Czech e-shops and digital services are in the European Accessibility Act's first enforcement year — ČOI is test-purchasing checkout flows while most sites remain non-compliant
- Category
- Retail
- Locality
- Czechia · national
- Updated
- Created
- Sources
- 02
no foreign analog.
no budget attached.
compliance date <18mo (forcing function live) (2/2); newest source < 90 days (1/1).
European Accessibility Act as CZ zákon č. 424/2023 Sb., in force since 28 Jun 2025 — 2026 is the first full enforcement year. ČOI runs mystery-shopping test purchases on e-shops (whole checkout flow) and can order corrective measures and fines. Every non-micro CZ e-shop, bank, ticketing and e-book service must meet accessibility requirements now, not at a future date.
reg-accessibility-act-cz: European Accessibility Act as zákon č. 424/2023 Sb., in force since 28 Jun 2025; 2026 is the first full enforcement year — ČOI runs mystery-shopping test purchases across whole checkout flows and can order corrective measures and fines. Forcing function live: deadline 2.
E-commerce industry FAQ traffic (shop5.cz and peers) documents merchant confusion about scope and obligations — scattered but real industry pressure; demand scored 1.
scattered complaints.
E-commerce industry FAQ traffic (shop5.cz and peers) documents merchant confusion about scope and obligations — scattered but real industry pressure; demand scored 1.
CZ incumbent check not done.
score = proof + money + urgency + demand + gap · every point is justified by a source on file · bands: PRIME 10–12 · STRONG 8–9 · FAIR 5–7 · FAINT 0–4
The problem
The European Accessibility Act became Czech law (zákon č. 424/2023 Sb.) in June 2025, and 2026 is its first full enforcement year: ČOI conducts mystery-shopping test purchases that walk entire e-shop checkout flows, with power to order corrective measures and levy fines. In scope: e-shops, banks, transport ticketing, e-book sellers and consumer-device makers — with an exemption only for micro-enterprises providing services. The Czech e-commerce sector, one of Europe's densest per capita, is largely non-compliant with WCAG-level accessibility.
Why now: the obligation is no longer approaching — it is live, and the enforcement mechanism is a regulator that shops your site. Merchant-facing FAQ content and industry confusion about scope show the market discovering the obligation only as enforcement starts.
Who pays: e-shops and digital-service providers buying audits, remediation and continuous monitoring; e-commerce platforms (Shoptet's ~30k+ merchants) are the structural channel — one platform integration reaches thousands of obligated shops at once.
Existing non-solutions: global accessibility-overlay vendors (accessiBe, UserWay) sell widgets of contested effectiveness and no Czech legal mapping; a handful of Czech agencies do manual audits at consulting prices. No productized CZ compliance offering with zákon č. 424/2023 mapping was verified this cycle (gap unchecked, scored 0).
Next moves: a gap check on Czech accessibility-tooling, a ČOI enforcement-statistics receipt (first fines would be a demand=2 upgrade), and a Shoptet-ecosystem probe to validate the platform channel.