Web accessibility has stopped being optional and has become an obligation. In Greece it has applied since 28 June 2025, through law 4994/2022, which transposes the European Directive (EU) 2019/882, known as the European Accessibility Act. If you run an online store or a website aimed at the public, it affects you directly.
What it is, in plain words
The goal is simple: a person with a disability should be able to use your website or store as easily as anyone else. Someone who navigates with the keyboard only, someone who hears the page through a screen reader, someone with low vision or color blindness. When your site shuts the door on them, it is no longer just a poor experience, it is also a matter of compliance.
Who it affects
The law explicitly names e-commerce. It covers online stores and electronic services to consumers, banking and financial services, electronic communications and several other categories. There is an exemption for microenterprises that provide services. A microenterprise is defined as a business with fewer than ten employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total that does not exceed two million euros. Even if you fall under the exemption, an accessible site brings more customers and helps your SEO, so it is rarely wasted effort.
What it means in practice
The law points to the European standard EN 301 549, which for websites effectively translates into the WCAG 2.1 guidelines, level AA. Without the jargon, here are some of the things that need to be true:
- Everything works with the keyboard alone, no mouse, with a visible focus indicator.
- Every image that carries information has alternative text.
- Color contrast is strong enough for text to be comfortable to read.
- Information is not conveyed by color alone, for example "the red field is wrong".
- Forms have labels and clear error messages.
- A proper heading structure helps screen readers read the page.
- Videos have captions where needed.
What happens if you do not comply
The law provides for administrative sanctions based on the principle of proportionality. The exact fine amounts are not stated in the text of the law, they are to be set by a presidential decree. Beyond the fine, the competent authorities can require corrective actions, suspend the provision of the service and make the non-compliance public. You will often come across the figure of "up to 100,000 euros", but that belongs to the legislation of other EU countries and is not written into the Greek law. In short, the size of a fine in Greece is judged case by case, on criteria such as the extent of the non-compliance and the size of the business.
Not only an obligation, also more customers
A meaningful share of your audience, people with a permanent or temporary disability as well as older users, struggles or gives up when a site is not accessible. Every such visitor who leaves is a lost sale. The good news is that the same fixes that make you compliant make the site cleaner, faster and easier for Google to understand, so you gain in experience and in SEO at the same time.
A quick two-minute test
Try it yourself, right now:
- Can you reach checkout using only Tab and Enter?
- If you close your eyes and listen to the page, does the order make sense?
- Is the text comfortable to read against its background?
- Do the forms clearly say what went wrong?
If you answered no to any of these, your site probably does not meet WCAG 2.1 AA yet.
How we cover you
We run an accessibility audit with automated tools and with manual testing, using the keyboard and a screen reader, produce a list of findings ranked by severity, and make the fixes so the site reaches WCAG 2.1 AA. For new sites and stores, we build them accessible from the start, with no extra pain later. If you are not sure where your own site stands, we check it and tell you exactly what it needs.
Sources: law 4994/2022 (Government Gazette 215/A/18-11-2022, Part B applicable from 28/6/2025), Directive (EU) 2019/882, standard EN 301 549, WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines.
