Since June 2025, an inaccessible shop is a legal problem, not a design opinion.
Directive (EU) 2019/882, the European Accessibility Act, applies from 28 June 2025 to a defined list of consumer facing products and services. If you sell to consumers online in the EU and you are above the micro enterprise threshold, it applies to you.
Who this actually binds
In scope
E-commerce, consumer banking services, e-books, electronic communications, elements of passenger transport services, access to audiovisual media services, and the products listed in the directive such as self-service terminals and payment terminals.
The test for a website
The directive defines e-commerce services as services provided at a distance, by electronic means, at the individual request of a consumer, with a view to concluding a consumer contract. A brochure site with no transactional path is outside it. A checkout, a booking flow or a consumer sign-up is inside it, whatever you sell.
Exempt
Microenterprises providing services: fewer than ten persons employed, and either turnover or balance sheet total not above two million euro. The headcount limb is mandatory, the financial one is satisfied by either figure. The exemption covers services; for products the obligations are lighter, not absent.
Not a public sector statement
The formal accessibility statement is a public sector duty under Directive 2016/2102. Private companies in scope of the Accessibility Act owe accessibility information, which is a different document. We write the right one.
Enforced nationally
Each member state names its own market surveillance body and its own penalties, and a consumer can complain to it. We check the position for your country before we quote.
Audit, fix, document, keep it fixed
Audit against the standard
EN 301 549 and WCAG at level AA, tested with a screen reader and a keyboard by a person, not only with a scanner. You get a findings list ordered by what blocks a purchase.
Fix it in the code
We work in your codebase or with your agency. No overlay widget, they do not make a site conformant and regulators have said so.
Write and maintain the information
The accessibility information the directive requires, in your terms and on the page, plus a re-test when you ship something new.
Start with a page that has to work: your checkout.
We audit one purchase path end to end and show you what a customer using a screen reader hits. That is usually enough to decide.