The EU Accessibility Act in Greece for Online Shops
Accessibility (EAA)Selling into Greece means bringing your online shop within the reach of the European Accessibility Act (EAA). The Act is Directive (EU) 2019/882 and has applied since 28 June 2025. As a Directive, it works through national law: each Member State transposes it and enforces it. Greece has transposed the Act into Greek national legislation, applied in Greek and supervised by Greek authorities. This guide sets out what the Act expects of an e-commerce site and how a Greece-facing seller can prepare.
At heart, the EAA asks that your shop be usable by people with disabilities — customers who use screen readers, navigate by keyboard, need larger text or have visual, motor or cognitive impairments. The purchase journey should work for them just as it does for anyone else. Our complete accessibility guide covers the ground in more depth.
What the EAA covers
The Act applies to a defined range of products and services, and consumer-facing e-commerce is one of them. For an online shop, that means the entire journey — browsing, product information, account creation, basket and payment — needs to be accessible. A barrier at any single step can put the service out of line with the Act.
The standard: WCAG 2.1 AA
Rather than spelling out every technical rule, the Act sets accessibility as the outcome. Compliance is assessed against the harmonised European standard EN 301 549, which for websites aligns with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at level AA. For a Greek-facing shop, meeting WCAG 2.1 AA is the working target.
Practically, that points to measures such as:
- a colour contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 between normal text and its background;
- keyboard navigation across the whole shop, without needing a mouse;
- properly labelled checkout forms that screen readers can announce;
- descriptive alt text on product images and informative graphics.
The microenterprise exemption
The Act relieves the smallest service providers of these duties. A microenterprise providing services — fewer than ten staff and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of no more than €2 million — is exempt from the service obligations, e-commerce included. If your shop exceeds either threshold, you are not exempt and should plan to comply.
Where the exemption does apply, accessibility still makes commercial sense: it opens your shop to more customers and improves the experience for all of them.
The Greek context
Since the EAA is a Directive, the rules that bind you in Greece are the Greek transposition rather than the Directive itself. The substance follows the EU framework, but enforcement is national: Greek authorities supervise compliance and handle complaints, and consumer-facing information is expected in Greek. Our Greece country hub offers more on this market.
What Greece-facing sellers can do now
- Test your shop against WCAG 2.1 AA, giving priority to the checkout flow.
- Review contrast, keyboard access, form labels and image alt text.
- Establish whether the microenterprise exemption covers your business.
- Ensure your Greek-language content meets the same accessibility bar.
Treat accessibility as a continuous practice, since your catalogue and page templates keep evolving.
This guide is educational, not legal advice.