Major blow to Pornhub as France’s highest court re-introduces age verification

France's state council has overruled a Paris administrative court ruling to suspend a government decree on 15 July – meaning that all porn websites offering services in France must verify their users' age.

The ruling from the state council on Tuesday comes only weeks after the Paris administrative court suspended a governmental decree requiring age verification for EU-based porn websites in June.

Today's decision is the latest development in the dispute championed by French Digital Minister Clara Chappaz, affecting adult websites including Pornhub, YouPorn and Redtube which are owned by Cyprus-based company Aylo as well as xhamster-owner Hammy Media.

"The State Council has decided: the law has to be followed," wrote Chappaz on X.

But the council's ruling only suspends the June court decision and does not pre-empt the forthcoming preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU).

The CJEU must determine whether the French government’s decree requiring EU-based porn companies to comply with national law conflicts with EU law.

In short, this is merely a temporary victory for Chappaz, as the CJEU could still annul the French government's decree for failure to comply with EU law.

It remains unclear whether Aylo will shut down its websites in France, as it did in June to protest enforcement of the French SREN law – the law the government decree aimed at enforcing.

The European Commission on Monday proposed new guidelines to protect minors online. France claimed victory, saying the Commission's proposal enshrined its own approach mandating age verification for accessing pornographic website throughout the EU.

Aylo did not respond to a request for a comment at the time of reporting.