European Accessibility Act: must your website be accessible?

Since 28 June 2025, many websites and apps that sell to consumers in the EU must be accessible to people with disabilities. The rules come from the European Accessibility Act (Directive (EU) 2019/882), which EU countries have turned into national law, in Germany for example as the Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG). Here is who is affected, what accessible means in practice and how to check your own site. This article is general information, not legal advice.

Who is affected?

The rules cover specific products and services. For most businesses the relevant one is e-commerce: websites and apps through which consumers conclude a contract online. That includes online shops, but also online booking and ordering of services. Banking, e-books, passenger transport and telecom services are covered too.

• Usually covered: online shops, online booking and ordering for consumers, ticket sales, customer accounts used to buy.
• Usually not covered: purely informational websites without online contracts, and sites that sell only to businesses.
• Exempt: micro-enterprises that provide services, meaning fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of no more than €2 million.

Even if you are exempt, an accessible website is easier for everyone: clearer on a small screen, readable in sunlight and usable with one hand.

What does accessible mean in practice?

The law describes the requirements in general terms. In practice, businesses follow the European standard EN 301 549, which for websites largely corresponds to the WCAG 2.1 guidelines at level AA. Typical points:

• Text alternatives for images that carry information
• Enough colour contrast between text and background
• Everything usable with the keyboard alone, with a visible focus
• Forms with clear labels and helpful error messages
• Headings and structure that screen readers can follow
• Text that can be enlarged to 200% without breaking the page
• Captions or transcripts for videos

You must also publish information on how your service meets the accessibility requirements, usually as an accessibility statement on the website.

What happens if you don't comply?

Each country has a market surveillance authority that can demand corrections and impose fines. In Germany, for example, the BFSG allows fines of up to €100,000 for certain violations (§ 37 BFSG). Service contracts concluded before 28 June 2025 may run on unchanged until they end, but for no more than five years.

Check your website in 30 minutes

1. Use only the keyboard. Tab through your homepage, a product or service and the checkout or booking. Can you reach everything, and do you always see where you are?
2. Run a free automated test such as Lighthouse in Chrome or WAVE. They find many technical problems, but not all of them.
3. Zoom to 200%. Does the text still fit, and can you still order or book?
4. Try a screen reader such as VoiceOver (Mac, iPhone) or NVDA (Windows) on your most important page.
5. Check forms and error messages. Is it clear what went wrong and how to fix it?

How we help

We build new websites with accessibility in mind from the start: structure, contrast, keyboard use and forms. We also check existing sites and fix what blocks customers. Our own website scores 100 for accessibility in Google Lighthouse on every page we tested. See our web design service.