Who has had to make their website accessible in Italy since 2025

Since 28 June 2025, any business in Italy that sells online to consumers or offers certain digital services has had to make its website and app accessible, meaning usable by people with disabilities too. The services involved are banking, passenger transport, e-books, telecoms and access to audiovisual content. Legislative Decree 82/2022 sets this requirement, implementing the European Accessibility Act.

Microenterprises providing services are exempt, while companies with average turnover above 500 million euros have had obligations since 2022 under the Stanca Law. For other private businesses there’s generally no legal requirement, but there are good reasons to act anyway.

I’m a developer, not a lawyer, so what follows isn’t legal advice. It’s a general overview as of October 2026. To know for sure whether and how the law applies to your business, get a legal opinion.

What an accessible website actually means

An accessible website works for people who can’t see well or at all, who can’t hear, who don’t use a mouse, or who struggle with attention or reading. In practice it has text with readable contrast, images with a description for people using a screen reader, forms with clear labels and videos with captions. It also lets you do everything from the keyboard and shows error messages that explain what to fix.

The technical reference in Europe is the EN 301 549 standard, which points to the international WCAG guidelines for websites and apps. You don’t need to know them, but you do need to know they exist and that whoever builds your site should be working to them.

Who Legislative Decree 82/2022 applies to

Directive (EU) 2019/882, the European Accessibility Act, was transposed into Italian law by Legislative Decree no. 82 of 27 May 2022, which has applied since 28 June 2025. It covers certain products, such as computers, smartphones, self-service terminals like ATMs and e-readers, and a range of services.

As for services, it covers e-commerce, meaning websites and apps where a consumer enters into a contract at a distance and buys a product or a service online. It also covers consumer banking services, e-books and the software used to read them, electronic communications services such as phone and internet access, and services providing access to audiovisual media. Finally, it covers passenger transport by air, bus, rail and waterway, including websites, apps, e-tickets and travel information.

Who you sell to matters, because the decree covers services aimed at consumers. If you only sell to other businesses you’re outside it, but if your online shop is open to everyone, private individuals included, you need to comply, as AgID’s March 2026 guidelines spell out. A brochure site that presents your business and collects enquiries, with no sales to consumers and outside the sectors listed, normally isn’t covered.

Excluded content includes pre-recorded audio and video and office documents published before 28 June 2025, archives that are no longer updated, and third-party content you don’t control. There are also transitional rules running to 2030, but they cover specific cases, such as products already used to deliver the service and contracts already signed with customers. They aren’t a general extension for existing websites.

Microenterprises providing services are exempt

Under the law, a microenterprise has fewer than 10 people and annual turnover or an annual balance sheet total of no more than 2 million euros. If you’re a microenterprise providing services, a small online shop for example, the accessibility requirements don’t apply to you. The exemption is about services, because manufacturers and distributors of the listed products aren’t exempt even as microenterprises and only get a few simplifications.

There are two caveats. If you grow past the thresholds, the exemption goes. The directive itself also encourages microenterprises to make their services accessible, and customers with disabilities do buy from small businesses too.

Other businesses have a narrow way out. The requirements need not apply if complying would fundamentally change the nature of the service or impose a disproportionate burden. But this has to be shown through a written assessment, based on criteria set out in the decree, kept on file, renewed at least every five years and notified to AgID. It’s not a loophole for anyone who’d rather not deal with it.

Large companies and the Stanca Law

Law no. 4 of 9 January 2004, known as the Stanca Law, was written for the public sector and for operators of public services. A 2020 amendment extended it to private companies that offer services to the public through websites or apps and have average turnover over the last three years above 500 million euros, with obligations in force since 2022. These companies must have accessible websites and apps in line with AgID’s guidelines and publish an accessibility statement every year by 23 September, using AgID’s template and linked from the site footer. AgID can impose fines of up to 5% of turnover.

If their services fall under Legislative Decree 82/2022, however, they have followed that decree instead since 28 June 2025. According to AgID they no longer have to file the annual statement, but must provide the accessibility information the decree requires. The fine of up to 5% of turnover still applies.

Who enforces the rules and what’s at stake

For services, the supervisory authority is AgID, the Agency for Digital Italy, which adopted its guidelines for applying the decree in March 2026. A consumer who finds a service unusable can file a complaint with AgID. AgID asks the business to cooperate and fix the problem within a deadline, and if it doesn’t, AgID can go as far as ordering the service to be taken offline or the app pulled from the store.

The decree sets fines from 5,000 to 40,000 euros for failing to meet the requirements, depending on how serious the non-compliance is and how many users are affected. For failing to make the required corrections or to cooperate, fines range from 2,500 to 30,000 euros.

There’s also an obligation many businesses overlook. A provider of a covered service must explain how the service meets the accessibility requirements, in its general terms and conditions or an equivalent document, in written and oral form and in an accessible format. It must also keep the service compliant over time, not just on launch day.

Why it pays off even when you’re not obliged

A website that some of your customers can’t use is a shop with a step at the entrance, and the people who can’t get in go elsewhere.

Think of people with visual or motor impairments, but also older customers, someone with an arm in a cast or someone reading their phone in bright sunlight. If the pay button can’t be reached with the keyboard or the form doesn’t explain what went wrong, you lose the sale without ever knowing. The same fixes make the site clearer for everyone.

They often help with search too, because well-ordered headings, text alternatives for images and a clean structure make pages easier for search engines and AI answers to read. They don’t guarantee rankings, but they’re a solid foundation.

What to do, in principle

The path looks like this.

1. Work out whether you’re covered by looking at what service you offer, to whom (consumers or businesses) and how big your company is.
2. Have the website and app assessed by someone who knows the technical standards, with automated checks and manual testing, because automated tools alone aren’t enough.
3. Fix the problems that come up. They often sit in the site’s basic components, and with an old site it can make more sense to rebuild, as I explain in the article on the signs a website needs rebuilding.
4. Publish the required information, meaning what Legislative Decree 82/2022 asks for or, for large companies outside its scope, the annual statement.
5. Keep it accessible over time, because every new page, product, PDF or banner can bring barriers back. Accessibility belongs in the project brief and should be checked at every release.

For my part, I design websites, online shops and apps starting from an accessible structure and components, because adding accessibility once the work is done costs more. If you already have a site or an app, I can do an initial review and tell you what needs fixing and whether it’s better to repair or rebuild. Get in touch and we’ll talk it through. For the legal side of your case, bring in a lawyer as well.