In a decision reported on October 22, 2026, Quebec Superior Court Justice Donald Bisson authorized a C$600 million class action against the companies behind Pornhub. He found there was a sufficiently arguable case for it to proceed. The defendants are 9219-1568 Québec Inc., the Montreal-based operating company formerly known as MindGeek and now Aylo, its subsidiary Aylo Freesites Ltd. (formerly MG Freesites), and two former executives, Feras Antoon and David Tassillo, who ran the company until 2022. The claim covers Pornhub, YouPorn, RedTube, Tube8 and other sites in the network. The Montreal Gazette reported that the ruling came "last week."

Why It Matters

The case moves Aylo's legacy liability to its home jurisdiction, under Quebec civil law, where US-style Section 230 defenses do not apply. With a US settlement already agreed, a certified Quebec class adds a second front, plus personal exposure for two former executives. For the wider user-generated adult content sector, the claims focus on **consent verification at upload** and **responsiveness to takedown requests**. Those are the same duties now written into California's AB 1705, the UK Online Safety Act's intimate-image duties and payment-network rules. Courts are treating the 2017–2020 pre-verification era as a period of open liability, so any platform that hosted unverified uploads then should check its exposure. Watch for an appeal of the authorization, a notice to class members, and whether settlement talks follow the US approach.

The class is defined as every individual in Quebec whose intimate videos or photos were posted without consent on the defendants' sites since December 29, 2017. The original application sought a Canada-wide class. Le Devoir and Le Soleil both report that the court limited it to Quebec. The representative plaintiff, identified only as Jane Doe, is an Ontario resident who was allowed to act as class representative. She alleges that a request she made through the site's removal form to take down material depicting her abuse as a minor received only an automated reply. The judge noted that the defendants "never followed up." The claim alleges the companies failed to make sure people in uploaded videos had consented to public distribution, and that they knew a large volume of non-consensual material, including child sexual abuse material, was being posted but did not act. Because Aylo is headquartered in Montreal, the trial will be held there.

Authorization is a threshold ruling. It means the claims are arguable enough to go forward as a class, not that they have been proven. None of the reports we reviewed included a response from Aylo. This case is separate from the US "Children of Pornhub" class actions that Aylo agreed in August to settle for a proposed $120 million without admitting wrongdoing.

Sources

Update — 2026-10-27

Initial entry — story first created.