BRUSSELS — XVideos, Pornhub and Stripchat are reportedly suing the EU over their classification as “very large online platforms” (VLOPs), which makes them subject to special regulations under the controversial Digital Services Act (DSA).
The lawsuit was first reported by European tech news site Euractiv on Thursday.
The DSA classifies platforms that reach at least 45 million average monthly active EU users as VLOPs. In December, the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, designated adult platforms Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos as VLOPs, stating that an investigation had determined that the three adult sites met that threshold.
At the time, Pornhub questioned the data the Commission had used to justify the measure.
“As of July 31, 2023, Pornhub has 33 million average monthly recipients of the service in the European Union, calculated as an average over the period of the past six months,” a Pornhub spokesperson told the New York Post.
An Aylo rep told Euractiv on Thursday that the company believes the designation happened “despite the extensive data and methodology explanations we provided to support our published figures. Therefore, we are exercising our right to take the legal route with our filing of an application before the General Court of the EU to annul the designation of Pornhub as a VLOP.
“We will always comply with the law, including our obligations under the Digital Services Act, which we have been meticulously preparing for, and we hope that governments around the world will implement laws that protect the safety, privacy, and security of users,” the Aylo rep added. “We look forward to the facts being fully and fairly aired.”