Does the BFSG apply to every company website?

No. It covers consumer-facing services in electronic commerce, meaning web shops, booking and ordering functions in particular. A purely informational website without such functions is not directly covered, and neither is pure B2B business.

Which exemption applies to small businesses?

Microenterprises with fewer than ten employees and at most two million euros in annual turnover or balance sheet total are exempt for services. For products covered by the act, this exemption does not apply.

What happens in case of violations?

The market surveillance authorities of the federal states can prohibit services and impose fines of up to 100,000 euros. There is also the risk of competition-law warning letters. The most realistic trigger is a complaint from a user who cannot operate a function.

The BFSG is in force. Which websites now have to be accessible

Germany's Accessibility Strengthening Act has applied since June 2025. Who is affected, what websites must deliver, which transition periods and fines apply and what a pragmatic start looks like.

Published on July 12, 20264 min read

A law with a long run-up

Since 28 June 2025, Germany's Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG, Accessibility Strengthening Act) has been in force. It transposes the EU's European Accessibility Act into national law and, for the first time, obliges private companies to make certain products and services accessible. Until then, such duties applied mainly to public bodies. A year after the deadline, many companies still have not placed the topic correctly. Some wrongly believe they are covered, others wrongly believe they are exempt.

Who the act really covers

The BFSG lists specific products and services, provided they are aimed at consumers. For websites, one category matters most, services in electronic commerce. That means offerings where a contract can be initiated or concluded on the website.

A web shop with a cart and payment function falls under the act.
An online booking tool through which consumers book bindingly does as well.
A contact form alone does not trigger the obligation.
A purely informational company website with services and directions stays out of scope.
Pure B2B business is not covered, what counts is the consumer relationship.

Beyond that, the act names sectors such as banking services, e-books and their readers, telecommunications and parts of passenger transport. Companies in those fields usually already know the obligation from their own industry.

The microenterprise exemption is important. Anyone employing fewer than ten people with at most two million euros in annual turnover or balance sheet total is exempt for services. A small trade business with online booking usually stays out of scope. The exemption only applies to services though, not to manufacturers, importers or distributors of covered products.

What accessible means in practice

Through its regulation, the BFSG points to the European standard EN 301 549, which for web content essentially adopts the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at level AA. In practice that means sufficient colour contrast, full keyboard operability, visible focus markers, labelled form fields with understandable error messages, alternative text for informative graphics and a clean heading structure.

There is also an information duty. Affected providers must state in their terms or in another clearly findable place how their service meets the requirements. This accessibility statement is often forgotten, although it is the easiest checkpoint for authorities.

Deadlines, oversight and risk

For services provided since 28 June 2025, the obligation applies immediately. A web shop concludes a new transaction with every order, which is why the duty has applied there since the deadline and not only from 2030. The often-quoted transition period until 27 June 2030 mainly concerns service contracts concluded before the deadline and self-service terminals that may continue in use.

Enforcement lies with the market surveillance authorities of the federal states. They can demand fixes, prohibit offerings and impose fines of up to 100,000 euros. In practice the more common path will run through complaints, any person can turn to the authority when a covered service is not usable without barriers. Competition-law warning letters from competitors are possible as well.

Why the topic pays off even without the obligation

Accessibility is not a pure compliance item. The same measures that help assistive technologies improve usability for everyone, strengthen findability in search engines and reduce bounce rates. How closely accessibility, SEO and conversion are connected is covered in our post on accessible web design. Anyone planning a new website today best builds accessibility in from the start, retrofitting costs more than clean foundations.

A pragmatic start

The first step is an honest inventory. An audit against the WCAG criteria shows where a website stands and which findings actually mean work. In our experience many of them are quick to fix, contrast, alternative texts, form labels and focus visibility are manageable changes. Structural topics such as a messy heading hierarchy or menus that cannot be operated need more care, but fit well into a relaunch that is planned anyway.

This post is not legal advice, whether a specific offering falls under the BFSG is for a specialised law firm to answer in case of doubt. The technical part is ours. A short review shows where an existing website stands, the way there runs through Kontakt.

Whether a website is affected and what exactly is missing becomes clear in a short assessment. We review the current state and list the findings sorted by effort.