Short answer
The Accessibility Act (BaFG) implements the European Directive 2019/882 and applies in Austria seit 28. Juni 2025. It obliges Not every website. Companies that offer consumers certain services online are particularly affected Online shops, booking and appointment routes – as well as areas such as consumer banking, certain transport services and electronic communications. Small businesses are excluded from services. Anyone affected must make their digital offers accessible according to the state of the art; serves as a technical standard EN 301 549, which is what the WCAG criteria are.
Who is actually affected
What matters is not the size of the company alone, but the Type of service. These services fall within the subject scope:
Websites and apps through which consumers can conclude a contract – the classic webshop – also include payment and identification steps, not only the homepage.
Services for consumers that can be booked online, such as appointment reservations or accommodation bookings. Pure information forms without the conclusion of a contract are the borderline case that require a case-by-case assessment.
Digital banking services for consumers. In Austria, the supervisory authority has so far opened the majority of its own procedures right here.
Websites, apps, e-tickets and travel information for air, bus, train and ship traffic, with legal exceptions.
Electronic communications services, access to audiovisual media and e-books.
Not automatically affected: A company page that only describes services and indicates means of contact is not covered by the BaFG for this reason alone, but as soon as a consumer can buy, book or order something online, it becomes a scope issue.
Exceptions: micro-enterprises – and what that means exactly
The most important relief concerns Micro-enterprises offering services. A micro-enterprise is anyone who... beides meets:
- • Less than 10 employees, and
- • Jahresumsatz Not more than € 2 million or Total assets Not more than € 2 million.
Whoever falls under it is with diensteTwo common misconceptions:
Not necessarily. An SME with 12 employees or €2.5 million in sales is kein Micro-enterprises. Small and medium-sized companies are not generally exempt - the law only provides for them niedrigere Strafobergrenzen vor.
This deadline is tight and concerns Services that were already provided with existing products or contracts before June 28, 2025 – until 28.6.2030 at the latest. No blanket grace period for each existing website.
What supervision has done so far
Market surveillance shall be the responsibility of: Ministry of Social Affairs Service. On the first anniversary, the ORF (June 24, 2026) reported on the status: 84 cases opened, 74 of which are still open, 10 completed; Of 36 procedures involved personal initiative 22 banking. According to this status were No administrative penalties have been imposed.
The classification from this: The authority checks and demands corrections, but it did not punish anything in the first year. This is a real indication of prioritization – and no warning, because the legal upper and lower limits apply regardless of whether a punishment has already been committed.
| Breach of duty | Upper limit for large companies | SMEs/micro-enterprises |
|---|---|---|
| Service is not offered according to requirements | 80.000 € | 50.000 € |
| Information or remedial obligations violated | 40.000 € | 25.000 € |
| Procedural and cooperation obligations violated | 16.000 € | 10.000 € |
These are legal limits, not automatic penalties. In individual cases, the authority decides based on the type and severity of the violation.
Why an automatic scanner is not enough
Automatic testing tools – ours too Contrast checker - recognize only a part of the requirements. contrasts, alt texts and form labels can be checked by machine; Usability with keyboard, sequence for screen readers, comprehensibility and error messages According to the prior art, therefore, a Manual testing A green scan is explicitly required. kein Evidence of conformity.
A clean approach has three stages: Check (automated and manual on the typical user paths), Fix (the points found in the code and content), Check (test again, document). If you only check and don't fix anything, you have a list instead of a solution.
What it costs in Austria on the market
Guide values from publicly available offers from Austrian providers (as of 2026):
| Performance | Usual range | What is included |
|---|---|---|
| Initial check / quick check | 750–890 € | Rough analysis of a few pages, short report, assessment of the impact |
| Audit (selected pages) | 1.900–4.100 € | Defined page size, list of measures, discussion of results |
| Testing according to EN 301 549 | ab 8.000 € | Broad testing including manual tests; The fix is usually additional |
The ranges are market observation, not a commitment to our offer. The Fix is usually calculated separately in these offers – with us it is the part that counts.
Practical checklist for your own business
Do you sell, book or order online to consumers? Then you are in scope. Pure information website without such functions: usually not.
Less than 10 employees and less than €2 million in sales or total assets → excluded from services as a micro-enterprise. Attention: both criteria must be met.
Not all pages are equally important. The decisive factors are the paths that lead to the contract or booking – product, checkout, form, confirmation.
Implement the points found, prioritized according to effort and impact. A report without implementation is of no use.
Test again after the conversion and document the result. This means that the test can be verified afterwards.