3,117 Federal Filings in 2025, and Ecommerce Took the Biggest Share
Seyfarth Shaw counted 3,117 federal website accessibility lawsuits in 2025, up 27 percent from 2024. Ecommerce sites were the most-sued category, and the failures cited are the same six every year.
Seyfarth Shaw counted 3,117 federal website accessibility lawsuits in 2025, up from 2,452 in 2024, a 27 percent rise. UsableNet, which also counts state cases in New York and California, put the total above 5,000. Ecommerce was the most-sued category, and the demand letters behind those filings run far higher: one estimate puts them above 8,000 for the year, most of which never reach a courtroom.
The number matters less than the pattern. The same six failures dominate year after year, and they are the cheapest to fix. Low contrast text showed up on 83.9 percent of home pages in WebAIM's annual scan, missing alt text on 53.1 percent, unlabeled form inputs on 51 percent, empty links on 46.3 percent, empty buttons on 30.6 percent, and a missing page language on 13.5 percent. A store that fixes those six has removed most of what a plaintiff's firm tests for.
Why the count keeps climbing
The pipeline is industrial now. Plaintiff firms run automated scans across thousands of storefronts, and a site that fails the scan gets a demand letter, not a phone call. The letters cite the same criteria, usually contrast, alt text, unlabeled inputs, and empty buttons, because those are the failures a scanner can prove without a human visit.
Ecommerce draws the most attention because the harm is easy to describe: a shopper who cannot complete a purchase. A content site can argue its articles are still readable; a store with a checkout a keyboard cannot finish has no such argument, and the settlement terms reflect it.
The six failures, and what they cost to fix
Contrast is a design token change, not a rebuild. Alt text is a merchandising habit. Labels are markup. Empty links and buttons are usually icon-only controls with no accessible name, fixed with an aria-label. The missing page language is a single attribute on the html element. None of these needs a new platform, and all six can be fixed in a single sprint on most stores.
The expensive part is the second pass. A scan finds the six; a keyboard walk finds the failures the scan misses, like focus hidden under a sticky header or a date picker that traps the keyboard. Budget the manual pass, because the demand letter that follows a scan-only fix cites exactly the failures the scan could not see.
What to watch in 2026
The DOJ's Title II rule for state and local government sites originally set an April 2026 compliance date for large entities, and an interim final rule published in April 2026 pushed it back a year. Private businesses have no federal web accessibility regulation, but courts keep treating their sites as places of public accommodation under Title III, and WCAG 2.2 Level AA keeps being the yardstick in demand letters and settlements.
Watch the new WCAG 2.2 criteria in filings. Focus Not Obscured, the 24 by 24 pixel minimum target size, and Accessible Authentication are fresh grounds for the plaintiffs' bar, because most stores were only ever tested against 2.0 or 2.1. A store that has never been tested against 2.2 has untested exposure, not a clean record.
Related reading: What an ADA Demand Letter Actually Asks a Store to Fix, Watching Video Players: Captions That Lag the Audio, Repeat Defendants: What the 2025 Filing Numbers Say About Second Lawsuits.
Frequently asked questions
How many website accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2025?
Seyfarth Shaw counted 3,117 federal cases, up 27 percent from 2,452 in 2024. UsableNet, which also counts New York and California state cases, put the total above 5,000, and demand letters that never reach court are estimated above 8,000.
Why is ecommerce the most-sued category?
Because the harm is easy to describe: a shopper who cannot complete a purchase. Plaintiff firms scan storefronts in bulk, and the failures a scanner can prove, contrast, alt text, unlabeled inputs, empty buttons, are the ones that show up in the letters.
What are the six most common failures?
Low contrast text, missing image alt text, form inputs without labels, empty links, empty buttons, and a missing page language. WebAIM's annual scan found them on 83.9, 53.1, 51, 46.3, 30.6, and 13.5 percent of home pages respectively.
Is WCAG 2.2 the standard courts use now?
Courts reference WCAG 2.2 Level AA as the practical benchmark in demand letters and settlements, even though WCAG is a technical standard rather than a law itself. The new 2.2 criteria, including Focus Not Obscured and the 24 by 24 pixel target size, are appearing in filings.