FranceLoi n° 2024-449 du 21 mai 2024 visant à sécuriser et réguler l'espace numérique (SREN, Law No. 2024-449 of 21 May 2024 on securing and regulating the digital space), articles 1 and 2 (age verification for access to pornographic content)
Loi n° 2004-575 du 21 juin 2004 pour la confiance dans l'économie numérique (LCEN) art. 10, 10-1 et 10-2, modifiés et créés par la loi n° 2024-449 du 21 mai 2024, art. 1 et 2
In force since .
An adult content age verification (AV) rule binding private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- on_request
- Who audits it
- Independent third party
- Where the report goes
- Published summary
What it requires
- Applies to editors of pornographic websites and video sharing platforms accessible from France that are established in France or outside the European Union, and to those established in another EU member state once a ministerial order names them and three months have passed since its publication.
- Verify that users are adults, using a system that meets the technical référentiel (reference framework) Arcom adopted after an opinion from the CNIL.
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 ).
If you get it wrong
Private right of actionNo
Penalties
Under Article 10, Arcom may order a service to comply with the référentiel within one month and then impose a financial penalty of up to 150,000 euros or 2 percent of worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher, doubled to 300,000 euros or 4 percent for repeat noncompliance within five years. Under Article 10-1, where a service lets minors reach pornographic content in breach of Article 227-24 of the Code pénal, Arcom may give a 15 day notice and then impose a financial penalty of up to 250,000 euros or 4 percent, doubled to 500,000 euros or 6 percent for repeat noncompliance, and may have internet access providers and DNS resolvers block the site and search engines delist it, each within 48 hours.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Arcom, with an opinion of the CNIL before a financial penalty under Article 10
Settledness
The Court of Justice ruled on references from the Conseil d'État about Article 23 of Law No 2020-936 of , the earlier French regime for access of minors to pornographic sites.
- 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
- Does a pornographic service established in another Member State and not named in a ministerial order owe the age verification duty of Article 10 of the Law of , given that Arcom describes its powers over such services as arising only once they appear on an 'arrêté ministériel' and that Joined Cases C-188/24 and C-190/24 preclude a general and abstract obligation under criminal law for them?
- Does the Digital Services Act, with the Commission's guidelines of under Article 28(4), amount to the 'base légale suffisamment précise au niveau de l'Union' on which the French authorities undertook to revise Arcom's technical référentiel, which they describe as a transitional solution pending an effective European one?
What it reaches
Age threshold
18
Covered services
Pornographic websites and video sharing platforms accessible from France that are established in France or outside the European Union, and those established in another EU member state once a ministerial order names them and three months have passed since its publication.
Verification methods
Digital ID, Third party service, Transactional data, Device signal
What it makes you log
Who may demand the log
Regulator
Logging duty
Article 10, I, lets the regulator require a publisher or platform provider to have its age-verification system audited by an independent body, to attest that it meets the technical reference framework. The article does not use the words log or record, but an audit attesting conformity cannot be carried out without records of how the system works. Article 1, II, makes the regulator report on those audits in its activity report. No provision of articles 10 or 10-1 sets a retention rule for the age data.
- Kind
- Implicit
- As of
- Provision
- Law no. 2004-575, article 10, I, as rewritten by article 1 of Law no. 2024-449
- Trigger
- age_assurance
What this law does
Requires editors of pornographic websites and video sharing platforms accessible from France to verify that users are adults, using a system that meets a technical référentiel adopted by Arcom after an opinion from the CNIL.
Abrogates the prior judicial blocking mechanism (former article 23 of the law of ) and lets Arcom issue a mise en demeure and then order internet access providers and DNS resolvers to block a noncompliant site directly, without a judge, and have it delisted from search engines.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app publishes adult content.
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