The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), whose members include Google, Apple, and Amazon, has sued the state of Alabama over its app store age verification law.
We obtained a copy of the lawsuit for you here.
The law, Act No. 2026-59, was signed in February and is set to go into effect on January 1, 2027.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama against Attorney General Steve Marshall, makes First Amendment and Commerce Clause claims, and asks the court to declare the law as unconstitutional and block it.
The law requires that every phone or tablet user in the state prove their age in order to download a single app. The CCIA says that this will likely be done by uploading a government-issued ID to prove age.
For example, the complaint says, a 45-year-old who wants to download a news app from the Google Play Store “must first hand over personally identifying information to Google.”
According to the complaint, about 15 million adult US citizens do not have a driver’s license, while 2.6 million have no government-issued photo ID at all.
The law also requires that minors’ accounts be tied to a verified parent account, which the CCIA said means that app stores will “necessarily” collect twice as much “highly sensitive personal information.”
App stores will have to give developers real-time access to every user’s age category, as well as information on which minors have parental consent.
The law is not limited to new accounts – those that existed on October 2, 2026, must be age-verified by October 1, 2027.
The CCIA said that the law, which will be enforced by the Attorney General with fines of up to $7,500 per violation, is “a broad censorship regime on mobile app stores and apps.”
The law divides users into four age bands: under 13, 13-15, 16-17, and adults. Those under 18 will need verifiable parental consent to download an app, make an in-app purchase, or buy an app.
This consent will have to be given every time an app makes a “significant change.”
As for the lawsuit, the CCIA argues that the law is unconstitutional and that the First Amendment “forbids laws that require businesses to ‘card’ people before they can enter public libraries, bookstores, and community theaters.”
The filing lists apps for which teenagers would have to ask their parents for permission to download – including Wikipedia, Audible, Duolingo, Khan Academy Kids, and BibleProject. Those without parents who can give consent will be completely cut off from app stores, the CCIA said.
The association also argues that the rules around age ratings could compel developers’ speech, while Alabama-specific rules would burden interstate commerce.
We have been reporting about the Alabama bill, which passed without a single vote against (103-0 in the House, 35-0 in the Senate), and was signed by Governor Kay Ivey on February 17.
We also reported that Texas has a similar law, SB 2420, which was blocked by a federal judge in December 2025, who compared it to forcing bookstores to check customers’ age at the door. However, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals then allowed Texas to enforce the law, and on July 6, the Supreme Court declined to step in.
In September, Alabama settled with TikTok, with the app committing to “robust age assurance measures” – which in reality means checking the age of both teenagers and adults.
Make no mistake – this is not about protecting children, it is about introducing ID and age checks for every internet user, including adults. The law is sold as giving parents control over what their children can and cannot do on the internet – but its first step is to make every adult verify their age.
It doesn’t only apply to new phones or accounts – the goal is to reach every device and account in use in the state.
So far, the courts have not been quick to stop this type of legislation – the Texas law has been in force for a while now. And until they do, phones of every person in Alabama will become a checkpoint, while the record of who is old enough to download what will be held by app stores and every developer they decide to share it with.
