Guide
Your Shopify store got an ADA lawsuit. Now what?
Store owners are routinely stunned twice: first by the lawsuit, then by learning that Shopify is not the defendant, they are. If you searched some version of "I have a Shopify store and I just got sued", this page is the map. It applies nearly unchanged to WooCommerce, Wix, and Squarespace stores too.
Why you are named and Shopify is not
- The store is yours in the eyes of the complaint. Plaintiffs sue the business that sells through the site. Your theme choice, your product images, your apps, your checkout settings: the complaint attaches to the storefront you operate, not the platform it runs on.
- Platform terms put accessibility on the merchant. Shopify's terms, like every major platform's, make the merchant responsible for their store's content and legal compliance. Store owners who have asked Shopify to take over a case report the same answer: it is your store.
- The platform's own pages are not what got you sued. Most claimed barriers live in what you control: unlabeled product images, theme color contrast, app popups that trap keyboard focus, unlabeled form fields added by third-party apps.
What is usually actually broken on a store
Across audits of platform storefronts the same findings repeat: product images without meaningful alt text (bulk-imported catalogs are the classic source), decorative theme elements announced to screen readers, cookie and discount popups that cannot be dismissed by keyboard, checkout form fields with placeholder text instead of labels, and color contrast baked into the theme palette. All of it is fixable in the theme and app settings; none of it is fixed by an overlay app from the app store, and stores running overlay widgets get sued too.
The practical sequence
- Preserve, then call a defense attorney. Dated screenshots of the pages named in the complaint, before you change anything.
- Inventory who can change your store. Theme developer, app list, whoever holds admin. Settlements come with fix timelines; you need to know your real capacity before your attorney agrees to one.
- Get an independent audit of the storefront. Template complaints against stores overclaim; an audit with evidence tells your attorney which barriers are real on your specific theme and apps. That is our signed audit: flat $490 for 10 pages, 48-72 hours, reviewed and signed by an IAAP-certified specialist.
- Fix in the theme, not in a widget. Alt text, labels, focus handling, and contrast are theme and app changes your developer can make from the audit's per-finding instructions.
Common questions
Will Shopify help at all?
Shopify publishes accessibility guidance for themes and has improved checkout accessibility over the years, and that is the extent of it. The legal exposure and the fixes in your store are yours.
Is my "small family store" too small to be a target?
No. Filing data shows small stores are common defendants precisely because they settle quickly. There is no small business exemption under ADA Title III, and serial filers do not check your revenue first; see the filing statistics.
Can I just close the store for a while?
Owners ask this in every forum thread. Closing does not undo an already-filed claim, costs you the revenue that funds the fix, and the store comes back with the same barriers. Talk to your attorney before doing anything dramatic.