Written for online stores in the US selling on their own site or on marketplaces: direct-to-consumer brands, private-label and FBA sellers, dropshippers and subscription sellers.
The short version
- Calendar the deadline and tell your insurer.Put the response date in front of counsel at once, and notify your insurer as soon as the letter arrives. Some policies cover it.
- Preserve records and hire specialist counsel.For a Prop 65 notice, keep sales and supplier test data. Send an accessibility letter to an ADA attorney, who advises whether to pay.
- Fix the product or site anyway.Stop shipping noncompliant stock, or audit the site against WCAG 2.1 AA, the working accessibility standard. A record of fixes weakens the next claim.
Two kinds of letter catch US online sellers out: a Prop 65 notice of violation over a chemical in a product sold into California, and a demand letter claiming your website is inaccessible. Both come with a deadline, and both go better when you act in the first days.
A Prop 65 60-day notice
The 60-day window
A private enforcer serves a 60-day notice of violation on the business, the Attorney General and the district attorneys, with a certificate of merit. If no public prosecutor files within the 60 days, the enforcer may sue. Civil penalties run up to $2,500 per day for each violation, plus injunctions and the enforcer's attorney's fees. Businesses with fewer than 10 employees are exempt. As of Oct 2026.
Cal. Health & Safety Code §25249.7(b)(1) and (d); §25249.11(b)
- Calendar the response.Put the end of the 60 days in front of counsel at once.
- Notify your insurer.Tell the insurer as soon as the notice arrives.
- Preserve records.Keep the sales data for the product and any supplier test data.
- Check the exemption and the warning.Counsel checks whether the fewer-than-10-employees exemption applies, and whether you used a CALIFORNIA WARNING link or an appropriate warning on the product.
- Stop the problem shipping.Stop new shipments of unsafe or noncompliant stock while the notice is resolved.
Most matters settle with a penalty, a fee payment and a warning or reformulation commitment. Civil penalties split 75% to the state and 25% to the enforcer. Counsel should check the Attorney General's 60-day notice and settlement records for comparable products before negotiating, rather than guessing at an amount. As of Oct 2026.
A website accessibility demand letter
ADA Title III and websites
There is no Title III web regulation, and courts split on whether a website alone is a public accommodation; the Ninth Circuit requires a nexus to a physical place. Title III remedies are an injunction and attorney's fees, not damages. WCAG 2.1 AA is the working standard. As of Oct 2026.
42 USC 12182 and 12188; Robles v. Domino's Pizza, LLC, 913 F.3d 898 (9th Cir. 2019)
California's Unruh Act
An ADA violation is also an Unruh Act violation, with minimum statutory damages of $4,000 per violation. But a business that exists only online must be shown to have discriminated intentionally. As of Oct 2026.
Cal. Civ. Code §51(f) and §52(a); Martinez v. Cot'n Wash, Inc., 81 Cal. App. 5th 1026 (2022)
For example, a store gets a letter from a New York firm alleging an inaccessible checkout and asking $15,000 to settle. Calendar the response date, send the letter to an ADA attorney and the insurer (some policies cover it), and commission a WCAG 2.1 AA audit now. Whether to pay is a cost-of-defense decision for counsel.
An overlay widget alone does not stop suits, while a remediation record and an accessibility statement weaken the next claim.
New York and California courts see the most accessibility filings. Fix the site whether or not you pay: counsel decides on the claim, but the remediation record is yours to build.
Asked in Greymill
First steps:
1. Calendar the response date in the letter.
2. Send the letter to an ADA attorney and to your insurer. Some policies cover it.
3. Commission a WCAG 2.1 AA audit (the working accessibility standard), and fix the checkout and product pages first.
4. Publish an accessibility statement with a contact, and keep a record of every fix.
On the $15,000: your attorney weighs paying it against what a defense would cost.
Fix the site either way. A record of fixes and an accessibility statement weaken the next claim.
Say the word and I'll draft the note to your insurer.
Ask it about your own business
Paste this into Greymill with your own figures, and Contracts & Disputes works it through for your business.
I run an online shop in [state], in the US. I have received [a Prop 65 notice or an accessibility demand letter] dated [date] about [the product or the website issue]. Here it is: [paste]. I have [number] employees. Build me a response timeline, list what to preserve and send to my insurer and counsel, and draft a remediation plan.
More for online retail and ecommerce in the US
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- Sales tax when Amazon collects some of it and your stock sits in other statesHow economic and inventory nexus work for an online seller, what marketplace facilitator laws do and do not cover, the state income tax and tariff refund traps, and why to clean up past exposure before you sell.Read the lesson
- Proving the products you import or private-label are legal to sellIf you import or private-label, you are in the chain the law holds responsible: the certificates, testing, warnings and reports your products need before they go live.Read the lesson
- Shipping promises, a refund policy that holds up, and the 3PL clause that caps your lossFederal and state rules decide what your shipping times, refund policy, warranties and subscriptions must say, and your 3PL and supplier contracts decide who pays when stock is lost.Read the lesson
- Paying packers, an overseas assistant and a freelance designer the right wayOnline sellers lean on packers, virtual assistants and freelancers: how classification works for each, which tax form each one needs, and the wage rules that bite at peak.Read the lesson
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Open the interactive lesson · Every online retail and ecommerce lesson · What Greymill knows about the trade
Sources
The primary sources behind this lesson, checked Oct 2026.
- §25249.6 (Prop 65 and website accessibility suits)
- §25249.7(b)(1) (Prop 65 and website accessibility suits)
- 27 CCR §25601 to §25607; §25602(b); §25603(b) (Prop 65 and website accessibility suits)
- 913 F.3d 898 (9th Cir. 2019) (Prop 65 and website accessibility suits)
- Civ. Code §51(f), §52(a) (Prop 65 and website accessibility suits)
- 81 Cal. App. 5th 1026 (2022) (Prop 65 and website accessibility suits)
- §25249.11(b); §25249.7(b)(1), (d), (f); §25249.12 (Hard cases: demand letters, consumer rules and products)
- 42 USC 12188(a) (Hard cases: demand letters, consumer rules and products)
- BPC §17602, §17603 (Hard cases: demand letters, consumer rules and products)
- 16 CFR 435.1, 435.2(b) (Hard cases: demand letters, consumer rules and products)
- Insurance requirements (Hard cases: demand letters, consumer rules and products)
- 16 CFR 1115.14(e); 15 USC 2064(b) (Who must sign off, time-critical steps first)
- 21 USC 364a (Who must sign off, time-critical steps first)
- 37 CFR 2.11(a) (Who must sign off, time-critical steps first)
- BPC §17200; Tex. Bus. & Com. Code §17.41; NY GBL §349; Fla. Stat. §501.201 (Who must sign off, time-critical steps first)