Does the accessibility law apply to your website?

In short: if consumers can buy from you, or book and pay, through your website, the law probably covers it, unless your business is very small.

The European Accessibility Act is an EU directive of 2019 (Directive (EU) 2019/882). Each country wrote it into its own law, and the rules apply from 28 June 2025. Germany’s is the Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz, the BFSG.

It covers some products, such as computers, phones, ticket machines and e-readers, and some services: online banking, e-books, phone and messaging services, passenger transport, and e-commerce. For a small business with a website, e-commerce is the one that matters: selling to consumers through a website or an app, with the contract made online.

This guide says what the laws ask, with the sources at the end. It isn’t legal advice. Whether the law applies to your own site is a question for a lawyer, or your chamber or trade association.

In short: a shop for consumers is covered. A site that only tells people about you, with a contact form, isn’t. Bookings sit in between.

Germany’s crafts confederation, the ZDH, summed up what the federal accessibility office said in early 2025. The other two countries wrote the same directive into law, so the scope is meant to match. Each country’s authority has the last word.

Where a site is covered, the ZDH suggests making the shop or booking pages accessible first, with the home page, the sign-in, contact, help and the legal pages. Whether every other page must be too is not settled yet.

In short: fewer than 10 people, and a turnover or a balance sheet of at most 2 million euros, means the rules for services don’t apply to you.

The directive exempts a microenterprise that provides services from the accessibility requirements for those services (article 4). A microenterprise employs fewer than 10 people and has a yearly turnover of at most 2 million euros, or a yearly balance sheet total of at most 2 million euros.

In Germany, people are counted as full-time equivalents, and apprentices and people on parental leave aren’t counted, the ZDH says.

The exemption is for services only. A small business that makes, imports or sells covered products, such as computers or phones, still has to meet the rules for those products, the IHK Berlin notes.

A larger business can sometimes claim that a requirement would be a disproportionate burden, but only with a written assessment, kept for five years and redone at least every five. And a business that grows to ten people or more comes under the rules for its services.

All three apply from 28 June 2025. In Germany, offering a service that doesn’t meet the rules can be fined up to 100,000 euros (§ 37 BFSG), and competitors and associations can also send warning letters.

A business the law covers also has to say how its service meets the requirements (article 13 of the directive). In Germany that goes in the terms, or somewhere else clearly visible, with the name of the market surveillance authority. It has to be accessible itself.

In short: text people can read, descriptions on pictures, everything working from the keyboard, forms with labels, and captions on videos.

The law points to a European standard, EN 301 549, which follows the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at level AA. A newer version, WCAG 2.2, came out in October 2023. Even where the law doesn’t apply, the basics help everybody: on a phone in the sun, with tired eyes, with one hand free.

1Text people can read

Text needs a contrast of at least 4.5 to 1 against its background, and large text 3 to 1. The edges of buttons and fields, and icons that mean something, need 3 to 1. Light grey text on white often fails.

2Descriptions on pictures

A picture that says something has a short text alternative that says the same: the photo of your shop front, a chart, a logo that is also a link. A picture that is only decoration has an empty one.

3Everything works from the keyboard

Menus, forms, buttons and the cookie banner can all be reached and used with the Tab and Enter keys, and you can always see where you are on the page.

4Forms with labels

Every field has a label that names it and stays there, not only grey words inside the box that vanish as you type. An error says in words what is wrong and how to fix it, never by color alone.

5Captions on videos

A video in which people speak has captions. If it shows something that matters only in pictures, say it in the text beside it.

6Zoom and small screens

Text can be enlarged to twice its size without anything breaking, and a page works at 320 pixels wide without scrolling sideways.

7Headings, links and language

Headings are real headings, in order, so a screen reader can jump between them. A link says where it leads (“our prices”, not “click here”). And the page says which language it’s in, so it is read aloud in the right one.

• Put the mouse away. Press Tab through your home page and your contact form. Can you see where you are, reach everything, and send the form?
• Zoom in to 200% in your browser. Does the text still fit, and do the menus still work?
• Look at your lightest text. If you have to lean in to read it, so does everybody else.
• Send a form with a mistake in it. Does it say what went wrong, in words?
• Run an automated check. Chrome has one built in (Lighthouse), and our free website check covers accessibility too.

Automated tools find only some of the problems. What they can’t judge, such as whether a picture’s description makes sense, takes a person looking.

neuwp.com and the websites we build are made to WCAG 2.2 at level AA. We check every page with automated tools at four screen sizes, with the keyboard, and with motion turned down. That isn’t a certificate, and tools don’t find everything.

Once your site is live, the monthly report shows its accessibility score next to its speed, so you can see it hold from month to month.

Whether the law covers your business is a question for your lawyer or your chamber. Making the site work for every visitor is ours.

Check your website, free How we build it, step by step

• Do consumers buy, or book and pay, on your site?
• Do you employ 10 people or more, or have a turnover and a balance sheet above 2 million euros?
• If yes to both, your site’s shop or booking falls under the law, and says how it meets it.
• Text with enough contrast, and nothing in pale grey.
• A description on every picture that says something.
• Every menu, form, button and banner works from the keyboard.
• A visible label on every field, and errors said in words.
• Captions on every video with speech.
• Text that can be zoomed to 200%, and pages that fit a phone without scrolling sideways.
• Headings in order, links that say where they lead, and the page’s language set.

• The European Accessibility Act, Directive (EU) 2019/882 of 17 April 2019, articles 2, 3, 4, 13 and 31.
• IHK Berlin, Informationsseite BFSG, undated.
• Zentralverband des Deutschen Handwerks, Praxis Recht: Barrierefreiheit von Webseiten, on the Bundesfachstelle Barrierefreiheit’s statements of February 2025.
• Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz, § 37 BFSG, fines.
• borger.dk, Tilgængelighed til produkter og tjenester, undated.
• Retsinformation, Lov om tilgængelighedskrav for produkter og tjenester, LOV nr 801 af 07/06/2022, as amended.
• ДАМТН, Закон за изискванията за достъпност на продукти и услуги, State Gazette no. 31 of 11 April 2025, in force from 28 June 2025.
• European Commission, What is accessibility, Europa Web Guide, undated.
• W3C, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.