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On 9 October 2026, the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia dismissed the appeals by the State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia in two interim rulings. The authority may not temporarily order a major access provider to block the platforms Pornhub and YouPorn for users in Germany. The decisions (case numbers 13 B 1351\/25 and 13 B 1359\/25) confirm the earlier rulings of the D\u00fcsseldorf Administrative Court and are final in the interim proceedings. For the industry, this sends a clear signal: once again, an attempt by a state media authority to take national blocking measures against internationally operating providers has failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2024, the State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia issued blocking orders against German internet providers. These were justified on the grounds that the offers operated by Cyprus-based Aylo Freesites provide pornographic content without effective age verification and thus violate the Interstate Treaty on the Protection of Minors in the Media (JMStV). Aylo and the affected provider successfully challenged the orders. The D\u00fcsseldorf Administrative Court initially suspended enforcement of the orders; the authority\u2019s appeals have now also been unsuccessful before the Higher Administrative Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 13th Senate of the Higher Administrative Court clearly reasoned that the blocking orders are likely to violate Union law. While the offer without age verification is not in line with the German provisions of the JMStV, the Cyprus-based operator cannot be accused of violating these national rules. The European country-of-origin principle and the Digital Services Act (DSA) have largely regulated youth media protection at EU level since February 2024. For YouPorn, the authorities in Cyprus are responsible; for Pornhub as a very large online platform (VLOP), the European Commission is competent. The Commission has already initiated proceedings. National blocking orders by a state media authority are no longer permissible within this framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the perspective of operators and providers, a familiar pattern is emerging here once more. State media authorities act under high political pressure and with a clearly recognisable agenda against the industry, yet they regularly exceed the legal boundaries set by European law. The competent supervisory authority in North Rhine-Westphalia has again proven itself to be of limited qualification with an approach that largely disregards the DSA and the country-of-origin principle. The result is a lost case \u2013 and not for the first time in this matter. Anyone who regularly attempts to enforce national instruments against providers subject to the law of another Member State and to the DSA risks precisely such defeats. The courts have now made this unmistakably clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The decisions of the Higher Administrative Court are interim rulings. They do not conclude the main proceedings and are therefore not the final word on the matter. Nevertheless, they mark an important intermediate step. They prevent facts from being created through blocking orders before the fundamental questions of jurisdiction and applicable law have been finally clarified. For the industry, this is a signal against excessive national censorship measures and an indication that European law also applies in the field of youth media protection and cannot simply be overridden by orders from state authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dispute over effective age verification and the protection of minors will continue \u2013 at the level of the competent authorities in Cyprus and before the European Commission. National solo efforts via blocking orders against access providers have, at least for the time being, been stopped by this decision. The industry will follow further developments closely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Further Information<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On 9 October 2026, the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia dismissed the appeals by the State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia in two interim rulings. The authority may not temporarily order a major access provider to block the platforms Pornhub and YouPorn for users in Germany. The decisions (case numbers 13 B 1351\/25 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,127,61],"tags":[1057,1185,1186,2388,1978,816,227,2386,1058],"class_list":["post-6994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-law","category-news-en","tag-aylo","tag-blocking-orders","tag-higher-administrative-court","tag-higher-higher-administrative-court","tag-judgement","tag-nrw-en","tag-pornhub-en","tag-state-media-authority","tag-youporn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6994"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6998,"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6994\/revisions\/6998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
https:\/\/www.justiz.nrw\/presse\/2026-10-09-0<\/a>
https:\/\/www.ovg.nrw.de\/behoerde\/presse\/pressemitteilungen\/61_261009\/index.php<\/a>
https:\/\/www.golem.de\/news\/pornhub-und-youporn-oberverwaltungsgericht-lehnt-sperren-gegen-pornoseiten-ab-2610-213945.html<\/a>
https:\/\/thewaronporn.com\/german-court-temporarily-suspends-block-on-aylo-websites\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n