2 September 2026

The accessibility statement: what it covers, and why your service provider’s statement does not cover you

In France, two accessibility regimes coexist. One requires an accessibility statement and applies only to the public sector and companies with turnover exceeding 250 million euros. The other, stemming from the European directive, has applied to e-commerce since 28 June 2025 and does not require this statement at all, but instead requires information about the service itself. Both obligations fall on the person providing the service to the consumer. Neither obligation can be transferred to your service provider.

One question comes up frequently: my agency has published an accessibility statement, am I covered? The answer is no, and the reason can be found in a single sentence of the European legislation. Here are the two regimes, what each requires, and from whom.

Two regimes, two documents, two responsible parties

The first regime comes from Article 47 of the law of 11 February 2005. It requires an accessibility statement, a multi-year plan and a notice on the home page. The second comes from Directive (EU) 2019/882, transposed into the Consumer Code. It requires information on how the service meets the requirements, and makes no mention anywhere of an accessibility statement.

Publishing a statement in the format of the public reference framework when you fall under the second regime means fulfilling an obligation that does not apply to you, while leaving the one that does apply to you unfulfilled.

Regime 1: the accessibility statement, and the threshold that almost no one reaches

Article 47 applies to legal persons governed by public law, organisations entrusted with a public service mission, and companies whose turnover exceeds a threshold set by decree. This threshold is 250 million euros, calculated on the basis of the average annual turnover generated in France over the last three completed financial years.

This is the point that most French articles on the subject leave out. Almost no online shop reaches this threshold. If you are reading a guide about “the accessibility statement” and your turnover is not 250 million euros, that guide is not about you.

For those who do fall under this regime, the reference framework requires a notice on the home page, with precise wording and only three variants: full conformance, partial conformance or non-conformance, each preceded by the word “Accessibility”. Partial conformance begins when 50% of the criteria are met. In other words, a website that meets half of the reference framework can legitimately display “partially conformant”.

What Arcom found on 24 June 2026

This regime has not remained on paper. On 24 June 2026, Arcom issued a formal notice to the ministry responsible for public accounts regarding the impots.gouv.fr website. The decision is published in the Journal officiel.

• the statement displayed full conformance even though 42.11% of the criteria were met
• it dated from 2023, and this was identified in April 2026
• the published action plan covered 2024 rather than the current year
• time allowed: two months for the statement and the plan, nine months for the technical corrections

A statement that declares full conformance at 42% is not an isolated case of bad faith. This is what happens when the document is drafted once and then forgotten. This is precisely what the regulator examines: the date, the declared status, and the plan.

Regime 2: the European directive, and this is the one that applies to your shop

Since 28 June 2025, the code de la consommation has imposed accessibility requirements on services provided after that date. The list of services concerned explicitly mentions e-commerce, alongside consumer banking services, passenger transport and access to audiovisual media.

What the text requires of the service provider: design and provide the service in accordance with the requirements, prepare information explaining how the service meets them, make it available to the public in writing and orally, including in an accessible form, and immediately inform the supervisory authorities in the event of non-conformance. The annex specifies that this information must appear in the general terms and conditions or an equivalent document.

There is an exemption for micro-enterprises: fewer than ten people, and annual turnover or an annual balance sheet total that does not exceed two million euros. It appears in the law itself. Be aware of a common source of confusion: another article of the code exempts micro-enterprises **in the product sector** from retaining evidence of their disproportionate burden assessment. This is not the same thing, and confusing one with the other leads you to believe that you are exempt when you are not, or vice versa.

Why your service provider’s statement does not cover you

The answer lies in the definition. The directive defines e-commerce as services provided at a distance, by electronic means and at the individual request of a consumer, with a view to concluding a consumer contract. The obligation therefore follows the contract concluded with the consumer.

Who concludes that contract? Your shop. Not the agency that built it, not the studio that created the design, not the service provider that hosts it. Those companies have their own services and their own obligations, on their own websites. A statement published on your agency’s website concerns your agency’s website.

If your shop operates on a marketplace or platform, the platform is the provider of its own service, and you are the provider of yours. Who is responsible for what in a specific dispute is a legal question, and we do not decide it here. What is clear from the text is that the obligation does not disappear because a third party built the tool.

This does not mean that your service provider has no role. It can do the work, document what it has done, and provide you with the material you need to prepare your information. What it cannot do is assume the obligation in your place.

What you can check this week

Four points, with no tools and no budget. Check:

• which regime applies to you: above 250 million euros in turnover in France, both apply to you; below that, the European regime applies
• if you sell to consumers online, where the information about the accessibility of your service is located, and whether it describes your service or that of a third party
• whether the document you have published is dated, and what the date is
• whether the status you state matches what you have actually measured

Start by finding out where you stand. With one honest caveat: automated testing covers only part of the standard. Our analysis robot machine-tests 31 of the 55 WCAG 2.2 AA criteria, either fully or partially; the others require human judgement. Automated checks reliably find around 30 to 50% of genuine issues. This is a starting point, not a conformance statement, and no legislation requires you to commission an audit or report.

This article describes the state of French law as at 23 August 2026, with supporting sources. It does not constitute legal advice. For a specific situation, particularly involving a marketplace or subcontracting chain, consult a legal professional.