The microenterprise exemption has an "or" in it
Who counts as a microenterprise under the EAA and the BFSG, how to count staff and turnover, why linked companies count too, and the one word several official sources drop.
"Small online shops are exempt from the BFSG" is a sentence I keep reading. The law says something narrower. § 3 Abs. 3 exempts microenterprises that provide services, and only for those services. A small shop that also sells covered products, a phone or an e-reader, keeps its duties for the products.
That part is easy to check. The harder part is the definition of a microenterprise itself, and some official sources get it wrong.
The definition, read as a formula
The European Accessibility Act defines a microenterprise as "an enterprise which employs fewer than 10 persons and which has an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 2 million or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 2 million." The German BFSG copies it word for word in § 2 Nr. 17, with "entweder … oder" for the or.
Written the way a developer would read it:
const isMicro = staff < 10 && (turnover <= 2_000_000 || balanceSheet <= 2_000_000);
Three things follow from that line. Ten people is not micro, because the condition is fewer than ten. Above 2 million in turnover can still be micro, if the balance sheet total stays at or below 2 million. And only a company with both numbers above the threshold drops out on money.
German "entweder … oder" sounds like one or the other, never both. The market surveillance authority MLBF settles it on its page for businesses: it is enough "wenn entweder der Jahresumsatz oder die Jahresbilanzsumme den Schwellenwert von 2 Millionen Euro nicht überschreitet." One of the two is enough.
Where the "or" goes missing
The BMAS guidelines for the BFSG explain the rule with a hair salon that has four employees and 2.1 million euros in turnover, and say it is "kein Kleinstunternehmen nach dem BFSG." By the definition, that is only true if its balance sheet total is also above 2 million. The example doesn't mention the balance sheet.
The FAQ of the Bundesfachstelle Barrierefreiheit summarizes the exemption as "weniger als zehn Beschäftigte und höchstens 2 Millionen Euro Jahresumsatz" in one answer, and gives the full definition, balance sheet included, in another answer on the same page. The Dutch ACM's English announcement from June 2025 says the rules apply to businesses "that employ more than 10 people and/or that have an annual turnover of more than 2 million euros." That is wrong at exactly ten people and leaves out the balance sheet as well.
None of these is a big error on its own. Together they teach people a shorter rule than the law has. My guess, and it is a guess, is that the short version hurts small retailers most. A shop moves a lot of goods through a small balance sheet, so its turnover crosses 2 million long before its balance sheet total does, and the prong that keeps it micro is the one the examples drop.
How to count
The MLBF page also says how to count, which almost nobody else does:
- Staff are counted in annual work units. A full-time person for a whole year is one, part-time and seasonal staff count in proportion, working owners count, apprentices and people on parental leave don't.
- Turnover is counted without VAT.
- Crossing a threshold once doesn't change the category. It takes two business years in a row.
- Linked companies count. If there are holdings or other connections to other enterprises, their staff, turnover and balance sheet go into the calculation, following the EU's SME definition.
The last point is the one that matters for groups. Under Recommendation 2003/361, a company that holds 25 percent or more of another is a partner and counts in proportion, and one that controls it is linked and counts at 100 percent. The EAA's recital 53 says companies have to "genuinely fulfil the requirements" of that recommendation, "aimed at preventing the circumvention of its rules."
Imagine a retail group that moves its webshop into a new subsidiary with six employees. In France, after a court in Lille dismissed a case against Auchan's online shop, the lawyer Simon Parier warned that the ruling invites exactly that move under French law. Under the EU definition it doesn't create a microenterprise. The parent's numbers come along at 100 percent.
Products and platforms
For products there is no exemption, only less paperwork. A microenterprise that sells covered products doesn't have to document a disproportionate-burden assessment or notify the authority about it, but it has to give the authority the facts on request.
Platforms are the open question. No German or EU authority has said, as far as I can find, how the exemption works for a small seller on a marketplace. The Dutch ACM counts the platform itself as an e-commerce service, and the EAA asks e-commerce services to pass on the accessibility information of the products they sell when the manufacturer provides it. That points to a split, with sellers supplying information and the platform showing it, but nobody official has drawn the line yet.
Four numbers and an org chart
If someone asks whether their shop is exempt, the honest first answer is a list: annual work units, turnover without VAT, balance sheet total, all for the last two years, and who owns 25 percent or more of the company. Then read the "or."
After that it's a legal question. The Bundesfachstelle Barrierefreiheit puts one line under its own definition, "keine Rechtsberatung," and I'd put the same line under this post.