Accessibility was already mandatory for public administrations and some categories of private organisations. The European Accessibility Act broadened the scope: since 28 June 2025, covered services, including consumer e-commerce, must meet the applicable requirements unless an exemption applies. Since 2026, the AgID platform has allowed users to report inaccessible services.
This article explains what the European Accessibility Act really requires, who is and is not covered, and above all what it means in practice to make an online store accessible, without alarmism and without the usual list of incomprehensible acronyms.
What is the European Accessibility Act and why does it also apply to private businesses
The European Accessibility Act is EU Directive 2019/882, transposed into Italian law through Legislative Decree 82/2022. It establishes common accessibility requirements for a range of products and services sold on the European market: from payment terminals to e-readers, from banking services to passenger transport, right through to e-commerce services.
The point that matters to most businesses is precisely this last one. An e-commerce store that sells to end consumers falls within the covered services, and this means that the purchasing journey, from product search to payment, must also be completable by someone who uses a screen reader, navigates only with the keyboard, has low vision or has difficulty distinguishing colours.
In Italy, the supervisory authority for services is AgID, the Agency for Digital Italy, which has prepared the implementing guidelines and collects user reports. For those who want to read the primary source, AgID’s page dedicated to the European Accessibility Act summarises the scope of the regulation and the Agency’s role.
Who is required to comply with the European Accessibility Act and who is not
There is a great deal of confusion around this, also fuelled by those selling ready-made solutions, so it is worth being precise and reading the European Accessibility Act for what it actually says. The European Accessibility Act applies to economic operators that provide consumers with the services covered by the regulation. For services, however, there is an important exemption:
- micro-enterprises are exempt, meaning businesses with fewer than 10 employees and annual turnover or a total annual balance sheet not exceeding €2 million
- the exemption concerns services, not products: a micro-enterprise that manufactures or distributes products covered by the regulation remains subject to the requirements
- For e-commerce, the relevant activity is an online service aimed at concluding a contract with a consumer, rather than only a payment already made. An informational website can fall outside this specific scope, while sales and booking flows need assessment against how they work and any applicable exemptions.
In practice: an online store with twelve employees falls fully within the obligation, while a small craft business with three people that sells online probably does not. When in doubt, the assessment must be based on the company’s actual figures, not on guesswork.
There are also transitional periods, extending until 2030, for certain pre-existing situations. They are not, however, a loophole for putting everything off: content and functions published from June 2025 onwards must already comply, and a website rebuilt today without taking the European Accessibility Act into account is already outdated.
What an accessible e-commerce store means in practice
The technical reference standard is the European standard EN 301 549, which in turn refers to the international WCAG guidelines at AA level. Behind the acronyms there is a simple principle: every website function must be perceivable, operable and understandable even by people who cannot see, cannot hear, do not use a mouse or have cognitive difficulties.
For an online store, this translates into very concrete requirements:
- every product image has alternative text that describes what it shows, not a file name
- text has sufficient contrast against the background, including on buttons and discounted prices
- the entire purchasing journey can be completed using only the keyboard, and the active element always remains visible
- every form field has a real label, not just grey placeholder text that disappears when typing begins
- errors are explained in words, not indicated only by colouring the field red
- the page remains readable and usable with 200% zoom
None of these points requires a different or less polished design. It requires a website built with attention to how it works, as well as how it looks. That, ultimately, is the spirit of the European Accessibility Act: not an imposed aesthetic, but the guarantee that the service works for everyone.
Where almost all e-commerce stores stumble
In the checks we carry out, errors almost always concentrate in the same places, and almost always at the worst possible moment, that is, close to payment.
The checkout. It is the most complex part and often the least carefully handled: fields without labels, error messages that appear only as a red border, external payment windows that trap keyboard focus. If a customer cannot complete an order, it does not matter how attractive the product page was.
Filters and variants. Size and colour selectors built as simple clickable boxes, without a name that can be read by a screen reader. For someone who cannot see, “select a variant” becomes a dead end.
Pop-ups. The cookie banner, the newsletter discount window, the chat: if they cannot be closed using the keyboard or if they steal focus, they block navigation. It is the same frustration mechanism we describe when talking about dark patterns, even when the intention is not at all improper.
Session timeouts. A shopping cart that empties after a few minutes without warning penalises people who browse more slowly. The standards referenced by the European Accessibility Act require the user to be notified and to be able to extend the time when necessary.
Why «one-click accessibility» widgets are not enough
Since the regulation came into force, many tools have appeared that promise to make a website compliant with a single line of code: an icon at the bottom, a menu for enlarging text or changing colours. They look like the ideal solution, and it is understandable that they are attractive.
The problem is that they do not touch the code causing the errors. If a button has no accessible name, if a field has no label, if the checkout cannot be used with the keyboard, an overlay panel does not fix it. People who use a screen reader already have their own tools, and what they need is a well-built website, not a second menu to learn. These widgets can complement properly executed work, but they cannot replace it.
How to comply with the European Accessibility Act without rebuilding everything
The good news is that in most cases there is no need to throw the website away. What is needed is a method.
- Initial audit. A combined check using automated tools and manual review, which identifies the real errors and orders them by severity. Automated tools alone detect only some of the problems: keyboard navigation and whether alternative texts make sense must be tested by a person.
- Prioritise the purchasing journey. First fix what prevents people from buying: checkout, cart, product pages, internal search. Then everything else.
- Corrections in the code and design templates, not in the content one item at a time: if the problem lies in the product-page template, fixing it there resolves hundreds of pages at once.
- Rules for publishers. Alternative texts, headings in hierarchical order, links that say where they lead: these are habits to pass on to whoever updates the catalogue, because accessibility is lost one product at a time.
- Public information about the service’s accessibility, as required by the regulation, with a channel for reporting problems.
If you are considering opening an online store now, the best time to think about this is before building it: we also discuss it in our guide on how to open an e-commerce store starting with the right choices.
Accessibility is worthwhile even for businesses that are not required to comply
Even an exempt micro-enterprise has good reasons to take the European Accessibility Act seriously. According to the European Commission, there are around 87 million people with disabilities in the European Union, in addition to an ageing population that is buying online more and more and that sees, hears and reads differently from a twenty-year-old.
An accessible website is also a simpler website for everyone: better contrast is easier to read in sunlight, clear forms can be completed faster on a phone, and well-labelled buttons reduce errors. Many principles overlap with those of the user experience we discuss in our guide to the most common UI/UX design mistakes in SMEs. And clean code, with headings and alternative texts in the right places, is also code that search engines understand better.
There is also a question of reputation. A customer who cannot buy will not come back, and will often talk about it. A company that has taken the European Accessibility Act seriously can say so openly and turn an obligation into a sign of care.
Where to start
If you manage an e-commerce store, the first question is not “am I compliant?” but “could a customer who does not use a mouse buy from me today?”. Trying to complete an order using only the Tab key is the fastest and most revealing test there is: ten minutes are enough to understand where the journey breaks down.
If you want a serious assessment of your online store against the European Accessibility Act, with a clear list of what to fix and in what order, request a free consultation: we start with the purchasing journey, because that is where customers are lost.
