Note: Text updated for clarity.
AUSTIN, Texas—Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court handed the online pornography industry a loss on age verification laws, a Texas state judge chose to resume a separate civil enforcement lawsuit filed by state Attorney General Ken Paxton and his office seeking over $1.6 million in fines against Pornhub’s parent company, Aylo.
Bloomberg Law reports that a Travis County District Court judge unfroze the enforcement action complaint alleging that Aylo neglected to follow House Bill (HB) 1181 in 2023, after the law was adopted by the Texas state legislature earlier that year. AVN reported back in February 2024 that Paxton’s office filed a complaint seeking damages.
As the Bloomberg report indicates, the reactivation of the state complaint against Aylo occurred later on the day of the high court’s ruling upholding the constitutional nature of HB 1181 under intermediate scrutiny in the federal case of Free Speech Coalition et al. v. Paxton. Aylo faces fines totaling at least $1.6 million, plus $10,000 per day from September 19, 2023, throughout the state-level case that was filed in the early months of 2024.
If the state court in this case feels so bold, Aylo could face penalties upward of $3.2 million, calculated based on all the daily fines moving forward. The same report also suggests that Aylo is considering reentry into the Texas digital space with age verification provisions adopted for users. This appears to be speculation.
The reporter for Bloomberg Law, correspondent Ryan Autullo, additionally notes that Senior U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra of the Western District of Texas believes that age verification laws like House Bill 1181 are simply ineffective as it pertains to the ongoing federal case targeting the law.
Judge Ezra was the first federal judge to call HB 1181 facially unconstitutional back in 2023, per AVN’s previous reporting.
Autullo also notes that a recent rash of status conferences in the case docket for the federal lawsuit shows potential momentum in the case. Free Speech Coalition’s attorneys could relitigate aspects of the case as they relate to concerns over fines, due process, and other components of the law that may be potentially contradictory with standing federal case law. If this is the case, and FSC and the parent companies of the world’s largest adult tube sites continue to press litigation related to HB 1181, any mention of free speech concerns would have to be omitted, as those are settled questions at this point, per the recent Supreme Court decision.
A spokesperson for the Free Speech Coalition declined to comment, neither confirming nor denying the assertions made by Autullo in the Bloomberg Law report. The spokesperson for the coalition also said that the organization is not yet ready to comment on the matter at this time.
Aylo has not responded to a request for comment as of post time.
