Paris Administrative Court Temporarily Blocks French AV Law

PARIS—The Administrative Court of Paris temporarily suspended the French government's SREN age verification law on Monday because the judicial body believes that it would conflict with the basic enforcement functions of the transnational European Union (EU). Euractiv reports that the court suspended Arcom, France's digital regulator, from enforcing age verification requirements on adult entertainment platforms that are based in other European Union member states. Hammy Media, the parent company of xHamster.com, and Aylo's European operations for Pornhub.com, are based in Cyprus. Cyprus has been a member of the European Union membership bloc since 2004. This is important to understand because EU law prevents one member of the bloc from regulating another company based elsewhere in the bloc without appropriate regulatory and legal obstacles being resolved by the European Commission and the pan-European courts. Jean-Sébastien Mariez, a French technology lawyer and a founding partner in the Paris-based law firm Momentum Avocats, told Euractiv reporter Théophane Hartmann that they view the decision to be clear that the French government used an "incorrect" implementation of national and EU law. Mariez explained, “This serious doubt stems from possible incorrect implementation by the French government regarding the procedure under the E-Commerce Directive." According to the European Commission, the E-Commerce Directive was adopted to harmonize national regulations on transparency and information requirements for online service providers, commercial communications, electronic contracts and other elements of self-regulation among the member states. This harmony was bolstered by the Digital Services Act. All of this means that European authorities must ensure harmony in regulations across the board. "The Court’s application of the country-of-origin principle could have serious consequences for France, ranging from striking down age verification provisions to overturning rules on sovereign cloud service regulation," warned Mariez via the Euractiv report.