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Guide

Accessibility law: scope, consequences, next steps

The European Accessibility Act sets minimum accessibility requirements for products and services. This guide explains who it applies to and what actually happens during an official check.

For orientation: This page is a factual orientation and not an individual legal review. Whether accessibility law applies to your specific offer and whether a violation exists has to be assessed case by case.

Who is affected?

The Directive (EU) 2019/882 applies from 28 June 2025 to certain products and services provided to consumers. This includes e-commerce services, banking and telecommunications services, and parts of passenger transport services. The services concerned must meet the accessibility requirements set out in the Directive.

What matters is therefore the subject of the offer, not the mere existence of a website. A purely informational website that sells nothing and concludes no contracts does not automatically fall under the same rules as an online shop with a checkout.

The micro-enterprise exemption

The Directive contains an express exemption: micro-enterprises that provide services are exempt from the obligations. Whether an online shop is affected therefore depends on the size of the company and on the concrete service offered, together.

What the duties require

The duties of the service provider are laid down in the Directive and, in Germany, in § 14 BFSG:

  • The service may only be provided if it meets the accessibility requirements of the legal regulation.
  • The information required by the Directive has to be drawn up and made available to the public in an accessible form.
  • The accessibility requirements have to be met at all times when the service is provided. Changes to the service, to the applicable requirements or to the harmonised standards have to be taken into account.
  • In the event of non-conformity, suitable corrective measures have to be taken; if conformity is not established, the market surveillance authority has to be informed without delay.

Which products and services are affected?

For the first time, private companies are also obliged to make their products and digital services accessible.

Illustration: A sign with a check mark next to a document and a clock.
The rules apply since 28 June 2025; enforcement is the focus from 2026.

Affected products

  • Computers, notebooks, tablets and smartphones
  • E-book readers and e-books
  • Smart TVs and receivers
  • Routers, for example FRITZ!Box
  • Self-service terminals such as cash, ticket and parcel machines; existing devices may be replaced gradually, at the latest by 2040

Affected services

  • Websites and online shops (e-commerce)
  • Mobile apps, for example for banking, timetables or ticket purchase
  • Banking and telecommunications services

Technical standards

The relevant reference is the harmonised standard EN 301 549 together with the web guidelines WCAG 2.1, level AA. Content must, among other things, be operable by keyboard, suitable for screen readers and designed with sufficient contrast. For web content, WCAG 2.1 AA is therefore the legal reference; the now published version WCAG 2.2 adds further success criteria.

Exemptions

Micro-enterprises in the service sector are exempt from the duties for websites and services: fewer than 10 employees and at the same time no more than 2 million euros of annual turnover or balance sheet total. Disproportionate burdens must be justified in writing.

Enforcement is the focus from 2026

The rules have applied since 28 June 2025 to new products and services. From 2026, checks, enforcement and cease-and-desist waves are the focus. In Germany, violations can be punished with fines of up to 100,000 euros (§ 37 BFSG).

How do official checks run?

§ 28 BFSG gives the market surveillance authority extensive powers. It checks whenever it has reason to assume that a service does not meet the requirements. It also checks services without a specific trigger on the basis of appropriate samples.

§ 29 BFSG describes the escalation levels:

  1. The authority calls on the provider to take suitable measures to establish conformity within an appropriate deadline.
  2. If the deadline passes without result, the authority calls on the provider once more to correct the defect, threatening a prohibition.
  3. If that also fails, the authority can order that the offering or the provision of the service be stopped.

§ 32 BFSG adds proceedings on application: consumers can initiate proceedings if they claim that a service is not usable, or only to a limited extent. Recognised associations can also file an application.

Fines and cease-and-desist demands

Maximum fines

§ 37 paragraph 1 BFSG lists as an administrative offence, among others, offering or providing a service that does not meet the requirements. § 37 paragraph 2 BFSG provides that the administrative offence can be punished with a fine of up to 100,000 euros in the cases of paragraph 1 numbers 1, 7, 8, 9 and 10, and with a fine of up to 10,000 euros in all other cases.

Important: These maximum amounts are statutory ceilings, not typical amounts. The concrete amount depends on the individual case. A single technical error likewise does not automatically trigger a cease-and-desist demand or a fine procedure.

A cease-and-desist demand is not a fine

A cease-and-desist demand under § 13 UWG is an out-of-court letter of demand that objects to an infringement. § 13 paragraph 2 UWG regulates which information it has to contain, among others the concrete legal violation and the basis of the entitlement of the claimant entitlement. § 13 paragraph 3 UWG opens the possibility of replacing the necessary expenditure. The statutory maximum amounts of § 37 BFSG have to be distinguished from this: they concern administrative offences by authorities, not the costs of an ordinary cease-and-desist letter.

If an authority or a court decides, this is recorded in a formal notice or judgment with a file reference and a date. Such individual decisions are only named here if the court, the date, the file reference and the content of the decision have been verified.

Typical technical problems

Automated checks mainly find structural patterns. These occur particularly often in online shops:

  • Order and checkout buttons cannot be reached with the keyboard or show no visible focus.
  • Images and graphics in the order process have no label that can be read out meaningfully.
  • Form fields are not labelled programmatically, error messages are not announced.
  • Contrast between text and background falls below the minimum values, for example on mandatory text in the checkout.
  • The language of the page is not stated, content is not structured with headings.

An automatic scanner tests part of this. It does not test keyboard operation, screen readers or the comprehensibility of the content. The technical reference for this is WCAG 2.2.

Next step

You now know whether accessibility law is even relevant for you. The free check then shows you which technical barriers are actually present on your website.

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Sources

All statements on this page come from the following primary sources. Retrieved on 22 October 2026.