LUXEMBOURG — The European Union’s Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday that France may require pornographic websites based in other EU states to implement age verification in accordance with French law, as long as France follows EU electronic commerce rules.
The 15-judge Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered the ruling in a case involving WebGroup Czech Republic, which operates XVideos.com, and NKL Associates, which operates XNXX.com.
XVideos and XNXX were among several websites that Arcom called out in 2025 for failing to implement age verification as required under France’s Security and Regulation of the Digital Space (SREN) law.
As XBIZ reported last year, the two companies appealed to France’s Council of State, the nation’s highest administrative court, contending that French media regulator Arcom does not have the power to compel sites based outside of France to follow French AV regulations. The companies argued that such action by Arcom would violate the “country of origin” principle in the EU’s Directive on Electronic Commerce, which states that online platforms “should be supervised at the source of the activity” and “should in principle be subject to the law of the Member State in which the service provider is established.”
The French Council of State asked the EU Court of Justice to advise on the matter, and the court held a hearing in March 2025.
In September, Advocate General Maciej Szpunar delivered a nonbinding legal opinion in the case, which stated that the obligation of websites to prevent minors from accessing adult content does fall within the Directive’s “coordinated field,” meaning that the rule can apply to sites from other EU member states as well.
The Court of Justice has now reaffirmed that opinion, upholding France’s right to require adult sites based in other EU states to implement age verification as long as France follows the Directive’s requisite procedures. Those include first asking the state of origin to adopt necessary measures for protecting minors, and then — if the state of origin fails to adequately adopt and implement such measures — notifying the European Commission and the state of origin of the plan to adopt additional restrictive measures.
It will now be up to France’s Council of State to move forward on the case. In light of the EU court’s decision, France is almost certain to give internet service providers the go-ahead to block adult sites if requested to do so by Arcom after taking the steps listed above.
The ruling sets an important precedent for other EU member states on matters of jurisdiction involving age verification laws.
