The European Accessibility Act: what Shopify merchants actually need to do

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If you sell to customers in the EU, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) now applies to your online store — whether or not your business is based in Europe. It has applied since 28 June 2025, and penalties are set per member state (reported maximums around €100,000–€250,000). This is a plain-English guide to what it means for a Shopify merchant.

What the EAA requires

The EAA says that e-commerce services must be accessible to people with disabilities. In practice, that means your store needs to meet the technical standard EN 301 549, which adopts WCAG 2.2 Level AA — the same accessibility rules used around the world.

Does Shopify handle this for me?

No. Shopify's platform is built to be accessible, but your finished store — your theme, your product content, your customisations — is your legal responsibility. Independent testing has found Shopify themes typically cover only about a fifth of the WCAG criteria out of the box. "I used Shopify" has never been a successful legal defence.

What a compliant store looks like

• Every product image has meaningful alternative text.
• The whole store can be operated with a keyboard, not just a mouse.
• Text has enough contrast against its background to be readable.
• Forms (checkout, search, newsletter) have properly labelled fields.
• There is a published accessibility statement.

Where to start

Start with a scan to see where you stand. An automated scan reliably finds roughly a third of issues in a minute; the rest need human judgement. StoreProof fixes the automatable issues at the source, flags the rest honestly, and produces the accessibility statement and evidence pack the EAA expects — without resorting to an overlay widget.