Accessible websites: who is actually affected

Since 28 June 2025, Austria and Germany have been implementing the same EU directive, the European Accessibility Act: Austria through the Barrierefreiheitsgesetz (BaFG), Germany through the Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG). Since then we have been getting two kinds of calls: businesses in a panic that are not affected at all — and businesses that are affected and have no idea.

Who is affected — and who is not

What matters is not whether you have a website, but what people can do on it. Covered are services in electronic commerce through which consumers enter into a contract: online shops, booking and appointment systems, banking, telecommunications, e-books.

A purely informational site is not covered: according to Germany's federal accessibility agency, a site that is purely informative, or that merely advertises products or services, falls outside the law. Austria follows the same logic. Your brochure site is not the problem, the shop next to it is.

The micro-enterprise exemption and its trap

If you employ fewer than ten people and have an annual turnover of no more than two million euros, you are exempt in both countries as a micro-enterprise from the obligations covering services. For many businesses in the region, the assessment ends there.

The trap is in the word "services". The exemption does not cover products: anyone placing covered products on the market has to make them accessible, regardless of company size.

Two exemptions that get overlooked

Disproportionate burden and fundamental alteration. Above the micro-enterprise threshold, this is the only real exemption. The requirements do not apply where meeting them would fundamentally alter the essential characteristics of the service, or would impose a disproportionate burden — assessed against the criteria in Annex 4, which both laws contain.

The catch: it is not a silent exemption. In Germany (§§ 16 and 17 BFSG) as in Austria (§§ 17 and 18 BaFG) you have to document the assessment, keep it for five years and notify the authority — in Austria the Sozialministeriumservice. As a service provider you also have to reassess it at least every five years. Invoking the exemption without documenting it leaves you worse off than not invoking it at all.

The 2030 transition period. Services may continue to be provided using products that were already lawfully in use before 28 June 2025, and contracts concluded before that date may continue unchanged. The two versions differ by a day here: in Germany both end on 27 June 2030 (§ 38 BFSG), in Austria on 28 June 2030 (§ 37 BaFG). Germany additionally caps running contracts at their agreed term.

This is not a grace period for your shop. It covers legacy holdings — products already in use and existing contracts, not a website you are building today.

What actually gets checked

The benchmark is the standard EN 301 549, which references the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 at levels A and AA. What gets checked is contrast, keyboard operability, a visible focus indicator, alternative text, form labels and a structure a screen reader can read out — craftsmanship in the markup, and exactly where off-the-shelf templates keep failing.

The information duty — where Austria and Germany diverge

Both laws require you to explain how your service meets the requirements — but there is no official form for it, unlike the accessibility statement public bodies have to publish.

Germany: no location prescribed, it just has to be accessible to consumers — in practice a dedicated page you link to. Austria: the explanation belongs in a document or in your terms and conditions, while placement in the terms is advised against.

Who checks — and how

The obligations have applied since 28 June 2025 — central surveillance in Germany started on 26 September 2025, through the joint market surveillance body of the federal states (MLBF) in Magdeburg. That gap was not a grace period.

What matters is the procedural logic. The MLBF works to risk-based strategies that set inspection priorities, and describes the trigger like this: where there is a suspicion or sufficient grounds to assume non-conformity, it opens an inspection. Consumers can report any barrier through a contact form. So a single report is enough.

In Austria the Sozialministeriumservice enforces the law; for first-time or minor breaches the principle is guidance before penalties. Penalties run up to €80,000, and in Germany up to €100,000.

What we contribute

We audit your site against the criteria, implement the fixes and hand you a list of what changed and what is still open.

What that does not include is the legal assessment of whether the law applies to you. We handle the technical implementation — and we will tell you up front if your site does not need any.

Last updated: August 2026