Hobby Lobby Stores
Hobby Lobby tried to argue courts shouldn't decide website accessibility cases. They lost in months.
In 2017, Hobby Lobby was sued because its e-commerce site wasn't usable with screen readers. The chain made a creative legal argument: courts shouldn't rule on website accessibility cases at all, because the DOJ hadn't yet issued formal regulations — the issue belongs to regulators first.
A federal judge in California rejected the argument flat. The court held that Hobby Lobby's website is a "public accommodation" under the ADA — period — and plaintiffs don't have to wait for regulators to act. The case settled within months. Hobby Lobby rebuilt the site.
Court
Central District of California
Case
Gorecki v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.
2:17-cv-01131
Outcome
Settled (terms confidential); case terminated October 24, 2017 after court denied motion to dismiss in June 2017
What went wrong on the site
Each visual below shows what visitors with disabilities actually experienced.
<div onClick="buy()">
<div>Buy now</div>
</div>
Custom controls had no ARIA roles, so screen readers could not announce what they were or what state they were in.
WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value
Screen reader announces:
"Image. Image. Image."
Product images and key visuals had no alt text — screen readers announced 'image' or the file name instead of describing what users were looking at.
WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content
Click only — Tab key does nothing
Core interactions required a mouse. Keyboard-only users could not navigate menus, complete checkout, or operate widgets.
WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard
Sources & documentation
Is your site exposed like Hobby's was?
Run a free scan to find out which of these violations exist on your site right now.
Scan my siteAll Retail cases
See the full retail risk landscape
Other cases, top WCAG failures for retail, and what to fix first.
More B2C cases
Retail / E-commerce
Target Corporation
First major e-commerce ADA settlement in U.S. history; established that commercial websites are covered by ADA and class-action exposure is real — Target paid $6M+ in 2008.
Retail / E-commerce
Fashion Nova
Largest disclosed ADA web accessibility class settlement in recent years at $5.15M — and the DOJ intervened in 2026 to argue even this wasn't enough, signaling elevated federal scrutiny.
Streaming
Netflix
Established that the ADA applies to web-only businesses with no physical stores; Netflix paid $795k in fees/monitoring and committed to 100% captioning of its entire streaming library.