Prepare your website for French accessibility law
Evidence-backed accessibility audits for French sites covered by the RGAA 4.1, Article 47 of Loi n° 2005-102, and the 2023 transposition of the European Accessibility Act (Ordonnance n° 2023-859).
Free scan available · RGAA 4.1 · WCAG 2.1 AA · EN 301 549 aligned
French accessibility law sits on two tracks at once
Most clients we talk to conflate them. Understanding the split is how you scope the right audit and avoid either over-promising (claiming RGAA conformance for a site that doesn't need it) or under-delivering (ignoring the EAA transposition that applies to private e-commerce).
Article 47 + RGAA (public & large private)
Article 47 of Loi n° 2005-102 ("loi handicap") requires online public communication services to be accessible. It applies to public sector bodies, companies delegated a public service mission, and large private entities (turnover > 250M € in France). The technical standard is the RGAA 4.1 (Référentiel général d'amélioration de l'accessibilité), which maps to WCAG 2.1 AA.
Covered entities must publish a déclaration d'accessibilité, a multi-year plan (schéma pluriannuel), and an annual action plan. Non-compliance with these declarations is fineable — up to 50,000 € per service — enforced by ARCOM.
EAA transposition (private e-commerce & services)
France transposed the European Accessibility Act through Ordonnance n° 2023-859 (Sept 6, 2023) and Décret n° 2024-393 (April 2024). Since June 28, 2025 the requirements apply to private e-commerce, consumer banking, electronic communications, passenger transport, e-books, and related consumer digital services — regardless of turnover (above the micro-enterprise threshold).
The technical standard is EN 301 549, which itself references WCAG 2.1 AA for web content. The DGCCRF is the primary market-surveillance authority; fines run up to 4% of worldwide turnover for aggravated violations.
Is your site in scope?
Public sector & large private (Article 47)
- French public administrations, local authorities, public establishments
- Entities with a delegated public service mission
- Private companies with >250 € million annual turnover in France
- Any site publishing the déclaration d'accessibilité
EAA-covered private services (since June 28, 2025)
- E-commerce sites (B2C) selling products or services to consumers
- Consumer banking and payment services
- Electronic communications and messaging services
- Passenger transport ticketing and information
- E-books, reading apps, and audio-visual on-demand services
- Emergency service communications (112 and equivalents)
Micro-enterprise exemption
- Under 10 employees AND under 2M € annual turnover or balance sheet
- Applies to the service requirements in the EAA track
- Does NOT exempt entities from Article 47 if otherwise in scope
- Exemption is narrow — a 12-employee shop is already covered
Common edge cases
- B2B SaaS sold to consumers as a sideline → in scope for that consumer-facing surface
- Corporate marketing sites with no transactional flows → likely only Article 47 territory if at all
- Apps embedded in retail terminals → EAA product requirements apply alongside web
- French subsidiary of a non-EU brand → subject to EAA if placing services on the French market
What documents do French regulators look for?
French accessibility enforcement is document-driven. ARCOM and the DGCCRF typically start by checking whether the required statements exist and whether they are honest. An audit report is what the statements are built from.
Déclaration d'accessibilité
Public-facing page stating the current conformance level (total / partial / none), the methodology used to assess it, the non-accessible content, and a contact for complaints. Required on Article 47 sites and recommended on EAA-covered e-commerce.
Schéma pluriannuel
Multi-year accessibility roadmap (3 years) describing the entity's strategy, governance, training, and mass-remediation plan. Required for Article 47 entities. Must be published and linked from the declaration.
Plan d'action annuel
Annual action plan listing the specific accessibility work to be done this year. Required for Article 47. For EAA-covered private e-commerce, keeping an internal equivalent is the standard way to demonstrate ongoing effort.
How do you prepare a website for French accessibility law?
Free Scan
Up to 5 pages scanned automatically. Get a prioritized snapshot of RGAA / WCAG 2.1 AA issues with evidence. Emailed within 24 hours.
Start a Free ScanAccessibility Audit
Up to 15 key pages reviewed against RGAA 4.1 and WCAG 2.1 AA. Prioritized findings, screenshots, journey impact, remediation roadmap, effort ranges. The input for your déclaration d'accessibilité.
Request an AuditMonthly Monitoring
Monthly rescans with regression detection and verified-fix tracking. Produces the evidence trail for your schéma pluriannuel and annual plan.
Set Up MonitoringWhat this is, and what it is not
AccessiProof provides evidence-backed website accessibility audits for the digital-service surface of French accessibility law. We do not audit physical kiosks, embedded terminals, or hardware products that fall under the EAA product track.
Our reports are not legal advice and not an official déclaration d'accessibilité. The obligation to publish that declaration, the schéma pluriannuel, and the annual plan — and the legal responsibility for their content — remains with the covered entity and its legal counsel. We produce the evidence those documents are built from.
Where this page references RGAA 4.1, WCAG 2.1 AA, and EN 301 549, we do so because they are the technical standards typically used to demonstrate conformance. They are not the only possible mechanism, and the full French legal framework is wider than any single automated pass/fail test.
Build the evidence trail French regulators expect
Start with a free scan to see what your site looks like against RGAA 4.1, then upgrade to a full audit when you need the document trail.
Related EU accessibility frameworks
Every EU law in this space sits on the same technical spine. Use these pages to map your clients' obligations across Europe.
European Accessibility Act
The EU directive that underpins every national accessibility law below.
Read pageEU frameworkEN 301 549
The harmonised technical standard regulators cite as the conformance test.
Read pageEU frameworkWCAG 2.2
W3C success criteria at the heart of every EU accessibility rulebook.
Read pageNational lawGermany — BFSG
Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz: Germany's EAA transposition, in force since 28 June 2025.
Read pageNational lawSpain — Ley 11/2023
RD 1112/2018 for public sector plus Ley 11/2023 and RD 193/2023 for private e-commerce.
Read pageNational lawRomania — Legea 232/2022
Romania's EAA transposition, enforced by ANPC since 28 June 2025.
Read pageNational lawItaly — D.Lgs. 82/2022
Italian EAA transposition layered on the Stanca Law (Legge 4/2004), supervised by AgID and AGCOM.
Read pageNational lawNetherlands — Toegankelijkheid
Besluit digitale toegankelijkheid for public bodies plus EAA-derived obligations for private services.
Read pageNational lawIreland — S.I. 636/2023
Irish EAA transposition, enforced by CCPC and sectoral regulators since June 2025.
Read page