The figure “€100,000” has been circulating since 2025 and frightening people the law does not apply to. Let us start with who falls outside it — that will be a lot of readers — and then look at what is actually required of those who fall inside.
First, who the law does not apply to
Germany’s accessibility act, the BFSG, has applied since 28 June 2025. It carries two limits that take a large share of small businesses out of scope.
Limit one: consumers only. The act is built around the concept of the *Verbraucher* — a natural person buying outside their trade or profession. Services provided exclusively to other businesses are, as a general rule, outside its scope.
Limit two: the micro-enterprise exemption. Section 3(3) of the BFSG states plainly that the rules do not apply to micro-enterprises offering or providing services. The definition is in section 2(17):
An enterprise employing fewer than ten persons and having either an annual turnover of no more than €2 million or an annual balance sheet total of no more than €2 million.
Note the structure: fewer than ten employees is mandatory. Beyond that, one of the two financial criteria is enough — turnover or balance sheet.
An important detail: the exemption covers services only. If you manufacture or sell products from the act’s list — computers, smartphones, e-readers, terminals — the exemption does not apply to you no matter how few people you employ.
If you have fewer than ten employees, turnover under €2 million, and you provide services rather than selling hardware from the act’s list, then as a general rule the BFSG requirements do not apply to you. That is a normal and common situation, and you do not need to rebuild your site for this law.
Where the exemption stops working
It is fragile, and worth knowing about in advance.
- You grew. The tenth employee takes the company out of the exemption.
- You added a product. Start selling devices from the list and the exemption is gone.
- The site became the place where contracts are concluded. The act covers “e-commerce services” — services provided via a website at the consumer’s individual request with a view to concluding a contract. Online booking, payment, checkout: that is contract conclusion, not a business card. Lawyers read this provision differently, and there is no universal answer.
A line in your terms saying “we only work with businesses” does not save the situation if, technically, anyone can place an order.
What is required of those in scope
Two things: the site itself, and a separate information page.
The site. The specific requirements come from the BFSGV regulation. In practice the reference point is the European standard EN 301 549, whose web chapter points to WCAG 2.1 levels A and AA. That is an international rulebook: contrast, keyboard operation, text alternatives, comprehensible forms, a correct heading structure.
The information page. Section 14 of the BFSG requires you, before the service begins, to prepare the information listed in Annex 3(1) and make it publicly available — in an accessible format. Four mandatory elements: a general description of the service, an explanation of how to use it, an explanation of how the accessibility requirements are met, and the competent supervisory authority.
Such a page is usually called a *Barrierefreiheitserklärung*, although the BFSG itself never uses the word.
About the fines — more precisely than the headlines
Section 37 splits offences into two tiers. Up to €100,000 for substantive breaches: placing an inaccessible product on the market, providing an inaccessible service, CE marking violations. Up to €10,000 for the rest: breaches of information duties, failing to hand documents to the supervisory authority.
Since September 2025 supervision has been handled by a single body for all federal states — the MLBF in Magdeburg. It accepts consumer complaints through a form on its site.
No large publicly documented BFSG fines could be found. That does not mean there will be none, but there is no basis for panic right now.
There is no grace period for websites
A common mistake in popular articles: “you have until 2030”. Section 38 does grant a transition period until 27 June 2030, but it covers products — equipment, terminals — and contracts concluded before 28 June 2025. Website content is not covered by that reprieve.
A ten-minute self-check
It does not replace an audit, but it shows how bad things are. No tools required beyond a browser.
- Keyboard. Open your home page and move through it with Tab. Can you see where the focus is? Can you reach the menu, the form and the submit button without touching the mouse? Does the mobile menu open from the keyboard?
- Contrast. Look at grey text on a light background and at captions over images. If it is uncomfortable for you, it will be impossible for someone with reduced vision. Any online contrast checker gives you the number: 4.5:1 for body text, 3:1 for large text.
- Images. Open a couple of pages and check whether images have text descriptions. Decorative images do not need one — they need an empty attribute so screen readers skip them.
- Zoom. Scale the page to 200%. Text must not be clipped and buttons must not overlap.
- Forms. Every field needs a visible label, not just placeholder text inside the field: the placeholder disappears as soon as you type.
- Headings. Check that the page has one first-level heading and that the rest run in order, with no skipped levels.
- Video. If there is video with speech, you need captions.
If half the checks failed and you are out of scope anyway, that is still a reason to fix things: the same problems get in the way of ordinary visitors and affect your search rankings.
What next
Accessibility is not the only thing touching a European website in 2026. The AI obligations are covered in “AI Act: half of it deferred to 2027. What is left for now”.
If you would rather have a site built with these requirements from the start than retrofitted later, have a look at the Growth website service — accessibility is part of the build there, not a paid extra.
This is technical preparation of a website, not legal advice. For how the rules apply to your particular case, talk to a lawyer.
Sources
- BFSG, § 2 — definitions, including micro-enterprise
- BFSG, § 3 — scope and the micro-enterprise exemption
- BFSG, § 14 — obligations of the service provider
- BFSG, Annex 3 — required information
- BFSG, § 37 — fine levels
- BFSG, § 38 — transitional provisions
- Directive (EU) 2019/882 — European Accessibility Act
- MLBF — the joint supervisory authority of the federal states
Checked on 26 July 2026.