In France, the government has announced it will appeal a decision made by the Administrative Court of Paris on Monday, which overturned the requirement for porn sites created in the EU to verify user ages, UNN reports, citing Euractiv.
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On June 16, the Administrative Court of Paris suspended the French government's requirement for age verification for EU-based porn companies until the decree mandating it is recognized as legal under EU law.
"This serious doubt relates to a possible misuse of the procedure provided for by the E-Commerce Directive by the French government," Jean-Sebastien Mariez, a lawyer and founding partner of the French law firm Momentum Avocats, told Euractiv.
French authorities believe they have followed the correct procedure and have therefore appealed to the Council of State in order to reinstate age verification measures.
Yesterday, the country's Minister for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technology, Clara Chappaz, wrote in a post on X that the government remains "fully committed" to enforcing age verification on all pornographic sites, also calling it her "priority".
The crux of the issue facing the French government lies in the procedure it used to attempt to bypass the EU's country of origin principle. This principle, based on the free movement of goods within the EU and established by the EU's E-Commerce Directive of 2002, means that a country cannot regulate a company based in another EU member state unless a formal objection procedure involving the country concerned and the European Commission is followed.
In this case, the Administrative Court of Paris ruled that the French decree imposed on Hammy Media LTD, based in Cyprus, the owner of Xhamster, must be reviewed. Aylo, the owner of YouPorn, Pornhub, and RedTube, is also based in Cyprus.
The French digital ministry informed Euractiv that they had followed the procedure by notifying the EU countries where the companies are based and giving them three months to respond. They also stated that the procedure is based on French law, which complies with the EU's Audiovisual Media Services Directive.
However, regarding the country of origin principle, if the countries themselves do not raise objections, Mariez said that the E-Commerce Directive requires a further step of notification to the European Commission for approval – something the French ministry appears unaware of, the publication writes.