Cirv Index

Report · 2026

The State of EU E-commerce Accessibility

We scanned 38 European online stores against WCAG 2.1 A/AA — the standard behind the European Accessibility Act. Here's what we found.

Download the PDF  Updated 2026-06-14

38stores analysed
47/100average score
53%graded D or F
66%fail heading hierarchy

The headline

Europe's online stores are not ready. The average homepage scores just 47/100 on an automated WCAG 2.1 A/AA check, and 53% are graded D or F. The single most common failure is heading hierarchy, affecting 66% of the stores we could scan. With the European Accessibility Act now enforceable, these are not cosmetic issues — they are legal exposure.

Grade distribution

Grade A4
Grade B7
Grade C7
Grade D2
Grade F18

The most common failures

Share of scanned stores failing each WCAG check (homepage):

Heading Hierarchy25
Link Text23
Form Labels12
Alt Text8

Best and worst

Best in class

Needs the most work

  • F hidden — run a scan 5/100
  • F hidden — run a scan 5/100
  • F hidden — run a scan 6/100
  • F hidden — run a scan 8/100
  • F hidden — run a scan 11/100

What this means for the EAA

The European Accessibility Act requires e-commerce services sold into the EU to meet accessibility standards aligned with WCAG 2.1 AA. Non-compliance carries enforcement and penalty risk that varies by member state. An automated homepage scan catches only ~30–40% of issues — so a low score is a near-certain sign of deeper problems, and even a high score warrants a manual audit.

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Method: automated WCAG 2.1 A/AA scan of each store's public homepage. See methodology. Citable data: data.json. Not legal advice.