SALT LAKE CITY — A federal court has paused Aylo’s suit over a Utah law making adult websites liable if minors bypass age verification by circumventing geolocation efforts, until the state legislature can meets to potentially amend the statute.
In a joint filing, Aylo and the state of Utah requested that the court stay further proceedings until the Utah legislature’s next session, as both parties in the case anticipate that state lawmakers may amend the statute in question: the “deemed-location” provision of Utah’s SB 73, an age verification bill signed into law in March.
“Rather than continuing to litigate Plaintiffs’ claims against the current version of S.B. 73, the parties therefore agree that staying further proceedings in this case would be the most efficient course for both the parties and the Court to see what, if any, amendments the Legislature makes to the provision of S.B. 73 challenged in this case,” the filing reads.
Judge David Barlow granted the motion, staying further proceedings until the end of the Utah legislature’s next general session, scheduled to begin Jan. 19, 2027, and end March 5, 2027.
The case originated with a complaint that Pornhub parent company Aylo filed in April with the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, Central Division, seeking an injunction against the deemed-location provision.
That provision reads: “An individual is considered to be accessing the website from this state if the individual is actually located in the state, regardless of whether the individual is using a virtual private network, proxy server, or other means to disguise or misrepresent the individual’s geographic location to make it appear that the individual is accessing a website from a location outside this state.”
In its complaint, Aylo contended that the deemed-location/VPN provisions of the law threaten adult entertainment companies with civil penalties and potential criminal liability unless they implement Utah’s age-verification regime “for every user of their platforms, anywhere in the world,” which the company argues would constitute “impermissible extraterritorial legislation” since Utah is “projecting its policy choices onto conduct occurring entirely outside its borders, in states and countries that have made different legislative judgments.”
Last month, the court issued a preliminary injunction preventing the state from enforcing the provision.
As XBIZ has reported, the VPN provision in the Utah law reflects growing concern about the widespread use of techniques to circumvent age verification, which has inspired both state and federal efforts to close that practical loophole.
Aylo is currently also the defendant in a lawsuit brought by the state of Indiana, which contends that the company violated that state’s age verification law by failing to prevent access by users who employ VPNs and similar means to avoid geolocation. Earlier this month, Aylo filed a brief with the Marion Superior Court, citing the district court’s preliminary injunction in the Utah case as evidence that Indiana’s case against the company should be dismissed.
