Compliance with the new European Accessibility Act

[Judx]

The European Accessibility Act mandates that any B2C e-commerce platform placed on the EU market after 28 June 2025 must meet harmonized accessibility requirements based on WCAG 2.1 AA. There is also a five-year transitional period until 28 June 2030 for platforms already live before 2025. It is no good news for smaller e-commerce companies and providers.

Each EU Member State will place fines by national law. Here are some examples:

• Germany: Fines up to €100 000 for non-compliance under the BFSG
• France: First offence €1 500, rising to €3 000 after one year, up to €30 000 for repeat breaches
• Spain: Fines from €30 000 to €600 000 per violation
• Italy: Administrative fines €5 000–€40 000 or up to 5 % of annual turnover

Afaik there is no WCAG-compliant base theme yet. Given the high compliance costs and tightening deadline, has anyone begun developing or forking a theme that ships WCAG 2.1 AA (and prepares for WCAG 2.2 and 3.0 which will soon be required)?

It’s a real headache 😅