Daily Compliance News: August 13, 2025. The Bad App Store Ratings Edition
On May 15, 2026, the Louisiana Governor signed HB 977 (Bill) into law, delaying the effective date of the Louisiana App Store Accountability Act (ASAA) by one year, to July 1, 2027. The amendments to the Louisiana ASAA come...more
On April 21, 2026, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (trade association) voluntarily dismissed its constitutional challenge to the Utah App Store Accountability Act (ASAA). The dismissal follows statutory...more
The Utah App Store Law requires app store providers to verify a user’s age category and obtain parental consent for minors to download apps and make in-app purchases. It also requires developers to verify age category and...more
Utah has amended its App Store Accountability Act (ASAA). Importantly, the amendments (1) delay the date by which certain operational requirements must be implemented until May 6, 2027, and (2) remove enforcement authority...more
On April 21, 2026, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) agreed to a stipulated dismissal of its constitutional challenge to Utah’s App Store Accountability Act (Utah ASAA) following the amendments to the...more
New California Age Assurance Law Requires Age Verification Signals That May Trigger Need to Comply with Other Youth Privacy and Safety Laws - In less than nine months, app developers must begin requesting—and operating...more
Recent federal and state developments involving age assurance highlight rapidly shifting regulatory requirements for minors' online privacy. Regulators have increasingly signaled support for implementing these tools as part...more
Epic Games’ (Epic) suit against Google over the Google Play Store (GPS) and its payment system, Google Play Billing (GPB), continues to capture attention as one of the most closely watched recent U.S. antitrust battles. Now,...more
States including Texas, Utah, Louisiana, and California have begun shifting children’s online safety obligations from individual apps and websites to app stores and operating systems. These laws generally require centralized...more
In our next look at US state law developments in the children’s space, we turn to age verification laws. These laws are focused on either app stores or platforms. Some also require parental consent before minors can download...more
Alabama has joined Texas, Utah and Louisiana and become the fourth state to enact an app store accountability law. Signed into law Feb. 17 by Gov. Kay Ivey, HB 161, the App Store Accountability Act, is set to take effect on...more
This Holland & Knight alert reviews several key privacy-related laws that became effective in 2025, with a regulatory outlook in 2026. Effective January 1, 2026, the Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act...more
The Federal Trade Commission recently convened stakeholders, including researchers, academics, industry representatives, consumer advocates, and government regulators, for a public workshop to discuss age verification, a...more
Oklahoma is on the cusp of becoming the 20th state to pass a consumer data privacy law while Alabama’s app store bill was signed into law and app store bills crossed chambers in Kansas, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. ...more
On February 17, 2026, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed HB 161 into law. In doing so, Alabama joins Texas, Utah, and Louisiana as states having passed app store laws. California passed a similar-in-concept Digital Age...more
This month's issue features significant antitrust developments in digital platforms and AI, including the Ninth Circuit's ruling on Apple's App Store practices, the DOJ's landmark settlement with RealPage on algorithmic...more
Legislative and regulatory activity throughout 2025 and the beginning of 2026 reflects sustained federal and state attention on how children’s personal information is collected and used online and protecting children’s...more
A federal judge in the Western District of Texas granted preliminary injunctions (here and here) blocking enforcement of the state’s App Store Accountability Act (the “Act”), preventing the law from taking effect on January...more
Key point: Set to take effect on January 1, 2026, court blocks the Texas App Store Accountability Act on constitutional grounds. A Texas federal district court granted a preliminary injunction enjoining the Texas App...more
A Ninth Circuit panel largely upheld a lower court’s decision in Epic v. Apple, while also holding that the lower court’s total bans on commissions for linked-out purchases and restrictions on the appearance of purchase links...more
Starting in January, three state app store age verification laws will take effect: Texas’ App Store Accountability Act (effective Jan. 1), Utah’s App Store Accountability Act (effective May 7) and Louisiana’s App Store...more
In 2025, BakerHostetler’s privacy attorneys advised hundreds of clients on complex privacy and data protection compliance challenges. As the year closes, our annual privacy review examines some key developments that will...more
A new type of law has joined the growing body of state regulations aimed at enhancing online safety for kids and teens. In 2025, California, Louisiana, Texas, and Utah enacted broad “app store accountability” statutes that...more
Malaysia plans to ban children under 16 (“Under-16s”) from having social media accounts beginning in 2026. The proposal, part of a wider Online Safety Act expected to start on 1 January 2026, foreshadows the implementation of...more
Four states – California, Louisiana, Texas, and Utah – have enacted laws that purport to require mobile app stores and mobile app developers to verify the age of users and implement certain safeguards based on the user’s age....more