FranceArrêté du 26 février 2025 désignant les services établis dans un autre État membre de l'Union européenne soumis aux articles 10 et 10-1 de la loi n° 2004-575 du 21 juin 2004 (Ministerial order of 26 February 2025 designating services established in another EU member state subject to the age verification regime)
In force since .
An adult content age verification (AV) rule binding private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Applies to you only if your service is one of the 17 named pornographic websites and video sharing platforms established in other EU member states, including Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube (Aylo group) and xHamster (Hammy Media Ltd); the order applies from .
- If you are named, the age verification and blocking regime of LCEN articles 10 and 10-1 extends to you.
- A court challenge has not suspended the order: the Conseil d'Etat on set aside an interim suspension and restored the obligation with immediate effect.
- The Court of Justice of the EU held on that the country of origin principle stops a member state applying a general and abstract criminal-law obligation on minors' access to pornography to a provider established in another member state, but does not stop targeted measures requiring such a provider to verify its users' age, subject to the conditions of Article 3(4) of Directive 2000/31.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text. Also read by: Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique (Arcom) (guidance, recorded ); Joined Cases C-188/24 and C-190/24 WebGroup Czech Republic and NKL Associates and Coyote System, judgment of (Grand Chamber) (recorded ).
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Arcom; ministère de la culture and ministère chargé du numérique
Litigation
- Court
- Conseil d'État
- Docket
- Conseil d'État, 5e chambre, 15 juillet 2025, n° 505472 (Sté Hammy Media Ltd)
- Posture
- The Paris administrative court's interim relief judge suspended the order on after a challenge from Hammy Media Ltd (xHamster). On the Conseil d'État set aside that suspension and rejected the request to suspend the order, finding no urgency shown, and restored the age verification obligation with immediate effect. Aylo, which had voluntarily blocked its French sites in June 2025 in protest, reblocked them immediately after the ruling. Separately, on the Court of Justice of the EU ruled in joined cases C-188/24 WebGroup Czech Republic and NKL Associates and C-190/24 Coyote System, on a reference from the Conseil d'État concerning the prior 2020 regime, that the e-Commerce Directive's country of origin principle precludes a general and abstract criminal-law obligation on providers established in other member states, but does not preclude targeted measures requiring such a provider to verify its users' age, subject to the conditions of Article 3(4) of Directive 2000/31.
Settledness
The Court of Justice ruled on references from the Conseil d'État about the earlier regime under Article 23 of Law No 2020-936 of , not on this arrêté.
- As of
- Case link
- https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:62024CJ0188
- Guidance link
- https://www.arcom.fr/presse/pornographie-en-ligne-de-nouvelles-etapes-franchies-pour-la-protection-des-mineurs
- Case citation
- Joined Cases C-188/24 and C-190/24 WebGroup Czech Republic and NKL Associates and Coyote System, judgment of (Grand Chamber)
- Guidance body
- Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique (Arcom)
- Open questions
- Can further services established in other Member States be added to the list of seventeen that Arcom calls the 'dix-sept premiers sites', and does a newly named service become subject to the duty only three months after the publication of the order that names it?
- Has the Member State of establishment been asked to act and failed to do so before measures are taken against a service named in the arrêté, as the procedural obligation in Article 3(4)(b) of Directive 2000/31 requires according to Joined Cases C-188/24 and C-190/24?
What it reaches
Covered services
17 named pornographic websites and video sharing platforms established in other EU member states.
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Article 1 only designates, through an annex, the services that are subject to Articles 10 and 10-1 of the LCEN, and the order states no duty to create or keep a log or record. Any audit of an age-verification system is in Article 10 of the LCEN as rewritten by loi n° 2024-449, not in this order.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Extends the LCEN articles 10 and 10-1 age verification and blocking regime to named pornographic websites and video sharing platforms established in other EU member states, including Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube (Aylo group) and xHamster (Hammy Media Ltd). Signed , published in the Journal officiel on , and applicable three months after publication, from .
Some designated platforms deployed age verification, while the Aylo sites voluntarily blocked access from France in protest rather than comply.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app publishes adult content.
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Page updated .