Which Standard Must Luxembourg Shops Meet for Accessibility?
Accessibility (EAA)For most online shops, the benchmark is the harmonised European standard EN 301 549, which draws on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, WCAG 2.1, at level AA. This is the technical yardstick behind the European Accessibility Act, Directive (EU) 2019/882, which has applied across the EU since 28 June 2025 and reaches Luxembourg through national transposition.
What WCAG 2.1 AA means in practice
The standard sounds technical, but for a shop it translates into a handful of practical points that make the buying journey usable for people with a range of disabilities.
- Ordinary text should meet a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background.
- The whole checkout should work with a keyboard alone, without needing a mouse.
- Checkout form fields should carry clear, programmatic labels.
- Meaningful images, including product photos, should have descriptive alternative text.
The Luxembourg angle
The standard itself is common across the EU, but it is enforced locally through Luxembourg’s national transposition and its own authorities. Luxembourg is multilingual, with French, German and Luxembourgish in everyday use, so an accessible shop should also present clearly in the languages its customers use. Microenterprises providing services — broadly, fewer than ten staff and no more than two million euros in turnover or balance-sheet total — may be exempt from the service obligations, so it is worth checking whether you fall inside or outside the scope.
Enforcement practice can develop over time, so treat the local detail as something to revisit. Our complete accessibility guide covers the requirements in more depth.
This answer is educational, not legal advice.