EU compliance for PrestaShop: consumer rights, safety and access

What we would do

We would map the obligations to the shop you already run before choosing tools: its PrestaShop version, theme, checkout and payment modules, tracking, carrier and accounting integrations, product data, markets and the staff who handle complaints. Get the legal and tax decisions reviewed for that business, then turn each decision into a named setting, document, operational task and acceptance test.

For changes to checkout, consent, returns or the theme, use a private staging copy with representative configuration and protected test data. Isolate customer emails, live payments, carrier labels and accounting or warehouse exports. Rehearse the complete affected journey, keep a restorable configuration and plan the live switch with a named owner. Publish approved text and the matching behaviour together; confirm them on the live shop without overwriting orders or requests received during the rehearsal.

Choose the route from the gap you can demonstrate

If you want an existing module installed, configured and its agreed journey verified, the PrestaShop Module Installation & Configuration Service covers that setup.

Map your obligations and target markets

Start with your establishment, legal role, target countries, consumer or business audience, and product types. EU rules also affect domestic sales; cross-border selling adds questions about applicable law, language, tax and logistics.

Use this as a practical work plan alongside the current national rules for your business. Software can implement a policy, but neither a module nor a CMS page decides which legal obligations apply.

Prioritise actual exposure rather than a universal ranking of fines or audit frequency. Assign an owner to each area and revisit the plan when products, markets, providers or software change.

Keep a working register with the obligation, applicable markets and products, responsible person, implementation location, evidence and next review trigger. A useful entry names the actual checkout module or email template; “legal pages done” leaves nobody responsible for a payment route that bypasses them.

Publish clear trader and contract information

Show your legal trading identity, geographic establishment address and effective contact details; for consumer distance sales in scope, that includes your telephone number and email address. Add register details, VAT identification, authorisation or professional information where applicable. A postal box alone is not a substitute for the required geographic address.

Before the customer is bound, provide the product's essential characteristics, total tax-inclusive consumer price, delivery and unavoidable charges, payment arrangements, delivery timing, withdrawal information, legal guarantees and complaint procedures. Address contract duration, recurring charges and termination where relevant.

Mandatory information is distinct from a separately titled terms document. EU rules require the specified disclosures and accessible, reproducible contractual terms when supplied; national rules can add requirements. Check the E-commerce Directive and the consumer rules for the transaction.

Germany's legal-notice requirements include the applicable identity, address and contact information under section 5 DDG. Do not add a register or VAT number that your business does not have.

Write readable terms matching your actual products and processes. Keep privacy, shipping and withdrawal information easy to find through separate pages where useful, with consistent cross-references. Address applicable ADR information and complaint contacts for your jurisdiction.

For consumer goods, the EU legal-guarantee baseline is at least two years, with longer protection in some countries. Faulty-goods remedies are separate from a change-of-mind return. See the Commission's guarantee explanation.

Do not use blanket “all sales final” wording to remove statutory consumer remedies. Keep withdrawal, faulty-goods remedies and any voluntary warranty distinct.

Connect disclosures to checkout and keep acceptance records

1. Create and review legal content under Design > Pages.
2. Fill every active language and check the page associations for each shop. Keep policy pages public and check footer, product-page and cart links wherever your theme presents them.
3. Under Shop Parameters > Order Settings > General, check the terms setting PS_CONDITIONS and selected CMS page PS_CONDITIONS_CMS_ID.
4. Open the linked page from the actual checkout and replace sample content. Repeat in each shop context and language; do not assume the configuration inherited from another shop points to the intended document.
5. Check that the final order button unambiguously indicates an obligation to pay, using suitable wording for the market.
6. Send the required contract information and withdrawal form in the confirmation email or an attached durable document. Record which approved document version each mail template contains, so updating a CMS page does not leave the previous wording in outgoing mail.

A changeable website link by itself is not durable-medium delivery. Test the email actually sent by each payment flow, including its language, attachments, links and accessibility.

ConditionsToApproveFinder builds checkbox data, and CheckoutPaymentStep presents it. Payment integrations use their own submission endpoints. Test acceptance enforcement on those endpoints; checkbox presentation alone does not enforce acceptance at every payment endpoint.

The termsAndConditions hook can add or replace conditions by identifier. Keep any distinct digital-content consent separate from general terms and marketing permission.

An order's date_add records creation of the order. To retain proof of acceptance, store the customer/order, acceptance time and document version or hash explicitly. Archive the matching document and apply an appropriate retention policy.

Modern email themes are available under Design > Email Theme on supported releases from 1.7.6 onward; after generating or translating emails, check both mails/<lang>/order_conf.html and mails/<lang>/order_conf.txt, including active-theme overrides. PrestaShop 1.6 uses legacy CMS and mail workflows rather than these modern menu paths.

Test the acceptance boundary

On staging, try each supported payment route with the terms unticked, then repeat with valid acceptance. Include express buttons, guest purchases and retries after a payment failure wherever your shop offers them. Have the developer inspect the resulting server-side validation rather than relying on a disabled button. For a mixed basket, check that the separate digital-content choice applies to the relevant content and is included in the retained evidence.

Calculate withdrawal and return-dispatch deadlines separately

For an ordinary in-scope distance consumer sale, the withdrawal period is 14 days, without a required reason. Goods are measured from physical possession by the consumer or their nominated person other than the carrier. Multiple goods delivered separately use the last delivery; regular deliveries over a defined period use the first. Services and non-tangible digital content normally use contract conclusion. See Consumer Rights Directive Article 9.

The customer must communicate withdrawal within the applicable period. For goods, a separate period of 14 days normally applies for sending them back after that notice. This is a dispatch deadline, so lawful arrival can occur later than day 28 after receipt.

Explain the right, procedure, deadline, direct return-cost responsibility and applicable exceptions before purchase, and supply the official model form. Customers can use their own unambiguous statement instead of the model form.

If required withdrawal information is omitted, the period normally ends 12 months after the initial period would have ended, ordinarily 12 months plus 14 days. Article 10(2) provides a fresh 14-day period where the information is supplied within its specified 12-month interval. Check the applicable national implementation, including deadline-counting rules. France's current provisions are in Consumer Code Articles L221-18 onward.

Download the official model form through the Directive's Annex I, complete your actual trader details and provide the appropriate language version. Publish the completed document and include it on a durable medium with confirmation. Do not make customers print or sign a paper form to send an otherwise valid electronic withdrawal.

Provide the online withdrawal function required in 2026

National measures implementing Directive 2023/2673 apply from 19 June 2026. For relevant distance contracts concluded through an online interface, provide an easily accessible, prominent withdrawal function throughout the withdrawal period, alongside the existing ways to withdraw.

The function needs an unambiguous label, such as “withdraw from contract here”. It must let the customer identify themselves and the contract and provide the electronic destination for confirmation. Include a clear confirmation action, then send acknowledgement without undue delay on a durable medium, including the withdrawal content and date and time.

Check Article 11a inserted by Directive 2023/2673 and the national rules for the contracts and dates concerned. France's implementation is explained in the official e-commerce guidance.

Test the function with keyboard and assistive technology, guest and registered purchases, mobile screens and every active language. Verify delivery of its acknowledgement and routing into your support process.

An account-only RMA form with software eligibility limits is not sufficient by itself to establish this function. Keep statutory withdrawal available when an account form is absent or rejects a request.

Rehearse a request whose acknowledgement cannot be delivered. Keep the received notice and its original timestamp in the staff queue, surface the failed delivery for follow-up and let the customer recover confirmation without submitting another withdrawal. An email failure must not silently discard a notice already received by the shop.

Handle refunds, product exceptions and digital consent

Refund amount and timing

Reimburse without undue delay and normally within 14 days after receiving the withdrawal notice. For a full withdrawal, include the original delivery cost up to the cheapest standard delivery offered, without reimbursing the extra express-delivery premium.

For goods, unless you offered to collect them, you may withhold reimbursement until you receive them or receive proof they were sent back, whichever comes first. This right is not conditional on reserving it in your terms. Proof of dispatch does not restart the refund clock. Use the Commission's Consumer Rights Directive guidance for the detailed rules.

Use the original payment means unless the consumer expressly agrees otherwise, without charging a refund fee. Check the original transaction currency and distinguish a partial-order withdrawal from a full cancellation. A voucher or exchange is an option the customer may accept, not a compulsory substitute for a statutory money refund.

The customer bears direct return costs only where you informed them as required, unless you agreed to pay. For goods not normally returnable by post, disclose the required cost information. Faulty-goods remedies have different cost rules from change-of-mind withdrawal.

Assess each exception

• Goods made to individual specifications or clearly personalised can qualify. Manufacturing after the order or selecting standard catalogue options alone is insufficient for that exception.
• Perishable or rapidly expiring goods can qualify.
• Unsealed health/hygiene goods require genuine health or hygiene grounds and unsuitability for return after unsealing. A product label such as cosmetics or underwear does not decide it by itself.
• Sealed audio, video or software unsealed after delivery, certain newspapers or magazines, and inseparably mixed goods have specific statutory rules.

Disclose the exceptions you rely on and assess their substantive conditions individually. Missing disclosure does not have the same effect for every exception.

For ordinary goods, assess handling needed to establish their nature, characteristics and functioning. A diminished-value deduction needs a proper basis and records of condition, rather than a blanket “opened items cannot be returned” rule. Check the legal conditions before deducting.

Paid digital content

For non-tangible paid digital content, loss of withdrawal requires performance to begin, the customer's prior express consent, acknowledgement of the loss, and the required contract confirmation. General terms acceptance alone is insufficient. See Directive 2019/2161's amendment of Article 16(m).

Services and digital services have their own withdrawal rules. Design checkout and delivery around the correct contract type, including mixed carts.

Run returns in PrestaShop without restricting legal channels

In modern PrestaShop, use Customer Service > Merchandise Returns for native requests and options. PrestaShop 1.6 placed Merchandise Returns under Orders.

PS_ORDER_RETURN enables the native process, and PS_ORDER_RETURN_NB_DAYS sets its operational window. Native account eligibility requires the current order state's paid and shipped flags and a date-window check. A state named Delivered is not required.

The software compares its delivery_date, which can be written when delivery documents are generated. That is not necessarily the date of physical possession. Align operational settings with your policy while preserving statutory deadlines and alternative withdrawal channels.

A read-only check can help diagnose settings. Use your prefix and inspect shop scope:

SELECT id_configuration, name, value, id_shop_group, id_shop
FROM ps_configuration
WHERE name IN ('PS_ORDER_RETURN', 'PS_ORDER_RETURN_NB_DAYS');

Change settings through the supported back office. Check the actual order, status flags, dates, customer and shop if an account return option is missing. For virtual or mixed orders, assess the legal request independently of whether the native physical-return interface appears.

Requests use OrderReturn and a selected return state. Define return states under Shop Parameters > Order Settings > Statuses; selecting a request's state is a different operation. Typical states include waiting for confirmation, waiting for package, package received, return denied and return completed.

1. Acknowledge the request and provide clear return instructions without making statutory withdrawal depend on approval or a reason.
2. Arrange a carrier label, customer-posted parcel, collection or drop-off route according to the policy and applicable costs.
3. Create the appropriate corrective document and execute the actual payment refund through the supported integration or provider when it is due. Apply the withholding rules above: proof of return dispatch can require reimbursement before the parcel arrives or is inspected.
4. Record arrival and inspect condition promptly, retaining relevant photographs and notes.
5. Restock only goods that can be sold again, and verify product and combination quantities.
6. Confirm the outcome and reconcile the order, refund and accounting records.

A printable return slip is not a prepaid carrier label. Generate a sample return slip PDF in each active language, check its instructions and address, and confirm how the customer obtains it. A credit slip is an accounting document; creating it does not by itself send money to the card or bank account. Payment-module refund support must be checked.

For delivery-based handling, Returns Manager tracks withdrawal deadlines from delivery, uses the last parcel for split deliveries and leaves the window open when the delivery date is unknown. Its listing describes country windows, optional photos, justified approval or decline decisions and explained refund calculations, including the standard-delivery cap, with native merchandise returns on or off. Test where its delivery evidence comes from in your shop; that feature list does not establish carrier-label generation, automatic payment refunds or automatic approval.

Agree which system owns each operation if a warehouse, carrier portal or helpdesk also handles returns. Match their references to the order and request, record who sends a label and who triggers the payment refund, and test that a repeated notification cannot add stock or return money again. Verify any integration with the return record rather than assuming a changed status synchronises it.

Rehearse a split-delivery withdrawal through to the refund

Use a staging order for ordinary clothing delivered in separate parcels to a consumer in another EU country. Select express delivery where the cheapest standard option was also offered. The customer withdraws from the whole order after the last parcel arrives, then supplies proof of return dispatch before the goods reach your warehouse. Use the original transaction data to test the calculation and the gaps between legal deadlines, software dates and payment processing.

Repeat with a missing delivery date: check that staff investigate the evidence and preserve a lawful request route rather than treating an invented receipt date as fact. Then repeat with only part of the order returned. Have the partial-refund calculation reviewed for the actual basket, discounts and delivery treatment; do not apply the full-order example mechanically to every partial return.

Set and evaluate voluntary return benefits

You can offer a longer change-of-mind window, free labels, faster refunds or exchanges in addition to statutory rights. Define eligibility, timing and costs clearly, and avoid wording that makes the voluntary policy appear to replace legal remedies.

A 30-day policy is a commercial choice, not proof that entering 30 in the RMA setting completes compliance. Check public pages, product-page messages, checkout, confirmation emails and customer service instructions together.

Keep reasons optional for statutory withdrawal. Where you collect feedback, distinguish wrong size, damage, not as described, changed mind and late arrival. Native free-text comments and structured module reason lists have different reporting capabilities.

Review rates by product, combination, country, carrier and reason using consistent denominators and reporting periods. A cluster can prompt investigation into sizing, translations, photographs, packaging or delivery promises; it does not prove a cause automatically.

Compare the added cost of a voluntary benefit with conversion, retained contribution and repeat purchasing. Do not assume that longer windows reduce return rates or that every customer with a return becomes more loyal.

Preventing a return can avoid reverse freight, handling and markdowns. The original outbound shipment still occurs. Add an avoided replacement outbound leg only where an exchange or replacement would otherwise have happened.

For example, if a voluntary extended-window offer has conditions about packaging, show which conditions belong to that extra offer and keep the statutory route distinct. Test a request that falls outside the voluntary conditions but still invokes a legal remedy. Support staff need to assess the right being exercised rather than apply the most restrictive sentence on the policy page to every case.

Turn a reporting pattern into a testable change. If “wrong size” comments cluster on a translated product, compare the customer's selected combination, local size chart, order-confirmation text and item label before editing the chart. If damage clusters on a carrier route, inspect packing and transit evidence. Compare the result after the correction using the same population definition.

Check cross-border law, language and logistics

Where you direct relevant commercial activity to a consumer's country, a choice of law cannot remove the mandatory protection that would otherwise apply under Rome I Article 6. Targeting is assessed from the overall activity; a translation, currency or advertisement is not invariably decisive by itself. See the Commission's Rome I explanation.

When the consumer-jurisdiction rules apply, the consumer can generally sue in the courts of their domicile. Check Brussels I bis, Articles 17 to 19 before relying on an exclusive home-court clause.

The Consumer Rights Directive is generally fully harmonised within its scope, with specific national options. Do not assume every country can impose a different withdrawal-postage rule. National language requirements and other permitted differences still need checking.

Translate the required product, withdrawal and contract information for your target markets as necessary. Test CMS text, emails, forms and downloadable documents in every active language and shop. Avoid assuming that an English fallback satisfies a local information requirement.

For UK consumer sales, check the separate UK rules. They retain a 14-day distance-sale cancellation process with exceptions, but are not simply EU rules applied unchanged. Use UK returns guidance.

International transit does not restart statutory clocks. Keep notice and dispatch records, and do not require receipt where earlier proof of dispatch has already ended the withholding right.

For genuine B2B purchases, the consumer withdrawal right generally does not apply. Determine buyer status and contractual rights separately; a VAT number is not conclusive by itself. Use the B2B guide.

Approve a market as a complete customer journey

1. Record the market's applicable consumer-information requirements and the languages needed for the products and process.
2. Choose the actual return address and carrier route. Check who receives parcels, identifies the order and passes dispatch or receipt evidence to support.
3. Place a representative test order in that language and currency, then inspect the withdrawal page, form, confirmation and refund communications.
4. Send its refund and corrective document through the accounting workflow using the original transaction's tax treatment.
5. Give local-language support instructions to the person monitoring requests. A translated page is incomplete operationally if nobody recognises the withdrawal notice that follows it.

Align VAT, price display and refund reporting

Set product tax rules under International > Taxes/Tax Rules and price-display methods under Shop Parameters > Customer Settings > Groups. Net display does not remove VAT liability.

The €10,000 threshold covers the combined VAT-exclusive value of qualifying intra-Community distance goods sales and cross-border telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services. It requires the qualifying single-Member-State establishment and goods-dispatch conditions and applies to both current and preceding calendar years. It is not a threshold for every foreign sale. OSS is optional; check the Commission's threshold conditions.

Since 1 January 2025, eligible EU-established small enterprises can also assess the optional cross-border SME VAT exemption, subject to the Union turnover ceiling, national thresholds and registration conditions. See the Commission's SME scheme guidance.

Display consumer prices with applicable tax and unavoidable charges. Supply unit prices where required, and use the required prior-price basis for announced reductions, generally the lowest price in the preceding 30 days with defined national options. See the EU price-indication rules.

Refunds must reverse the original transaction's tax and country treatment. France's 20%, Germany's 19% and Ireland's 23% are standard-rate examples, not rates for every product sold to those buyers. Use the actual original rate, not today's rate or the buyer's current address. Check the EU standard and reduced rate table.

Native credit slips already have identifiers, prefixes and tax breakdowns. Check the required fields and references for your jurisdiction rather than assuming they are universally sufficient or universally inadequate. Creating a document and correcting the VAT return remain separate steps.

For an already submitted OSS period, normally make the correction in a subsequent return, identifying the original period and Member State. The ordinary electronic correction window is three years from the original return's due date. See the Commission's OSS correction instructions.

Validate destination-country mapping and refund adjustments before using an accounting export for OSS. A billing-country invoice summary and an aggregate refunds total do not automatically form a refund-ready OSS report.

For document and export workflows, use the accounting and invoices guide; for rates and display, use the prices and VAT guide.

For announced reductions, Omnibus Price Compliance records public prices and displays supported prior-price references for the relevant product or combination, shop, country and currency. Installation provides no past history, so allow recording to build evidence before relying on a reference; the listing says references stay hidden when evidence is insufficient and cart references stay hidden when a cart rule applies. Review which promotions require a reference and test the displayed result against the underlying dated records.

Manage privacy, tracking, incidents and payment duties

Map the personal data collected by checkout, accounts, analytics, support and marketing. Define lawful purposes, retention, security and rights handling. Deletion rights have limits where records must be retained; do not erase required invoices simply because an account deletion was requested.

Assess each provider's actual role. An Article 28 agreement is for a processor acting on your instructions. Independent and joint controllers require different analysis and arrangements. Use the EDPB controller and processor guidance.

For tracker storage or access requiring consent, obtain it before the activity starts. Strictly necessary exemptions and qualifying audience-measurement exemptions depend on the applicable rules and configuration. France's conditions are explained in CNIL's audience-measurement guidance.

Test refusal, acceptance and withdrawal using network and storage inspection, including trackers injected by modules or tag managers. Continuing to browse is not an affirmative consent action. A banner's presence alone does not show that trackers wait.

For module-specific consent configuration, use the Cookies Revolution help page. Use the GDPR guide for rights and operational data handling.

Document every personal-data breach. Notify the competent authority without undue delay and, where feasible, within 72 hours of awareness unless the breach is unlikely to risk individuals' rights and freedoms. High risk can also require informing affected people without undue delay. Preserve incident evidence and record the risk decision; see the EDPB breach guidance.

Separate payment-industry PCI DSS obligations from statutory strong customer authentication. 3-D Secure is a card-payment mechanism; exemptions and frictionless flows mean not every payment shows a challenge. Check your provider's integration, merchant responsibilities and transaction results in the payments guide.

Check what a refusal changes

In a fresh browser session, refuse optional tracking, browse a product, change a variant and enter checkout. Inspect requests and storage after each action: a tag manager or module can inject a tracker after the initial page load. Compare against the reviewed inventory and identify the component that starts each unexpected request. Repeat after acceptance and later withdrawal, checking what future activity stops and how the saved choice is reflected.

Map a data-rights request beyond the account screen as well: determine which support, marketing and fulfilment systems hold related data, who handles the request there and what must be retained. Keep the outcome and retention basis in the case record rather than assuming removal of the shop account completes the work.

Determine product-safety scope and your supply-chain role

GPSR has applied since 13 December 2024 to covered consumer products. It has exclusions and interacts with sector-specific safety law; CE marking is a separate scope question. Start with the current GPSR text.

A manufacturer makes or has a product made and markets it under its name or trademark. An importer under GPSR is EU-established and first places a third-country product on the Union market. A distributor makes the product available without being its manufacturer or importer. Map the actual supply chain, including rebranding and substantial changes.

Dropshipping does not by itself determine that role or customs importer-of-record status. Assess establishment, who first places the product and the separate customs arrangements. Check the EU product-compliance responsibilities.

Where CE law applies, identify every applicable directive and regulation. Electrical, radio, toy, PPE, machinery, construction and medical products can have different assessment routes. Category names are a starting point, not a complete classification.

The manufacturer assumes responsibility for conformity, technical documentation and the required declaration. Some procedures permit self-assessment; others need a notified body. CE marking is not a general quality award or proof that every item received independent testing. See the EU conformity-assessment guidance.

Verify the required markings, documents, instructions and traceability before sale. A logo alone is insufficient. Incorrect proportions or misuse need checking, but do not treat a supposed alternative “China Export” mark as an established conformity test; the Belgian CE FAQ explains the misconception.

• Machinery principally remains under Directive 2006/42/EC before Regulation 2023/1230 applies on 20 January 2027. See the Commission's machinery timeline.
• The main part of the new construction-products framework applies from 8 January 2026, with product-family transitions. See the CPR revision timeline.
• The new Toy Safety Regulation applies generally from 1 August 2030, with some provisions already applying. See the toy-safety transition.

Give each supply-chain check an owner

Use the role assessment above to allocate evidence requests before a product is listed. The applicable product regime determines the exact documents and operator duties.

Put the required safety details on product offers

For covered distance-sale offers, display the following clearly and visibly before purchase:

• Manufacturer name, registered trade name or trademark, plus postal and electronic contact address.
• Where the manufacturer is outside the EU, the required responsible person's name and postal and electronic address.
• A product picture, type and other identifier sufficient to identify the product.
• Applicable warnings and safety information in a language consumers can easily understand as determined by the target Member State.

An electronic address must support direct contact, such as email or a suitable contact form; a static homepage alone is insufficient. See the Commission's GPSR business guidance.

Use product descriptions and structured features for repeated fields. Add model references, applicable age warnings and origin information where the relevant product law requires them. Keep warnings available where customers need them; a generic badge does not replace the text. Where reusable content needs its own product-page area, Product Extra Info Tabs provides shared content with product exceptions and separate language and shop versions. Check its visibility rules so required information remains available to every intended buyer.

Use product files or attachments for applicable declarations and instructions, and check how the active theme renders downloads. Keep confidential technical material appropriately controlled; there is no blanket requirement to publish every technical file on every listing.

Back up attachment records, product associations and stored files explicitly. A standard product-grid CSV does not include attachment binaries and does not carry the declaration file into a catalogue export.

Use wording such as “CE marked” only when required and justified. Identify any separate certification or test and its scope. A custom badge is presentation, not verification.

Make product onboarding a publication gate: classify the goods, verify responsible operators and documents, enter required translations, then inspect the live listing. Maintain a process for supplier changes, safety complaints, recalls and authority requests under the applicable rules.

Check the evidence against the actual product

For an imported electrical item, start with its actual model and intended use rather than copying the supplier's category label. Have the applicable regimes and operator roles assessed, then match the checked documentation to that model, the listing identifiers and the item supplied. A declaration for a similar model does not establish the position for this one.

Preview the offer in each target language on the active theme. Check that warnings and contact details are readable, download links open the intended documents and required content survives any mobile tab or combination change. Keep public files separate from restricted technical records. When an import, supplier update or theme change replaces content, repeat this check before releasing affected listings.

Check accessibility scope and publish service information

E-commerce services are within the European Accessibility Act's consumer-service categories, with national measures applying from 28 June 2025. Check scope, transitional rules and exemptions for your service and products.

Microenterprises providing services are exempt from the directive's service obligations. The definition is fewer than 10 persons and annual turnover or annual balance-sheet total not exceeding €2 million. Apply the relevant enterprise-size rules, including linked enterprises where applicable. The service exemption does not automatically cover dealing in regulated products. See the EAA text and Commission SME definition.

Pure business services generally fall outside this consumer-service category, but other legal or contractual duties can still matter. Recheck exemption status as your business changes.

Covered service providers must publish accessible information explaining how the service meets applicable requirements, in terms and conditions or an equivalent document under Article 13 and Annex V. Keep it current and available in the required formats. A generic public-sector accessibility-statement template is not sufficient by itself. See the official directive text.

EN 301 549 v4.1.1 was published in September 2026 and adopts WCAG 2.2. Check the latest Official Journal citations before relying on an edition for a presumption of conformity. Publication alone does not confer a presumption of EAA conformity. Public-sector WAD harmonization and EAA requirements must be distinguished; see the Commission's standard update.

Accessibility is useful even where an exemption applies. WHO estimates that about 1.3 billion people, 16% of the global population, experience significant disability. See the WHO fact sheet.

Test content, controls and the complete purchase journey

Audit the active theme, every interactive module, your authored content and third-party payment steps. Assess legal requirements and WCAG criteria beyond responsiveness and automated scores. Classic belongs to the 1.7+ theme system; PrestaShop 1.6 uses the legacy default-bootstrap system, and PrestaShop 9.1 introduces Hummingbird as the default. Inspect the actual installed theme.

Images and headings

Give informative images meaningful alternatives and decorative images an appropriate empty alternative. Product image captions are stored in image_lang.legend; verify that the theme uses the caption for the rendered alternative and check every language. Use a controlled import or reviewed bulk update after a backup rather than generic filename text. See W3C non-text-content guidance.

For a catalogue-wide workflow, Automatic SEO Images Alt Tags offers language-specific patterns, a bulk preview and fill-only handling that preserves existing text. Review samples against what the images actually convey, including different views and combinations; generated descriptions still need editorial judgement.

Use real headings in a meaningful hierarchy. One clear main heading is useful editorial practice, but an exact H1 count is not itself a WCAG criterion. See W3C heading guidance.

Keyboard, focus and forms

Tab through menus, search, variants, dialogs, cookie controls, addresses, carriers and payment. Check activation, focus order, visible focus, return of focus from dialogs and escape from interactive controls.

If a theme removes outlines without replacement, restore a visible indicator in the maintained child-theme stylesheet. This example needs checking against your backgrounds, CSS specificity and controls:

a:focus-visible,
button:focus-visible,
input:focus-visible,
select:focus-visible,
textarea:focus-visible,
[tabindex]:focus-visible {
  outline: 2px solid #1a1a1a;
  outline-offset: 2px;
}

The colour and two-pixel example do not certify compliance. Check relevant contrast, obscuration and focus criteria. See W3C focus guidance.

Use visible, associated form labels and useful field-specific errors. Test autofill, validation, payment iframes and submission with keyboard and screen reader, including error recovery.

Contrast and dynamic updates

WCAG AA text contrast is generally 4.5:1 for ordinary text and 3:1 for qualifying large text, with defined exceptions. Inspect prices, badges, placeholders and controls in every state; see W3C contrast guidance.

Make relevant status messages available to assistive technology without forcing focus. A suitable live region can announce an added cart item or result count. Do not make an entire frequently changing product grid speak indiscriminately; see W3C status-message guidance.

Manual and automated checks

1. Run an automated tool such as Lighthouse, axe or WAVE across home, category, product, cart and each checkout state.
2. Complete a purchase using only the keyboard.
3. Repeat key tasks with a screen reader such as NVDA or VoiceOver.
4. Test text resizing to 200%.
5. Test reflow at 320 CSS pixels for vertical content, commonly 400% zoom from a 1280-pixel viewport, with the defined two-dimensional-content exceptions.
6. Check emails, attached documents, cookie preferences and the withdrawal function.

Text resizing and reflow are separate tests; see W3C reflow guidance. Automated tools identify some problems, while manual assessment is needed for usability and many criteria. Log findings, fix them and retest after theme, module and content changes.

Follow an issue through the repair

Suppose a shopper tabs into a product-options dialog but cannot reach its close control or return to the product. Record the URL, selected combination, device, browser, assistive technology and steps that reproduce the trap. Identify the theme or module that owns the dialog, repair its keyboard behaviour and focus handling on staging, then repeat the task through adding the selected item to the basket. Check the mobile presentation and the other dialogs supplied by that component as well.

Record the observed result and retest the fix after that component is updated. For a broader purchase-journey review, the PrestaShop UX & Conversion Design Audit supplies a prioritised repair plan; agree a specialist accessibility assessment separately where that is needed.

Apply the 2026 guarantee and consumer-information changes

Member States were required to apply repair-directive measures from 31 July 2026. The changes include an extra year of legal-guarantee protection where the consumer chooses repair instead of replacement under the legal guarantee, plus repair obligations for covered products subject to EU repairability requirements. Check national implementation and scope. See the Commission's repair-directive guidance.

From 27 September 2026, the green-transition consumer rules bring updated information and commercial-practice requirements. For goods, implement the harmonised legal-guarantee notice and the durability label where its conditions apply. The label concerns a producer's qualifying free commercial durability guarantee covering the whole product for more than two years. It is distinct from the seller's legal guarantee.

Review product claims, guarantee information and the official artwork rather than inventing your own certification badge. See the Commission's sustainable-consumption guidance and Implementing Regulation 2025/1960.

Assign owners for legal text, checkout, refund operations, tax, product documentation and accessibility. Review them when you add a market or product class, change tracking or payment providers, alter a theme, or receive a material complaint. Keep the published information, software behaviour and operational process aligned.

Make the implementation and handover reviewable

Ask your developer or agency for evidence tied to the agreed policy and the installed shop, then use it to decide whether the change is ready to switch live.

• Which requirements are being implemented, who approved their legal or tax interpretation, and which countries, product types and customer groups were included?
• Which theme, module releases, customisations and integration settings were tested? Which checkout, account and guest routes remain outside the tested scope?
• Where are the approved document versions and acceptance records stored, and can staff retrieve the matching version for a disputed order?
• How do actual parcel-delivery evidence, withdrawal notices and dispatch proof reach staff? What happens when a date, email or account route is missing?
• Who issues return instructions, executes the money refund, creates the corrective document, handles the tax correction and decides stock treatment? What prevents repeated actions?
• Which keyboard and assistive-technology tasks passed on the active components, and who owns any unresolved issue?
• What will be restored if the change fails, how will new orders and requests be preserved, and who checks the live result?

Keep the approved texts, configuration changes, test scenarios, redacted evidence, known limitations and staff instructions together. At the planned switch, publish the matching configuration and documents, then check the public journey and the operational hand-offs. Reverting software must not erase a received withdrawal, a completed refund or the version of information already sent to a customer.

Questions owners ask

Can I copy another shop's legal text?

Use a suitable template as a starting checklist, then compare every clause with your catalogue and operations. Remove another trader's details and promises you cannot deliver, and have the text reviewed for your markets before wiring it into checkout.

Do corrected terms fix orders already placed?

Keep the earlier documents and identify which orders received them. Ask the appropriate adviser what correction or customer communication is needed; silently replacing the public page leaves the historical evidence unresolved.

What if a required confirmation email bounces?

Check the sending log and the customer's recorded address, assign follow-up and preserve the failure record. Resend the document version that belongs to the transaction through a suitable agreed route, without rewriting the original event time.

Can I require photographs for every withdrawal?

Keep optional return photos separate from the customer's withdrawal notice. Request relevant evidence where an issue needs investigation, such as reported damage, and do not let a blanket upload requirement obstruct an otherwise valid statutory withdrawal.