What the European Accessibility Act is
The European Accessibility Act is Directive (EU) 2019/882 of April 17, 2019, an EU law that sets accessibility requirements for certain products and services, and e-commerce is one of the services it covers.
A directive works through national law. Each EU country had to write it into its own law by June 28, 2022 and apply that law from June 28, 2025. So the rules a store follows are the national laws built on the directive, and each country names the authorities that check them.
The directive defines e-commerce services as services provided at a distance, through websites and mobile apps, at the request of a consumer, to conclude a consumer contract. Its recitals say this covers the online sale of any product or service.
Does it apply to your store?
The act applies to your Shopify store if you sell to consumers in the EU and your business is not a microenterprise, which the directive defines as fewer than 10 people and no more than €2 million in annual turnover or balance sheet.
You sell to consumers
The directive covers e-commerce services provided to consumers, meaning people buying outside their trade or profession. A store that sells only to businesses should ask a lawyer whether it is covered.
Your customers are in the EU
In the directive, a service provider is anyone who provides a service on the EU market or offers it to consumers in the EU. A store based in the US or the UK that sells to EU shoppers can be covered.
You are not a microenterprise
Microenterprises providing services are exempt from the service requirements. The directive defines one as fewer than 10 people, with an annual turnover or balance sheet total of no more than €2 million.
After June 28, 2025
The rules apply to services provided to consumers after June 28, 2025.
The burden exception is narrow
A business can argue that the requirements would be a disproportionate burden, but it has to document that assessment, renew it at least every five years and inform the authorities.
What it asks of an online store
For websites and apps, the directive asks for one thing: make them perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, which are the four principles WCAG is built on.
A usable website and app
Annex I asks for websites and mobile apps to be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, in a consistent and adequate way.
Information people can use
Information about the service should come through more than one sense, in text that assistive technology can use, with adequate font sizes, sufficient contrast and alternatives for images and other non-text content.
Login, security and payment
For e-commerce, the functions for identification, security and payment must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.
Accessibility information about products
When a manufacturer provides accessibility information about a product, the store should pass it on to shoppers.
Support that can answer
Where you run a help desk or customer service, it should give information about the service's accessibility in accessible ways.
Information in your terms
A service provider must explain how the service meets the requirements, in its general terms and conditions or a similar document, and make that public in written and oral form.
Keeping it that way
Service providers need procedures so the service keeps meeting the requirements as it changes, and must fix problems and inform the authorities when it falls short.
The directive itself doesn't name WCAG. Services that follow harmonised standards published in the EU's Official Journal are presumed to meet the requirements those standards cover. In practice, WCAG 2.2 level AA is the benchmark we test against.
What it means on Shopify
Shopify runs the platform, but your theme, apps, images and words are yours, and each of them can make a store harder or easier to use.
The theme
Shopify requires Theme Store themes to average at least 90 for accessibility in Lighthouse, with 4.5:1 contrast for body text and an alt attribute on every image. Your own changes, sections and apps can undo that, so test the live store.
Apps
Pop-ups, reviews, chat bubbles, upsells and cookie banners each add their own code and can add their own barriers. Test each one with a keyboard.
Content
Write alt text for product images, which Shopify lets you set, and use real headings, clear link text and captions on videos.
Checkout and accounts
Login, payment and checkout are named in the directive. If you change checkout with apps or extensions, test those steps too.
Accessibility information
Publish how the store meets the requirements, link it from the footer, and give people a way to report a problem.
Why an overlay isn't the answer
An accessibility overlay is a widget added on top of a store, and it leaves the theme code that causes the barriers in place, which is why we don't use them.
In April 2025 the US Federal Trade Commission approved a final order requiring accessiBe to pay $1 million over claims that its accessWidget plug-in could make any website meet WCAG. The order bars the company from making such claims without evidence.
No widget, audit or agency can honestly promise that a store meets the law. What a team can do is test the store, fix the barriers in the code and keep testing as the store changes.
A practical plan for your store
Start with the pages every sale passes through: home, collection, product, cart and checkout. Test them with a keyboard, a screen reader and zoom, fix what blocks a purchase, then publish your accessibility information.
Check whether you're covered
Count your people and your turnover, and look at where your customers are.
Test the buying path
Use only a keyboard, then a screen reader such as VoiceOver or NVDA, then zoom to 200%, from the home page to the order confirmation.
Run an automated scan
Tools such as axe and Lighthouse catch missing labels, missing alt text and low contrast. They find some problems, not all of them.
Fix the theme code
Fix barriers where they start, in the theme and the apps, not with a widget on top.
Review every app
Test each app's pop-ups and widgets, and remove the ones you don't need.
Publish the information
Explain how the store meets the requirements in your terms or a linked page, and say how people can report a problem.
Test again after changes
Check again after each theme update, new app or new template.
