The Accessibility Improvement Act (Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz, BFSG) Part 1: Consequences for websites and apps

The year 2025 is still young, but app providers and website operators who offer products and services to consumers should already start looking at the requirements of the German Accessibility Improvement Act (Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz, BFSG). The BFSG, which comes into force on June 28, 2025, is intended to promote the equal and non-discriminatory participation of people with disabilities by setting accessibility requirements for certain products and services. In the upcoming weeks, the legal implications for individual products and services will be examined in a series of IP-Updates.

I. Scope of application: To which websites/apps does the BFSG apply?

In addition to various products, the BFSG also applies to "e-commerce services in electronic commerce that are provided to consumers". According to Section 2 No. 26 BFSG, these are defined as

"telemedia services offered via websites and applications on mobile devices and provided electronically and at the individual request of a consumer with a view to concluding a consumer contract."

As a result, from June 28, 2025, there will be a legal obligation to provide accessibility for websites and apps through which products or services are sold to a consumer. This also applies if the products or services sold via the app/website are not covered by the BFSG themselves.

This covers practically the entire area of e-commerce. However, the scope of application is likely to be much wider. For example, the guidelines issued by the competent federal authority state that booking an appointment (e. g. with a hairdresser) also qualifies as a "service in electronic commerce".

1. Which contents of the website must be made accessible?

Not all content on the website/app must be accessible. This is only required for the areas related to the conclusion of a contract with the consumer.

According to Section 1 (4) BFSG, the following content also does not have to meet the accessibility requirements:

• Content from third parties that is neither financed nor developed by the economic operator in question and is not under its control;
• Content of websites and mobile applications that are considered archives because their content will not be updated or revised after June 28, 2025.

However, it is still unclear whether many areas of a website/app need to be designed in an accessible way. For example, it is questionable whether customer reviews, newsletters and contact forms must also be designed to be accessible, as these are at least indirectly aimed at the conclusion of a consumer contract.

2. Do B2B offers also have to be designed to be accessible?

No, but the website/app must be designed in such a way that it is clearly not aimed at consumers and that no contracts with consumers are concluded.

II. Who does not have to meet the accessibility requirements?

Websites and/or apps of micro-enterprises, i. e. companies that employ fewer than ten people and either have an annual turnover of no more than 2 million euros or whose annual balance sheet does not exceed 2 million euros in total, do not have to meet the accessibility requirements (Section 3 (3), 2 No. 17 BFSG).

Please note: However, this only applies to small businesses that provide services. Micro-enterprises that offer products listed in the BFSG must meet the accessibility requirements.

The BFSG also provides exeptions to the accessibility requirements if products and services have to be fundamentally changed or would result in disproportionate burdens for economic operators. Whether such an exception applies must be checked by the companies themselves, documented within the company and reported to the responsible market surveillance authority.

III. Requirements for implementations

What implementation requirements apply to website operators and app providers by June 28, 2025 According to Section 3 (1) sentence 1 BFSG, products and services are barrier-free if they can be found, accessed and used by people with disabilities in the generally accepted manner, without particular difficulty and generally without outside help. The specific requirements for websites and apps are determined in accordance with Section 14 BFSG in conjunction with § Section 3 (1), (2) BFSG from the Ordinance to the Accessibility Reinforcement Act (BFSGV).

1. General requirements

Pursuant to Section 12 No. 3 BFSGV, online stores must be

• perceivable
• operable
• understandable and
• robust
• in an appropriate manner.

In addition, the service must provide functions, procedures, strategies and processes as well as changes in execution that are geared towards the needs of people with disabilities and ensure interoperability with assistive technologies (Section 13 BFSGV).

2. Specific requirements

But that's not all: the specific requirements for services in e-commerce also arise from Section 19 BFSGV. Accordingly, information on the accessibility of the products and services offered for sale must be provided first, if this information is provided by the responsible economic operator, as far as this information is made available by the responsible economic operator. This provision of information must then again meet the requirements of Section 12 (2) a) - h) BFSGV. The information must therefore be

• provided via more than one sensory channel,
• accessible for the consumer,
• presented in an understandable and perceptible way,
• available in text formats that are suitable for generating alternative assistive formats for the consumer, which can be presented in different ways and perceived via more than one sensory channel,
• presented in a font of appropriate size and shape, taking into account the foreseeable context of use and with sufficient contrast and spacing between letters, lines and paragraphs.

In addition, an alternative presentation of the content must be offered if elements of non-textual content are included.

Furthermore, identification, authentication, security and payment functions as well as identification and authentication methods, electronic signatures and payment services must be designed to be perceivable, operable, comprehensible and robust (Section 19 (2) and (3) BFSGV).

3. Specific technical requirements for websites/apps

But what specifically applies to apps and websites? At the moment, the BFSG and BFSGV contain a large number of vague legal terms that make it difficult to implement the requirements listed under no. 1 and 2.

However, website operators and app providers can use various regulations as a guide:

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1: These guidelines specify criteria that can be used to check the accessibility of websites and apps. The requirements are divided into three levels from A to AAA.  
• Standard EN 301 549 (Norm EN 301 549), which specifies the requirements that products and services must meet to be considered accessible under the European Accessibility Act (i.e. the directive on which the BFSG is based). For websites/apps, reference is made to WCAG 2.1. At least level 2 AA must be achieved here.
• German Barrier-free Information Technology Ordinance (Barrierefreie-Informationstechnik-Verordnung, BITV): The BITV is a regulation that covers the accessibility requirements for federal public administration websites. The BITV refers to the EN 301 549 standard (Norm EN 301 549), which then refers to WCAG 2.1.

4. Further requirements

In addition to the technical implementation requirements, website operators and app providers will also need to fulfill information obligations from June 28, 2025 in accordance with Section 14 BFSG in conjunction with Annex 3. From this point on, information on how the accessibility requirements are specifically met must be provided in the general terms and conditions or in another clearly visible manner. This information must also be presented in an accessible manner in accordance with the requirements set out above in Section 12 BFSGV.

IV.  Legal consequences of violations

1. Fines

Section 37 (1) of the BFSG contains a list of offenses that are punishable by fines of up to 10.000 €, or in serious cases, up to 100.000 €.

2. Official proceedings in the event of violations

In case of suspicion, the market surveillance authority checks the conformity of products and services with the BFSGV (Section 22 (1); Section 28 (1) BFSG). In the event of a negative outcome, a corresponding deadline (at least ten days) is set to establish conformity. If the deadline expires without a result, a new deadline must be set under threat of prohibition of the offer/provision of the service (at least ten days). In the case of non-compliant products, the first deadline is sufficient. If conformity is still not achieved, the market surveillance authority can restrict or prohibit the provision of the products on the German market in accordance with Section 22 (4) BFSG and even withdraw or recall the product and order the complete discontinuation of services in accordance with Section 29 (3) BFSG.

3. Warnings by third parties

A violation of the accessibility requirements of the BFSG can also be seen as a violation of Section 3a Act Against Unfair Competition, as the obligations of the BFSG are likely to qualify as market conduct regulations. Competitors or consumer associations could therefore assert claims for injunctive relief under competition law and issue warnings to website operators and app providers.

V. Conclusion

Since almost any e-commerce is affected, the BFSG has an enormous impact that many companies may not even be aware of. Although there are still just under six months to implement the requirements of the BFSG, the time should be used effectively. It is to be expected that the implementation will be a time-consuming process and that significant (technical) changes to websites/apps and legal documents (e. g. terms and conditions) will be necessary. Companies would therefore be well advised if they identified existing deficits and addressed them in a timely manner.