The Montreal-based company is accused of failing to verify ages and consent of people appearing in uploaded videos.
The companies behind Pornhub face a $600-million class-action lawsuit over allegations they profited from intimate images and videos posted without consent, including child sexual abuse material.
In a decision last week, Quebec Superior Court Justice Donald Bisson ruled that there was a sufficiently arguable case against two companies behind the pornography website and two former executives for the class action to proceed.
The lawsuit targets Montreal-based 9219-1568 Quebec Inc., Aylo Freesites Ltd., formerly known as MG Freesites, and former executives Feras Antoon and David Tassillo. It also covers websites including YouPorn, RedTube and Tube8.
The plaintiff, identified by the pseudonym Jane Doe, says that a video showing her being sexually assaulted at approximately 12 years old was published on Pornhub without her consent.
She discovered the footage in January 2020 after receiving a link from an acquaintance, the lawsuit says.
She says she submitted a request to remove the video and others linked to it, but received only an automated response several days later.
According to the lawsuit, the experience caused severe psychological distress, leaving her fearful of being recognized and requiring therapy.
The plaintiff alleges that the companies failed to verify the ages and consent of people appearing in uploaded videos, while profiting from material that should never have been published.
The lawsuit also alleges that moderators faced excessive workloads and were discouraged from reporting certain material to police. Content removed from the websites could also be uploaded again, sometimes repeatedly.
The companies argued that they were intermediaries hosting material uploaded by users and that their liability should be limited under Quebec law.
But Bisson rejected that argument at this preliminary stage, ruling that the companies’ role in editing and moderating content would have to be examined at trial.
The judge authorized the action against Antoon and Tassillo but dismissed the claim against another former employee, Corey Urman, finding insufficient allegations of personal wrongdoing.
The court also narrowed the lawsuit, originally intended to cover victims across Canada, to people in Quebec whose intimate images or videos were published without consent on the specified websites since Dec. 29, 2017.
The plaintiff is seeking $500 million in compensatory damages and another $100 million in punitive damages. The ruling authorizes the lawsuit to proceed.