The European Accessibility Act: What It Means for Online Stores and Websites

The European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025. For many online stores, accessibility stopped being good practice and became a legal requirement. Even so, many businesses still do not know whether they are covered.

Who is covered

The law covers several digital products and services sold to consumers in the EU, including e-commerce. If you sell online to consumers, your store is probably covered, even if it was built before 2025.

There is an important exception: micro-enterprises providing services, with fewer than 10 employees and annual turnover or balance sheet up to 2 million euros, are exempt. Even so, we recommend complying, because an accessible site sells to more people.

If your business is in the UK but sells to consumers in the EU, the law may apply to you too.

What it takes in practice

The technical reference used in Europe follows the WCAG guidelines, level AA. In the day-to-day of an online store, that means:

• Enough contrast between text and background
• Alternative text on product images
• Forms with clear labels and understandable error messages
• The whole site usable with a keyboard alone, including menu, filters and checkout
• Well-organised headings and structure, for people using screen readers
• Videos with captions
• An accessibility statement published on the site

What about fines?

Each EU country sets its own enforcement and penalties, which must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. In Portugal, the directive has been transposed into national law. More than the risk of a fine, what matters is that customers with disabilities, and more and more older customers, simply cannot buy from an inaccessible site.

Where to start

• Run a quick test on your site with an automatic tool, such as our free audit
• Try buying a product using only the keyboard, from start to finish
• Fix checkout and forms first, where most sales are lost
• Publish an honest accessibility statement, with what you have done and what is left

This article is for information and does not replace legal advice. If you would like an accessibility review of your Shopify store or WordPress site, talk to us.