Few laws currently unsettle small businesses as much as the German Accessibility Strengthening Act, the BFSG. It has been in force since 28 June 2025, and ever since a stubborn half-sentence has been doing the rounds: “That does not apply to us, we are a small business.” Sometimes that is true - but often it is not. The much-quoted micro-enterprise exemption is tied to narrow conditions, and it fails to apply precisely where many small providers do business every day: the moment covered products reach consumers. This article does not explain how to make a website accessible - that is a topic of its own. It answers the prior question many people skip: am I obliged at all? It closes with a decision tree you can use to place your own situation in a few minutes.
Why many small businesses wrongly assume they are exempt
The micro-enterprise exemption sits early in the text of the act, and that is exactly what breeds a fallacy. Many people read “micro-enterprises are exempt” and stop there.
The decisive addition comes afterwards: the exemption applies to services only and only to businesses that stay within two thresholds at the same time. Cross one of those limits, or place covered products on the market for consumers, and you are back in scope. There is a second misconception on top: that a small firm is automatically a micro-enterprise. “Small” in everyday speech and “micro-enterprise” in the legal sense are two different things. A trade business with twelve employees feels small in conversation, yet it is no longer a micro-enterprise under the BFSG. So before you invest effort in implementation or set it aside with relief, a sober look at your own figures and your own offer pays off. What an accessible implementation looks like in practice is covered in the article on building an accessible business website - here we start with the question that comes before it.
The BFSG transposes EU Directive 2019/882, the European Accessibility Act, into national law. It distinguishes two worlds: products and services. Covered products include computers, smartphones, e-book reading devices, routers, payment terminals and self-service machines. Covered services include telecommunications and passenger transport, consumer banking and electronic commerce - websites through which consumers can enter into a contract. Three questions determine whether you are in scope, and they depend on one another: how many people do you employ? What is your turnover or your balance sheet total? And do you offer a covered service, or do you place covered products on the market? Only the combination of these three answers gives a reliable picture.
The three questions of the scope check
The micro-enterprise exemption in detail
The legislator adopts the European definition of a micro-enterprise.
Under it, a micro-enterprise is a business that employs fewer than ten people and reports either an annual turnover or an annual balance sheet total of no more than two million euros (Bundesfachstelle Barrierefreiheit). Two things are easy to overlook here. First, an “and” links the headcount to the financial threshold: both conditions have to be met together. A business with eight employees and three million euros in turnover is not a micro-enterprise, and neither is one with fifteen employees and modest turnover. Second, the financial threshold uses an “or”: it is enough for one of the two figures - turnover or balance sheet total - to stay below the limit. Anyone who keeps the headcount but exceeds both financial figures loses the exemption.
Fewer than 10 employees
The business employs fewer than ten people. This threshold refers to the business as a whole, not to a single team or a single branch.
Up to 2 million euros
In addition, either the annual turnover or the annual balance sheet total is no more than two million euros (Bundesfachstelle Barrierefreiheit). It is enough for one of the two figures to stay below the limit.
Both conditions together
The word “and” is decisive: only a business that meets both criteria together counts as a micro-enterprise. Cross the headcount threshold and you lose the exemption even with modest turnover.
These thresholds are not a snapshot; they refer to the financial year. In practice that means the classification can change from one year to the next. A young company that stays below every limit in its founding year may grow into scope in its second or third year - through new hires, a second line of business or simply more turnover. That is why the scope check is not a one-off task but a recurring one. If you fall under the exemption today, you should review your own assessment at least once a year and record it in writing. That note costs little time and, in case of doubt, is the evidence that the classification was done carefully. A well-structured website makes such self-declarations easier, by the way - the overview of our services shows how a maintained foundation comes about.
The exemption covers services only
Service or product - the decisive junction
Because the exemption applies to services only, your scope often comes down to whether you provide a service or place a product on the market - or both. An online shop is, in the sense of the act, a service of electronic commerce.
A genuine micro-enterprise can fall under the exemption for the operation of that shop (Bundesfachstelle Barrierefreiheit). As soon as covered products reach consumers through the same shop, however - computers, smartphones or e-book reading devices, say - the product side of the act applies, and that side knows no size exemption. A shop can therefore be exempt on the service side and covered on the product side. This dual nature is the most common source of misjudgements. Anyone selling to consumers online should check carefully which of the two levels is affected.
Scroll table sideways
| Offer | BFSG classification | Does the micro-enterprise exemption apply? |
|---|---|---|
| Advice, appointments or bookings without shipping goods | Service | Yes, below 10 employees and up to 2 million euros |
| Online shop selling to consumers | Service of electronic commerce | Possible for the service, not for covered products |
| Covered products placed on the market for consumers | Product | No - there is no size exemption for products |
| Offer aimed exclusively at business customers | depends on the setup | B2B without a consumer link usually stays outside |
| Purely informational site with no transaction | not a covered service | Scope usually does not arise |
The table shows that not every small website is in scope, yet the boundary runs finer than the term “micro-enterprise” suggests. Purely informational sites with no contract usually stay outside - a trade page that only presents services and invites a phone call triggers no obligation yet. As soon as a binding transaction becomes possible, though, such as an appointment booking or a reservation, the offer moves into the field of electronic-commerce services. How such a booking flow is built and what matters in it is covered in the article on online appointment booking for businesses. Whether your offer functionally falls into scope is also worth playing through, and a look at feature comparison helps you place your own case. Scope depends less on the size of the firm than on the function your site offers.
Selling to consumers online: the most common grey zone
Electronic commerce with consumers is the area where most small providers lose their supposed exemption - not necessarily through the service itself, but through the products they sell and the growth that comes with a running shop.
The first thing that matters is the audience: is your offer aimed at consumers or exclusively at business customers? A purely B2B offer with no consumer link usually stays outside the scope. But as soon as private customers can order, book or enter into contracts with you, the consumer threshold is crossed. At the same time, around 7.9 million people in Germany have a recognised severe disability (Federal Statistical Office) and roughly 87 million people across the European Union live with some form of disability (European Commission) - which makes accessibility a question of reach well beyond any legal duty.
- An online shop through which consumers can buy covered products such as smartphones, tablets or e-book reading devices - here the product obligation applies without a size exemption.
- A booking or reservation flow for private customers that leads to a binding contract.
- An offer that grows past ten employees or two million euros with rising success and loses the exemption as a result.
- A shop that starts out purely B2B and later opens to consumers as well, moving into scope for the first time.
- Contractual commitments to clients who explicitly require accessibility - regardless of whether a statutory duty exists.
The exemption is a moving target
The decision tree: am I covered?
The graphic above brings the three questions together into a decision tree. It replaces no legal advice, yet it places the typical cases reliably.
You start at the top with the headcount, move through turnover or balance sheet total and end at the junction between a pure service and placing products on the market. Every path leads to one of three classifications: green for the exemption applying, yellow for the product obligation despite micro-enterprise status, and red for clear scope as soon as one of the thresholds is crossed.
- Do you employ ten or more people? Then the exemption does not apply - you are obliged as a provider of covered services.
- Are turnover and balance sheet total both above two million euros? Then the exemption falls away as well, even with a small team.
- Do you stay within both thresholds? Then check the third question: do you place covered products on the market for consumers?
- Yes, covered products for consumers: for these products the accessibility obligation applies without a size exemption.
- No, a pure service with no covered products: the micro-enterprise exemption can apply to the service - document this classification.
When the exemption applies today - and not tomorrow
Suppose your check today concludes: exemption applies. That is good news, but not a final state. The most common way out of the exemption is simply success. One more employee takes you past the ten-person line.
A good financial year lifts turnover above two million euros. A new line of business opens the previously B2B operation to private customers. In all these cases the exemption falls away - often without anyone actively thinking about it. That is why it is wise to tie accessibility not to the current classification but to the website itself. A site built to be low-barrier from the start crosses thresholds without pressure to act. A site built around the exemption becomes a project when it grows. The article on a website for hair and beauty salons shows, using a small business as an example, how appointments and prices work online without the foundation having to be rebuilt later.
Document and reassess repeatedly
Fines, supervision and further risks
Anyone who fails to act despite an obligation risks more than a reprimand. Supervision rests with the market surveillance bodies of the federal states.
They review cases on a sample basis and after complaints, demand remediation with a deadline and can, in extreme situations, prohibit a service. Fines reach up to 100,000 euros (German Federal Government); in practice, corrective action comes first, yet the range shows the order of magnitude. On top of that come further levers: recognised associations may bring collective actions, and competitors examine unfair-competition steps where a non-accessible offer gives them an advantage. Contracts concluded before 28 June 2025 benefit from transition periods, yet the underlying state of obligation is unaffected by that. Anyone selling to consumers online and crossing the thresholds should therefore not put the scope question off; an initial classification of your offer can be clarified via the contact page.
The question is rarely whether accessibility makes sense - only whether it is already a duty today. Both answers lead to the same next step.
Accessible from the start makes the scope question moot
For many small businesses the most honest answer to “am I covered?” is: perhaps not today, quite possibly tomorrow. That is exactly why it pays to defuse the question in practice rather than ask it anew every year.
XICflow builds websites from a catalogue of reviewed blocks whose contrast values, focus indicators, heading hierarchy, labels and error messages rest on a WCAG 2.2 AA foundation (W3C). Interactive building blocks ship with the matching keyboard and ARIA patterns, and output is static HTML, so the structure holds up even without scripts. Whether you fall under the exemption or not makes no difference to that foundation - the site is built so that the scope question loses its bite. The grey zones, too, such as online selling or growth beyond the thresholds, then do not lead to a retrofit. How the build works is shown in the overview of how XICflow works, and what the result looks like can be traced in the example sites in the demo gallery.
Accessibility does not stand alone; it feeds into other foundational decisions. A consent banner has to be keyboard operable itself and must not lock the focus in place - how consent can be handled with minimal data is covered in the article on a website without a cookie banner. What the build costs is shown in the pricing overview; further articles on law, structure and technology are collected in the XICflow blog. If you have clarified your scope and want to tackle the implementation, the details are in the article on building an accessible business website.
How to clarify your scope
- Determine the headcount: is the business as a whole below ten people?
- Check the financial threshold: does turnover or balance sheet total stay at no more than two million euros?
- Classify the offer: a pure service, online selling to consumers, or placing covered products on the market?
- Clarify the audience: do you address consumers, business customers or both?
- Review contractual commitments: does a client require accessibility regardless of the statutory duty?
- Document the result with a date and set the review rhythm - at least annually and after every larger change.
- Where the exemption applies, still choose a low-barrier foundation so that a later loss of the exemption triggers no rebuild.