive (EU) 2019/882. If you run a web shop, take bookings online or sell tickets, it probably concerns you. What it asks for is not mysterious: clear text, described images, forms that work with a keyboard, and a checkout everyone can finish. This article explains what the law covers, whether it applies to you, and what you can do in the next four weeks.
What the European Accessibility Act is
The European Accessibility Act is an EU directive adopted in 2019. A directive sets common goals, and each member state then writes its own national law to reach them. The aim is twofold: people with disabilities get equal access to everyday products and services, and businesses face one set of rules across the EU instead of 27 different ones.
According to the text published on EUR-Lex, the requirements apply from 28 June 2025. From that date, new products and services in scope must meet the accessibility requirements.
The directive covers both products and services. On the product side, think of computers, smartphones, e-readers, ticket machines and payment terminals. On the service side, the list includes:
- e-commerce services: selling to consumers through a website or app
- consumer banking services, such as online banking and payment apps
- e-books and the software used to read them
- passenger transport services by air, bus, rail and water, including their websites, apps, electronic tickets and real-time travel information
- electronic communication services, such as phone and messaging services
- access to audiovisual media services, such as the websites and apps of streaming services
For most small businesses, the first item is the one that matters. The directive defines an e-commerce service as a service provided at a distance, through a website or app, at the request of a consumer, with a view to concluding a consumer contract. In plain words: if a consumer can buy, order, book or subscribe through your site, you are offering an e-commerce service.
What the law actually asks of your site
The directive describes requirements in general terms. Your website and app must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. These four words come from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the international guidelines published by the W3C, the body that maintains web standards.
For e-commerce, the directive adds some specific points:
- The way people identify themselves, the security steps and the payment must be accessible. A checkout that only works with a mouse, or a payment step a screen reader cannot read, is a problem. A screen reader is software that reads the screen aloud for people who are blind or have low vision.
- If the manufacturer gives you information about the accessibility of a product you sell, you should pass it on in your shop.
- You must explain, in your general terms and conditions or in another clearly visible way, how your service meets the accessibility requirements. This information itself must be accessible.
The technical standard behind it
To turn these general words into testable checks, Europe uses the standard EN 301 549. The version most widely referred to, V3.2.1 from 2021, builds on WCAG 2.1 at level AA. Level AA is the middle of the three WCAG levels and the one almost every law points to.
In September 2026, the standards body ETSI published a new version, EN 301 549 V4.1.1. According to AccessibleEU, the European Commission's accessibility resource centre, it moves to WCAG 2.2 level AA and includes an annex that links its requirements directly to the European Accessibility Act. At the time of writing it has not yet been formally cited in the Official Journal of the EU. In practice, aiming for WCAG 2.2 level AA is a sensible target: it includes everything in WCAG 2.1 and adds a few extra checks, for example around the size of buttons and repeated entry of information.
Does this apply to me?
Start with three questions.
- Do you sell or book to consumers online? A web shop, a booking tool for a hairdresser, an online ticket sale for an event, a subscription sign-up: these are e-commerce services. A site that only presents your business, with a phone number and a contact form, is generally not.
- Do you sell only to other businesses? The definition talks about consumer contracts. A shop that sells exclusively to professionals usually falls outside it, but if consumers can also order, it is in scope.
- Are you a micro-enterprise? For services, the directive exempts micro-enterprises: businesses with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of no more than EUR 2 million. Note that this exemption covers services only. If you make or import products such as payment terminals, it does not apply.
A few examples:
- A furniture shop with 25 employees that sells online to consumers: in scope.
- A bakery with six employees and an online pre-order page: likely exempt as a micro-enterprise.
- A bookkeeping firm with a brochure website and no online ordering: generally not an e-commerce service.
- A theatre with 40 staff that sells tickets through its own website: in scope.
Even if you are exempt, the reasons to act remain. Your customers include people who are older, people with low vision, people with a tremor and people who simply use a phone in bright sunlight. National authorities also encourage micro-enterprises to follow the requirements, and your business may grow past the thresholds. Also check with your country's rules, because how the exemption is applied and communicated can differ.
Transition periods and exceptions
The directive contains some limited transition rules. Service contracts agreed before 28 June 2025 may continue unchanged until they expire, but for no longer than five years. Products that a service provider was lawfully using before that date may be used to provide similar services until 28 June 2030, and self-service terminals such as ticket machines can stay in use until the end of their economic life, up to 20 years. These rules are narrow. Do not assume they give your web shop extra time without checking with an adviser.
There is also an exception for a disproportionate burden: if meeting a requirement would cost far more than it would benefit people with disabilities, a business can claim this. It must then document its assessment, keep it for five years and repeat it when the service changes. This is a formal procedure, not a general escape route.
How it is enforced
Every member state must appoint authorities to check that services comply, handle complaints and take action when needed. The directive says penalties must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive, and leaves the amounts to each country. The directive also says penalties must go together with effective remedial action: the point is that the service gets fixed. Fines are possible, but the aim is accessible services, not punishment.
Each country has its own law and authority. In Belgium, for example, the federal public service for the economy checks e-commerce services. In Germany, the Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz applies and a joint authority of the federal states supervises it. If you sell in several countries, the rules of each country where you offer your service may apply.
Where most websites fall short
The problems are rarely exotic. WebAIM, a non-profit at Utah State University, tests the home pages of the top one million websites every year. In its 2026 report, 95.9% of home pages had automatically detected failures against WCAG, with an average of 56 errors per page. Six types of problems made up 96% of all errors:
- low contrast text: light grey text on white, for example, found on 83.9% of home pages. The contrast ratio is a number that compares the brightness of text and background; WCAG asks for at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text.
- missing alt text: alt text is a short written description of an image that screen readers read aloud.
- form fields without labels, so a screen reader user does not know what to type.
- empty links and empty buttons, often icons without a text alternative.
- missing page language, which makes screen readers pronounce text wrongly.
Most are quick fixes in a site builder or theme, and they are exactly what blocks a checkout.
Your plan for the coming month
You do not need to solve everything at once. This plan fits in four weeks alongside normal work.
- Week 1: take stock. List the pages that matter most: the home page, a category page, a product page, the cart, the checkout, the account sign-up, the contact form and your terms and conditions. Write down which tools you use for payment, booking and chat, because these often come from other companies.
- Week 1: run an automatic check. Check each of those pages with an accessibility checker. Automatic checks find many common problems, roughly a third to half of all issues, but not everything. They are a good start, not a final verdict.
- Week 2: fix the most serious issues first. Start with what blocks people from buying: unlabelled form fields, buttons without text, missing alt text on product images and low contrast on prices and buttons.
- Week 2: test by keyboard. Put your mouse aside and try to buy something using only the Tab key, Shift+Tab, Enter and the space bar. Can you see where you are on the page at every step? Can you open the menu, choose a size, fill in the address and pay? If you get stuck, so do many of your customers.
- Week 3: write your accessibility information. Add a short section to your terms and conditions, or a separate accessibility statement linked from the footer, that describes your service, how it meets the requirements, what is not yet accessible and how people can contact you.
- Week 3: ask your web builder the right questions. Which accessibility standard do you work to, and which WCAG level? Are the theme, checkout and payment provider tested for keyboard use and screen readers? Who fixes problems found in plugins or external tools? How will new pages stay accessible after launch?
- Week 4: plan regular checks. Accessibility is not a one-off project. Put a check in the calendar every quarter and after every redesign, new plugin or change to the checkout.
Check your own site
The quickest next step is to see where your own site stands. You can check a page for free with ibin and get a plain-language report of what is wrong, who it affects and how to fix it. Use the repair guides to work through the issues, and the guide to writing an accessibility statement for the information your customers are entitled to. Once you are signed in, a free check of up to 200 pages shows how your whole site is doing.
See how your own site does
Check a page for free, without an account. You get a plain list of what to fix first, with pictures of where each problem is.
