The Paris court surprised everyone on Friday by deciding on a stay of proceedings on the blocking of porn sites that do not respect the ban on access supposed to apply to minors. Nothing is changing, for the moment.
The decision was expected, and it has just fallen, or rather, halfway. The Paris court, which had been seized a year ago by the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (ARCOM) to demand that Internet service providers block the pornographic sites Pornhub, Tukif, xHamster , Xvideos and Xnxx. While the digital regulator was finally hoping for an outcome in the legal field, the court pronounced a stay of proceedings, which does not really advance the schmilblick.
ARCOM loses another battle, but not yet the war
More specifically, the Paris court ” stay the proceedings (…) before the Council of State against the decree of October 7, 2021. This text specified the terms of implementation of the famous article 23 of the law of July 30, 2020. As a reminder, this provision requires the implementation of any measure to prevent minors from access pornographic content. But the vagueness and lack of technical explanations of the text seem to be lacking today.
For the moment, its application is non-existent, the platforms of adult content multiplying the recourses. Incidentally, the sites have been able to take care of their defense over the months and years, pointing out the lack of details around the very principle of blocking: what about the GDPR, a means of verifying the age and identity of visitors? , etc.
Another element has harmed ARCOM. At the time of the formal notices of the pornographic sites, the authority (here the CSA) had not officially notified the European Commission, which constitutes a breach of the directive on electronic commerce. By not doing things in the right order, the French regulator shot itself in the foot.
The snake biting its own tail (no pun intended)
For ARCOM, this is yet another defeat. The authority chaired by Roch-Olivier Maistre has tried everything for three years now and even before becoming ARCOM (ex-CSA and HADOPI). Direct requests to the sites remained unanswered, totally ineffective application decree, fruitless mediation… Nothing worked. So is it still possible to block porn sites that do not block minors from entering?
Yes, because the president of the court pronounced a “ stay of proceedings “. From a legal point of view, the stay of proceedings does not dismiss the judge and does not put an end to the case. The proceedings will continue, but before that, the Paris court must wait for the Council of State to rule on the legality of the famous decree (still him) of October 7, 2021. In addition, the court is also waiting for Official age verification solutions, which are still in development, are adopted. This will be the business of the public authorities, ARCOM, the CNIL and the decree provided for by the government.
Note that with this stay of proceedings, the court responded favorably to the requests made by the publishers WebGroup Czech Republic and NRL Associates, which respectively propel the Xvideos and Xnxx sites. This should give a little more motivation to the government, which intends to legislate – again – to bypass the interminable judicial stage.
Finally, we would like to thank our colleague from The InformedMarc Rees, who relayed the decision of the Paris court.
Sources: Clubic, Paris Court of Justice, The Informed
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