The French government has said it will appeal a decision taken by the Administrative Court of Paris on Monday that lifted the obligation for porn websites established in the EU to verify the age of users.
On 16 June, the Administrative Court of Paris suspended the French government’s age verification requirement on EU-based porn companies until the decree requiring this is deemed legal under EU law.
“This serious doubt stems from possible incorrect implementation by the French government regarding the procedure under the E-Commerce Directive,” lawyer and founding partner of the French tech law firm Momentum Avocats, Jean-Sébastien Mariez, told Euractiv.
French authorities believe they have followed correct procedure – hence launching an appeal to the State’s Council aiming to reinstate the age checks.
Yesterday, AI and digital Minister Clara Chappaz, wrote in a post on X that the government remains “fully committed” to enforcing the age verification requirements on all porn sites, also calling this her “priority”.
The crux of the issue facing the French government is the procedure it’s used to try to bypass the EU’s country-of-origin principle. This principle, rooted in the EU’s free movement of goods – and established by the 2002 E-Commerce Directive – means a country cannot regulate a company that’s based in another EU state unless a formal objection process involving the country and the Commission is followed.
In this case, the Administrative Court of Paris ruled that French decree imposed on Cyprus-based Hammy Media LTD, owner of Xhamster, must be reviewed. Aylo, owner of YouPorn, Pornhub, and RedTube, is also based in Cyprus.
The French Digital Ministry told Euractiv that they have followed the procedure by notifying the EU countries hosting the companies and allowing three months for a response. They also said the procedure is based on a French law which is compliant with the bloc’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive.
However, on the country-of-origin principle, if no objections are raised by the countries themselves, Mariez said the E-Commerce Directive requires the further step of notifying the Commission for approval – something that the French Ministry appears to be unaware of. We asked the Commission to confirm whether or not it was notified but at the time of publication it had not responded.
This is not the first time France’s regulatory ambitions have clashed with EU law. The government had to delete or adapt several provisions of its digital majority law, influencer law, and umbrella digital law (SREN) following EU requests in 2023 and 2024.
“The Court’s application of the country-of-origin principle could have serious consequences for France, ranging from striking down age verification provisions to overturning rules on sovereign cloud service regulation,” warned Mariez.
(nl)
