There is a date that many Italian businesses have allowed to pass in silence, without realising the magnitude of what it entails: 28 June 2025. From that day, the European Accessibility Act — transposed into Italian law by Legislative Decree No. 82/2022 (D.lgs. 82/2022) — is fully binding on private entities as well. This is not a bureaucratic formality: it is a paradigm shift that redefines the boundaries of corporate liability in the digital world.
Banks, e-commerce operators, telecommunications service providers, digital publishers, ticketing platforms and transport operators are now legally required to ensure that their products and services are accessible to persons with disabilities. Those who fail to comply face significant penalties, but — as we shall see — the financial risk is only one aspect of the matter.
Why digital accessibility is not merely a technical issue
The first mistake many companies make is to delegate the topic of accessibility exclusively to their IT departments, treating it as a matter of code and graphical interfaces. In reality, digital accessibility has profoundly legal, contractual and reputational implications that involve the entire organisation.
Consider a concrete example: a visually impaired customer accessing their bank's online portal to enter into a loan agreement. If the digital document cannot be navigated using a screen reader, that person is unable to read the contractual clauses they are agreeing to. The problem is not merely ethical: it raises a serious question regarding the validity of the consent given and the contractual liability of the institution that provided the service in an inaccessible manner. Accessibility, in this sense, is a prerequisite for the individual's contractual autonomy.
Similarly, makeshift technical solutions — such as third-party plugins that promise automatic compliance with a single click — do not constitute an adequate response to the legal obligations. Genuine accessibility is built from the earliest stages of design, through methodical work and specific expertise. There are no shortcuts.
The regulatory framework: what the law provides
The regulatory perimeter is now structured across multiple levels. Law No. 4/2004 (Legge Stanca) had already introduced accessibility obligations for public administrations. With Legislative Decree No. 82/2022 (D.lgs. 82/2022), implementing Directive (EU) 2019/882, those obligations are extended to the private sector across a broad range of products and services: hardware devices, operating systems, e-books and digital readers, retail banking services, e-commerce platforms, electronic ticketing, and audiovisual media services.
The technical references for assessing compliance are the WCAG 2.2
