If your online shop sells to consumers and you employ 10 or more people, Latvia’s Law on the Accessibility of Goods and Services has applied to you since 28 June 2025. There is an exemption for small businesses, but it is narrower than it is often presented.
What the law is
The law is called “Preču un pakalpojumu piekļūstamības likums”. The Saeima adopted it on 16 March 2023 and it entered into force on 28 June 2025. It transposes EU Directive 2019/882, the European Accessibility Act (likumi.lv). There is no official English translation on likumi.lv, so the English name here is ours.
Article 3(2) point 6 names “e-commerce services” in scope. An online shop selling to consumers is covered. If you sell only to businesses, the law is not aimed at your customers, but many B2B companies also sell to private buyers, and for that part the law applies.
Who is exempt
Article 3(6) exempts a business from the service accessibility requirements if both of these are true:
- it employs fewer than 10 people;
- annual turnover does not exceed EUR 2 million, or the annual balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 2 million.
The word “fewer than 10 people” matters. A company with 12 employees and EUR 1.5 million turnover is not exempt. Check your own numbers against the law text.
What to check in the shop
The concrete requirements are in Cabinet Regulation No. 128 of 27 February 2024. For e-commerce services, point 21 asks for (likumi.lv):
- information on the accessibility of the products and services sold, where the responsible business provides it;
- accessible identification, security and payment functions, so that they are perceivable, operable, understandable and clear;
- identification methods, e-signatures and payment services with the same properties.
In practice checkout is the hard part. Our own working checklist, not text from the law:
- Keyboard. The whole order can be completed without a mouse: menu, filters, basket, payment.
- Form fields. Every field has a visible label; error messages are clear and not conveyed by red colour alone.
- Contrast and text size. Text is readable against its background and survives zooming without being cut off.
- Alt text for product images that carry information.
- Payment and authorisation steps. If payment happens on a third-party page or needs an extra confirmation, test that too.
We use WCAG as the yardstick. The law text does not name it, but it is the widely used standard to test against.
Transitional provision 1(4) excludes website content that had not been updated or edited before 27 June 2025. A shop where product pages change regularly cannot rely on that.
What happens if requirements are not met
A buyer first complains to the service provider, who must answer in writing within one month, extendable to two (Article 21). If that does not resolve it, the buyer can go to the competent authority, which for e-commerce is the Consumer Rights Protection Centre, PTAC (Article 22, point 6).
PTAC can review a disproportionate-burden assessment, require the non-compliance to be fixed within a deadline and, if the business does not comply voluntarily, issue a decision ordering the fix. The decision can be appealed to the administrative district court, but the appeal does not suspend it (Article 23).
So the realistic risk is a complaint and a decision with a deadline, not an automatic fine. We found no publicly announced PTAC inspection campaign for e-shops in Latvia. That does not mean none will come.
Sweden already inspects
In Sweden the regulator is PTS. Its report of 30 January 2026 says PTS began planned supervision of e-commerce services in autumn 2025, covering larger companies established in Sweden that sell products, and checking parts of their websites. It had opened 17 cases by the end of 2025, the supervision continues and more cases are planned for 2026 (PTS, January 2026).
If you sell to Swedish consumers, expect scrutiny there already. Which national rules apply depends on where the company is established, so take legal advice on your case.
How to decide
If you have fewer than 10 employees and turnover or balance sheet total up to EUR 2 million, the law does not reach you, though an easier-to-use shop is worth having anyway. If the exemption does not apply, start with checkout and forms: that is where the risk is highest.
For a new shop or a rebuild it is cheaper to build these requirements in than to retrofit them. We build online shops and their integrations and websites with accessibility as part of the project. If you want to know where your shop stands against this list, discuss your project. Related reading: cart abandonment and checkout and when to replace WordPress.
This article is not legal advice. Ask a lawyer about your situation.
Sources
- Preču un pakalpojumu piekļūstamības likums, likumi.lv, version in force from 5 June 2026
- Cabinet Regulation No. 128 “Preču un pakalpojumu piekļūstamības prasības”, likumi.lv, 27 February 2024
- PTS, Tillsyn för ett fungerande digitalt samhälle 2025 (PTS-ER-2026:2), 30 January 2026
