Texas App Store Accountability Act Takes Effect After Fifth Circuit Stay
The Fifth Circuit stayed the injunction blocking Texas SB 2420, and the App Store Accountability Act took effect June 4, 2026. App stores must now verify age and secure parental consent.
What Changed
On June 4, 2026, the Texas App Store Accountability Act (SB 2420) took effect after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit stayed a federal district court injunction that had blocked enforcement. The stay, entered on June 1 and superseding an administrative pause from May 28, allows the law to operate while the constitutional appeal proceeds. Signed by Governor Greg Abbott in May 2025, SB 2420 requires app store providers to verify a user's age at account creation, sort users into four age categories (under 13, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, and 18 and over), obtain verifiable parental consent for minors before app downloads or in-app purchases, and share age-category and consent signals with developers.
Who It Affects
Operators of mobile app storefronts serving Texas users, plus the developers who receive age and consent signals through them. Social platforms, gaming services, and any app with age-gated or paid features fall within scope through the developer obligations. This is the first app-store age-verification statute in active force in the United States, so every downstream platform will now be measured against the Texas bar rather than a hypothetical one.
What to Do
Treat the Texas regime as live, not pending. Confirm your account-creation flow assigns each user to the correct SB 2420 age band and that parental-consent capture triggers before any download or purchase for minors. Developers should validate the age and consent signals passed by the store rather than assuming they are authoritative. Because litigation continues, build for durability: a multi-method stack combining document, inference, and consent verification, each producing an audit-ready trail, will survive both the appeal and the states that follow Texas.
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