I have a Shopify Store and I've just been sued under the ADA (Gathers v. Wet Shaving Products LLC)

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Small Shopify merchants report being sued over website accessibility, citing ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) in federal court and California’s Unruh Act. Alleged violations include missing alt text for icons (e.g., search), inaccessible CAPTCHAs for newsletter forms, and broader WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) issues.

Jurisdictions span MA, NY, and CA, sometimes reaching out-of-state defendants. One user notes a class action in NY; others were served without prior contact. Shopify is said to accept no responsibility, noting much depends on merchant content, themes, and colors.

Actions/outcomes shared:

  • Fix issues promptly (alt text, forms without inaccessible CAPTCHAs), document changes, and use accessibility audits (e.g., WAVE browser extension). One case was dismissed after fixes and direct outreach to plaintiff’s attorney. Others settled after updating sites; advice includes pleading financial hardship and avoiding default judgments. “Mootness” defense (referencing a Kroger case) was suggested.

Tools and approaches:

  • Mixed views on accessibility widgets/apps (e.g., AccessiBe): some recommend them for quick improvements; others warn they may not ensure compliance or could increase litigation risk.

Open questions remain on best legal strategy and whether widgets suffice; several users are still mid-case.

Summarized with AI on December 21. AI used: gpt-5.
9

I am sorry you were sued. We were served a couple months ago and are still dealing with it. Ironically, we were in the middle of changing our entire website to be compliant during the stay at home order. They happened to come during our transition. We are a small family owned business struggling like everyone else to get through this time. We had to hire a lawyer, sent a letter to try to dismiss explaining that we are small and can’t afford a lawsuit like this. They didn’t care. It is a shakedown. We researched the law firm suing us and came across this article about them:

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-metro-ada-blind-website-accessibility-20180913-story.html

What I want to know is how someone in NY could stumble across our Hawaii brand and want to shop our website on the other side of the country. We dug further and he has been suing random websites left and right. All small mom & pop businesses.

To answer your question, we did not shut down our site since it was our only revenue during the retail shutdowns here. Talk about kicking us when we’re down! We had engaged a company to skin our site to be ADA accessible. They were easy to use and completed the fix in about 24-48 hours.

We are just praying that our settlement won’t kill us. Good luck and I really hope this racket stops.

2 Likes