On June 28, 2025 the European Accessibility Act (EAA) starts to apply across the EU. The directive covers accessibility of products and services, and e-commerce is explicitly in scope: websites and mobile apps through which consumers in the EU buy goods and services.
Who is affected
- Online stores selling to consumers in EU countries, wherever the company is registered.
- Marketplaces, booking services, banking and transport services.
- Microenterprises providing services (fewer than 10 employees and turnover or balance sheet up to €2 million) are exempt.
There is a transition period: services under contracts concluded before June 28, 2025 may continue unchanged until June 28, 2030. New sites and releases, however, should already comply.
Which standard to follow
The practical benchmark is the European standard EN 301 549, which builds on WCAG 2.1 level AA. In development terms that means:
- the whole site, checkout included, works with a keyboard, and focus is always visible;
- images have meaningful alt text, form fields have labels, and errors are described in text, not only with colour;
- text contrast is at least 4.5:1 and the page zooms correctly to 200%;
- screen readers understand the structure: headings, landmarks, the state of menus and dialogs;
- CAPTCHAs and timers don’t block a purchase.
Where to start
- Audit the key customer journey: home → catalog → product page → cart → payment.
- Fix blocking issues in templates first. That is usually 70–80% of all errors, since templates are shared by thousands of pages.
- Publish an accessibility statement describing how your service meets the requirements, with a contact for feedback.
- Add accessibility checks (axe, Lighthouse) to CI so new releases don’t undo the work.
Accessibility is not just about fines. A store that works with a keyboard and makes sense to a screen reader is indexed better and gets more customers through checkout. Shall we audit your site?
