New York ADA website lawsuits: what online stores should know

Three things made New York the main venue for these cases.

• Websites are usually covered. The federal appeals court for New York, the Second Circuit, has not decided whether online-only businesses are covered by the ADA. Most district judges in New York who have looked at the question said they are (Seyfarth Shaw, March 25, 2026). In California, by contrast, federal courts have held that online-only businesses are not covered.
• State and city law add money. The ADA gives private plaintiffs no damages. New York's State and City Human Rights Laws do, and both allow attorney's fees.
• Its courts reach out-of-state sellers. A business that ships goods into New York can often be sued there.

In every year from 2018 to 2024, New York had more than half of all federal website suits in the country (our calculation from Seyfarth's figures). In 2025 its share fell to about a third, but it was still the largest of any state.

Other trackers show the same direction. EcomBack, which uses its own method, counted 1,600 New York website suits in 2024 and 1,108 in 2025. In the first half of 2026 it counted 399, down 37.36% from 637 a year earlier, which put New York third behind Illinois and California.

The numbers above miss most state court cases, so they understate the total. UsableNet, which also tracks state courts, said New York “leads in state-level filings” in the first half of 2025 (August 4, 2025). For the national picture, see ADA website lawsuit numbers and trends.

New York has four federal district courts. The website cases in this guide come from two of them (28 U.S.C. section 112):

• The Southern District (SDNY): Manhattan, the Bronx, Westchester and five counties to the north.
• The Eastern District (EDNY): Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Nassau and Suffolk.

No tracker we found publishes a split between the two, so we do not give one. What matters more is how judges in both have changed.

Standing is now the main fight

To sue in federal court, a plaintiff must show a real injury and a real plan to come back. In Calcano v. Swarovski (2d Cir., June 2, 2022), the appeals court upheld the dismissal of five nearly identical suits over braille gift cards. It said the plaintiffs' “conclusory, boilerplate allegations” did not show standing. It was not a website case, but New York judges now apply the same test to website complaints.

Seyfarth Shaw reported in May 2025 that federal judges in New York were “not rolling out the welcome mat” for serial plaintiffs any more, and that several New York firms had moved most or all of their website suits to state court.

Three New York laws are used in website claims. None of them names a website standard. They ban disability discrimination in places that serve the public, and plaintiffs argue that an inaccessible store is one.

The City law allows punitive damages, which the State law does not for these claims. A plaintiff suing under it must also serve a copy of the complaint on the City Commission on Human Rights and the Corporation Counsel within ten days (section 8-502(c)).

In New York, the main trial court is called the Supreme Court, and state court website suits are filed there. These suits often leave out the ADA and rely only on the state and city laws, which keeps them out of federal court and away from its stricter standing rules.

State court is not automatic for plaintiffs either. In Rodriguez v. Bitchin' Inc. (Supreme Court, New York County, May 3, 2024), the court dismissed a visually impaired plaintiff's website claims. It found no sign the business meant to discriminate, partly because he never contacted it before suing, and it rejected the idea that the website itself was a discriminatory “policy”. The plaintiff dropped his appeal (Kaufman Dolowich, New York Law Journal, December 13, 2024).

One trial court decision does not settle the law, and these cases still cost money to defend. But it shows why a record of fixes, and a real way for shoppers to reach you, matter in state court too.

You do not have to be based in New York to be sued there. New York's long-arm rule lets its courts hear a case against a business that “contracts anywhere to supply goods or services in the state” (CPLR 302(a)(1)). A Shopify store in Ohio, Ontario or Ireland that ships orders to New York customers may fit that description.

Your lawyer may still argue that the court has no jurisdiction over you. Whether that works depends on the facts, such as how much you actually sell into the state. Do not plan around it. A jurisdiction fight costs money too, and it does nothing about the barriers.

For government sites, yes. For stores, not a specific one.

• State agencies. Senate Bill S3114A, signed December 22, 2023 as Chapter 734 of the Laws of 2023, added section 103-b to the State Technology Law. It requires state agency websites to meet the most current version of WCAG. It does not apply to private businesses.
• Private businesses. We found no New York law, as of October 17, 2026, that sets a technical website standard for stores or gives them time to fix barriers before a suit. Claims run on the human rights laws above.

In practice, the yardstick in New York is the same as everywhere else in the US: WCAG at level AA, the standard complaints and settlements name. WCAG 2.2 is the current version. See WCAG 2.2 AA explained.

Do not install an overlay widget as a shortcut. EcomBack counted 983 ADA website suits in 2025 against sites that already had one. The barriers a New York complaint lists are in your theme and apps, and that is where they need fixing.