Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub, is appealing to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to avoid having to disclose the real names of users in its ad repository, as required by the Digital Services Act (DSA) designation.
The company “specifically requested relief from disclosing the natural names of those who advertise on Pornhub, which includes sex workers and performers, because it will make their names publicly available and searchable in the repository,” a spokesperson stated.
Aylo filed a separate appeal against the European Commission’s designation of Pornhub as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) under the DSA. Other companies, such as Amazon and Zalando, have similarly attempted to appeal their designation.
The DSA, the EU’s landmark content moderation law, considers platforms or search engines with more than 45 million monthly users in the EU as VLOPs or very large online search engines (VLOSEs), which must follow certain obligations, including transparency.
The list of companies includes social networks Instagram and TikTok, search engines, such as Google Search and Bing, and e-commerce sites like AliExpress.
Designation issues
Under the DSA, Pornhub is required to publicly disclose a database of all of its advertisers, including information about advertising and how it is targeted. Alessandro Polidoro, an independent lawyer coordinating the coalition of NGOs called the Digital Intimacy Coalition, which pushed for porn VLOPs designation, stated:
“Sex workers’ safety is a must, but now it looks like Aylo wants to use this as an excuse to delay the application [of the DSA].”
Once made public, the data would be difficult to manage and could seriously damage advertising strategies and partnerships, an Aylo spokesperson said, echoing Amazon’s arguments.
Natural persons are entitled to be recognised in legal documents through stage names, pen names, or other forms of artistic pseudonyms. By this logic, the court could rule that stage names can be used by natural persons in the ad repository as well.
Three porn sites first listed on VLOP as adult platforms, Xvideos, Stripchat, and Pornhub, sued the EU over their obligations in March. In June, the EU executive requested detailed information on DSA compliance from the three sites.
In an appeal of its VLOP designation, Aylo argued that the Commission had miscalculated the number of its users and stated that Pornhub did not exceed the DSA’s threshold of 45 million monthly active users. The Commission argued that its figures were correct, and Aylo’s legal challenge regarding that aspect remained pending.
This month, the Commission labelled XNXX as a VLOP, making it the fourth adult site to follow the digital law.
