The European Accessibility Act, explained for online shops

For years, digital accessibility was a public-sector obligation. Since 28 June 2025, it is a private-sector one too: the European Accessibility Act (Directive (EU) 2019/882) now applies to e-commerce. In France, it was transposed by a 2023 law and decree. Here is what it means for an online shop, in plain words.

Is your shop concerned?

The Act covers e-commerce services offered to consumers: a website or app where people can buy a product or a service. Selling only to other businesses is outside its scope.

One group is exempt: microenterprises that provide services, meaning businesses with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet of no more than €2 million. In France, the government's France Num guide puts it simply: since 28 June 2025, online shops run by SMEs must be accessible, except those of microenterprises.

What "accessible" means

The Act sets functional requirements: a person who is blind, has low vision, cannot use a mouse or has cognitive difficulties must be able to find a product, understand it, add it to the cart and pay. In practice, the European standard for websites, EN 301 549, relies on the WCAG 2.1 guidelines at level AA. In France, the reference for checking a website is the RGAA 4.1, which translates WCAG 2.1 into 106 testable criteria.

The whole buying path is concerned, not just the home page: navigation, catalogue, product pages, customer account, cart, payment, order confirmation and online customer service.

What happens if a shop is not accessible

In France, the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) checks e-commerce services. According to France Num, breaches are fifth-class offences: up to €7,500 per legal entity (€15,000 for a repeat offence), and the fines add up per e-commerce service and per obligation. The DGCCRF can also order a business to bring its services into line.

Two more obligations are often missed:

• a business must inform the DGCCRF when its e-commerce services do not meet the requirements;
• an exemption for disproportionate burden exists, but it has to be documented carefully, and it is hard to claim for a shop opened after 28 June 2025, which should have been designed accessible from the start.

Where to start

1. Measure. Run an automated check over every page, not a sample: product pages built from the same template usually share the same problems, and fixing the template fixes them all.
2. Fix the template-level problems first. A missing skip link, a hidden keyboard focus or a page language that does not match the content affect every page at once.
3. Fix the content. Text alternatives for product images, link texts, headings in descriptions.
4. Check what a tool cannot. Out of the RGAA's 106 criteria, 37 need a person's judgement: is this alternative relevant, can this form be completed with a keyboard from start to finish.
5. Keep it up. A shop changes every week. Accessibility is checked again after each change, not once a year.

Avoid shortcuts: an accessibility overlay widget does not make a shop compliant, and the US Federal Trade Commission fined one vendor for claiming it did. We explain why in Accessibility overlays vs real fixes.