Last Updated: 10 June 2026
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed the preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of Texas’s App Store Accountability Act (the “Act”), allowing the law to take effect immediately. At the end of 2025, app stores and developers were preparing to comply with the Act in advance of its January 1, 2026 effective date, but following preliminary injunctions blocking enforcement of the law, many companies set aside those compliance efforts. With the Act now enforceable, companies should promptly revisit and resume their compliance efforts.
Here’s more information.
At the end of 2025, the Western District of Texas granted preliminary injunctions (Case 1:25-cv-01660-RP and Case 1:25-cv-01662-RP) blocking enforcement of the Act, which requires app stores to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent for minors’ downloads and purchases. The injunctions were issued following preliminary injunction motions brought in October 2025 by two advocacy groups, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas.
The district court concluded that the Act likely violates the First Amendment because it imposes content-based restrictions on speech by conditioning access to app store content on age verification and parental consent and fails to satisfy the strict scrutiny standard that applies to such restrictions. In particular, the court found, inter alia, that the Act’s sweeping application to all apps, regardless of content, was not narrowly tailored to the state’s interest in mitigating the alleged mental and physical health effects of mobile app usage on minors.
The Texas attorney general filed a notice of appeal to the Fifth Circuit the same day the injunction was issued. The Fifth Circuit has now granted a stay of the preliminary injunction pending appeal, finding that Texas made a strong showing of likely success on the merits. In its order, the court identified several errors by the district court.
Specifically, the Fifth Circuit concluded that the district court likely erred in applying strict scrutiny in its review of the law, citing intermediate scrutiny as the appropriate standard of review for what the Fifth Circuit considers restrictions on commercial speech. The Fifth Circuit found that the Act likely survives intermediate scrutiny, because its requirements directly and materially advance Texas’s substantial interests in protecting children’s safety and there is a “reasonable fit” between the Act’s means and its goals.
Although the plaintiffs intend to request that the U.S. Supreme Court vacate the stay, it is unclear whether the Supreme Court would reinstate the preliminary injunction in the near term while the underlying litigation continues.
Accordingly, app stores and developers should expect that the Texas law will remain in effect and should consider taking steps to comply with the Act. App stores have made available APIs and guidance to enable app developers to comply with the law.
Please see our previous alert regarding the Texas law below.
A new Texas law is poised to significantly reshape how app stores and developers manage users under 18. The state’s App Store Accountability Act (the “Act”) becomes effective on January 1, 2026. The Act will require app stores serving Texans to verify users’ ages and secure parental consent for minors’ downloads and purchases, and will impose related obligations on developers whose applications are offered through those stores, among other requirements.
Along with similar legislation in Utah and Louisiana, the Act signals a shift toward mobile app stores sharing responsibility with developers for minors’ online safety.
Below is a summary of the Act’s key provisions and the implications for businesses within its sweeping scope.
The Act imposes obligations on both app store owners and app developers that make applications available to Texas users.
Violations of the Act constitute deceptive trade practices under Texas’s Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act, which permits the Texas attorney general to seek injunctive relief and impose civil penalties, and also allows for consumer remedies.
Minor privacy and online safety laws nationwide are facing mounting constitutional challenges, including around age-verification provisions, and the Act has not been immune to these challenges. In October 2025, two lawsuits were filed challenging the Act. The first, brought by the advocacy group Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT), argues that the Act’s sweeping age-verification and parental-consent requirements for all app downloads and in-app purchases unlawfully impose a content-based prior restraint on speech, in violation of the First Amendment. The complaint contends that the law substitutes the state’s judgment for that of parents, undermining their ability to decide how much privacy and autonomy to grant their children online. Similarly, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) asserts that protecting younger internet users should not come at the expense of free expression and personal privacy, as the Act restricts access to lawful content and places onerous verification and consent burdens on both parents and minors. However, the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld Texas’s pornography age-verification law, which may indicate that Texas’s broader framework for regulating minors’ digital access could be better positioned to survive early challenges.
In light of this, app stores—and any business offering a mobile application—should begin preparing now to operationalize the Act’s technical requirements. At the same time, companies should carefully assess their privacy compliance strategies (particularly with respect to minors’ data) to minimize exposure, especially given the increased attention given to children’s online safety nationwide.