A sourced reference
2025 ADA website-accessibility litigation: the data for Shopify merchants.
A short, neutral reference for Shopify merchants, agencies, and counsel who want the 2025 numbers with their sources attached. Every figure below names its publisher and links to the original. Figures come from different organizations using different methodologies, so they are reported separately and must not be added together.
The three figures, kept separate. 3,117 federal ADA Title III website lawsuits in 2025, about +27% year over year (Seyfarth Shaw). ≈70% of accessibility-lawsuit targets are e-commerce businesses (UsableNet, a different dataset). $1,000,000 — the FTC’s consumer-redress order against overlay vendor accessiBe (FTC File 222-3156). Last reviewed June 2026.
Federal Title III website-accessibility filings.
Seyfarth Shaw LLP’s ADA Title III practice tracks federal-court filings each year. This dataset is federal courts only.
- 3,117 federal ADA Title III website-accessibility lawsuits filed in 2025.
- +27% increase in those filings year over year.
- Federal only. This count excludes state-court filings, which other trackers report separately and which would raise the total.
Source: Seyfarth Shaw LLP, “ADA Title III Federal Lawsuit Numbers for 2025.”
The e-commerce share of accessibility-lawsuit targets.
UsableNet’s annual digital-accessibility lawsuit reporting describes who gets sued, by industry. This is a separate dataset from the Seyfarth federal count and is not added to it — it is a composition figure, not a lawsuit total.
- ≈70% of accessibility-lawsuit targets are e-commerce businesses.
- Why it matters for Shopify. Shopify storefronts are e-commerce sites, so they sit squarely in the most-targeted category.
- Different methodology. UsableNet’s reporting spans federal and state filings and counts by industry, so its figures are not interchangeable with a federal-only filing count.
Source: UsableNet, 2025 ADA Digital Accessibility Lawsuit Report.
The FTC’s order against an overlay vendor.
This is a regulatory action, not a private lawsuit, and it concerns a vendor rather than a merchant — but it is the clearest signal that “our tool makes your site ADA compliant” marketing is itself under scrutiny.
- $1,000,000 in consumer redress that overlay vendor accessiBe was ordered to pay.
- Jan 3, 2025. The FTC announced the complaint and proposed order; it was approved as final in April 2025.
- The allegation. That accessiBe’s accessWidget did not make websites WCAG-compliant as claimed, and that third-party reviews were deceptively presented as independent.
Source: U.S. Federal Trade Commission, FTC v. accessiBe, File No. 222-3156 (final order, April 2025).
At a glance — with attributions.
The same figures in one table. Read each row on its own; the columns come from different publishers and are not additive.
| Figure | What it measures | Source & methodology |
|---|---|---|
| 3,117 · +27% YoY | Federal ADA Title III website-accessibility lawsuits filed in 2025, and the year-over-year change. | Seyfarth Shaw LLP — federal court filings only. |
| ≈70% | Share of accessibility-lawsuit targets that are e-commerce businesses (composition, not a total). | UsableNet — industry breakdown across federal and state filings. |
| $1,000,000 | Consumer-redress order against overlay vendor accessiBe over deceptive “ADA compliant” claims. | U.S. FTC — File No. 222-3156, regulatory action (not a private suit). |
Methodology & sources.
How to read these numbers without overstating them — the part most summaries skip.
- Federal vs. all filings.
- The 3,117 figure is federal-court ADA Title III website filings (Seyfarth). Trackers that also count state-court filings report higher totals; we do not merge the two because the methodologies differ.
- Targets vs. totals.
- The ≈70% e-commerce figure (UsableNet) describes the composition of who is sued, not a number of lawsuits. It cannot be multiplied against the federal count to derive “e-commerce suits” without conflating two datasets.
- Regulatory action vs. private litigation.
- The FTC accessiBe matter is a federal regulatory action against a vendor, separate from the private ADA suits against merchants in the other two figures.
- Automated-scan coverage.
- Across this page, note that automated accessibility scans detect roughly 30–50% of WCAG issues (industry baseline, e.g. Deque). Automated documentation records what a scan finds; it does not certify full conformance.
Primary sources: Seyfarth Shaw LLP; UsableNet; U.S. FTC, File No. 222-3156; Deque (automated-scan coverage). This page is documentation and general information, not legal advice. Figures are reproduced from the cited publishers and attributed to them; Paperfort is not affiliated with Seyfarth Shaw, UsableNet, or the FTC. If you cite this page, please also cite the underlying primary source.
Answers
ADA website-litigation data: common questions.
Last reviewed June 2026. Documentation and general information, not legal advice.
- How many ADA website-accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2025?
- Seyfarth Shaw counted 3,117 federal ADA Title III website-accessibility lawsuits filed in 2025, an increase of about 27% year over year. That figure is federal court filings only; counts that include state-court filings, reported by other trackers, are higher and use a different methodology.
- What share of ADA website lawsuits target e-commerce stores?
- UsableNet has reported that roughly 70% of accessibility-lawsuit targets are e-commerce businesses. That is a separate dataset from the federal filing count and is not added to it; it describes the composition of the targets, not a total number of suits.
- What was the FTC’s action against accessiBe?
- In a complaint and proposed order announced January 3, 2025 and approved as final in April 2025 (FTC File No. 222-3156), the FTC required accessibility-overlay vendor accessiBe to pay $1,000,000 in consumer redress over deceptive claims that its AI product could make any website WCAG-compliant and over third-party reviews presented as independent.
- Can these figures be combined into one number?
- No. The federal filing count (Seyfarth), the e-commerce target share (UsableNet), and the FTC order (FTC) come from three different publishers using three different methodologies. They are presented separately and should be cited separately; adding or averaging them would be misleading.
- Does having a WCAG audit prevent an ADA lawsuit?
- No. An automated WCAG 2.2 AA audit is documentation, not a guarantee against litigation or regulatory action. Automated scans detect roughly 30 to 50 percent of WCAG issues. Paperfort produces documentation and a prioritized remediation plan; it is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.
Related reading: documentation a sued merchant can hand to counsel, VPAT for Shopify, and the $249 audit bundle.
Paperfort produces defensible documentation and a prioritized remediation plan. It is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice; it does not guarantee lawsuit prevention or automatic ADA/WCAG compliance. Automated scans detect roughly 30–50% of WCAG issues; Paperfort documents what an automated axe-core scan finds and flags where a qualified professional should review further.