My Website was Built in Prague - Can Paris Tell Me What to do with it?
June 17, 2026
By Olena Nechyporuk
The most recent ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) states that EU Member States may enforce age checks on pornographic sites even if the distributor is based in another Member State. Additionally, the ruling states other Member States may restrict the rebroadcasting of information relating to roadside police checks.
Two Czech companies brought legal challenges against French courts that required publishers of pornographic websites to implement age verification systems to prevent minors from accessing adult content. The argument was that since the distributor company was based in the Czech Republic, France has no authority to implement these restrictions on a foreign company.
The second Czech company filed an appeal on similar grounds: a foreign Member State such as France had no enforcement rights to force restrictions on geolocation driving assistance services that informed users about road police checks in the Czech Republic.
The CJEU ruled that, in both cases, France did have the right to impose restrictions on Czech companies due to:
• When the purpose is related to protecting children online, age verification requirements on pornographic websites are compulsory in principle, so all Member States have the right to impose that.
• Countries may also prohibit the rebroadcasting of information relating to certain roadside checks for public security reasons, even in another Member State
• Any restrictions, however, must pursue legitimate objectives such as public policy, public security or public safety. They must be proportionate in nature.
• Before imposing such measures on providers established in another Member State, authorities must generally notify both the European Commission and the provider's home Member State
🤖 The Court also addressed platform liability: companies that operate algorithms are responsible for the content shared online. When a provider uses algorithms to determine under what conditions, how, and in what order information is rebroadcast, it is exercising control over that content - thus the responsibility falls on the platform, and not solely on the user for creating and sharing content online. This points to the direction that companies and platforms that create a space for online content sharing are starting to face greater and greater responsibilities.
