Which rules apply to your website?
A regulator does not need to come inside to check these five: they are on your site, or they are missing from it. The cookie rules and your business details apply to everyone, even if you work alone; accessibility usually only from ten people. For each rule you can read what it asks, how to check it yourself, and what a scan can and cannot see. The rules come from EU law and every country has written them into its own; where that matters, we name the national article.
98.3 per cent of the 541,743 retailers in the EU that sell outside a shop, online or by mail order, have fewer than ten people working. Source: Eurostat, 2023.
Cookies before consent
Art. 5(3) ePrivacy Directive
An EU directive, for the whole EU
Who it applies to
Every website. The rule has no lower limit.
What we measure
Which cookies, trackers and browser storage are present before your visitor chooses, and whether refusing is as easy as accepting.
What the law asks: Cookies before consentYour business details
Art. 5 e-Commerce Directive, art. 6 Directive 2011/83/EU
EU directives, for the whole EU
Who it applies to
Every business website. If you sell to consumers, you have to state more.
What we measure
Registration and VAT number, geographic address, direct contact, terms, privacy statement, the right of withdrawal and the withdrawal button, including on your contact and terms pages.
What the law asks: Your business detailsCustomer reviews
Art. 7(6) Directive 2005/29/EC
An EU directive, for the whole EU
Who it applies to
Anyone who shows customer reviews.
What we measure
Whether your reviews say whether and how you check that they come from customers who actually bought the product.
What the law asks: Customer reviewsA chatbot with AI
Art. 50 AI Act
An EU regulation, directly applicable across the EU
Who it applies to
Anyone with an AI chat on their site. The duty lies with the provider of the chatbot.
What we measure
Whether the chat window tells the visitor they are talking to an AI. Whether a person or a model is behind it, we cannot see: you get a question, not a verdict.
What the law asks: A chatbot with AIAccessibility
Directive (EU) 2019/882, the EAA
An EU directive, for the whole EU
Who it applies to
From ten people, or more than two million euros in both turnover and balance sheet total, when selling to consumers.
What we measure
Seventy WCAG rules at level A and AA, plus four tests an ordinary checker does not do: sideways scrolling at 320 pixels, visible and obscured focus, and wider text spacing.
What the law asks: Accessibility
Where the machine stops
We measure what happens on your site, not whether it is allowed. Whether a cookie is really necessary, whether a number belongs to your business, whether an order can be placed with a screen reader: that takes a person. That is why we never call anything ‘compliant’, and why every rule says what we cannot see.
See where your site stands
The free scan measures this and the four other rules in one go, from a European address, without clicking anything.