App Store Accountability Act (Act 481 / HB 570) ↗
Enacted 2025 (Act 481); original 2026-07-01 effective date postponed to 2027-07-01 by HB 977, which repealed and reenacted the Act. No court challenge to date.
HB 977 (2026, signed 2026-05-15; Act 185 of 2026) repealed and reenacted Act 481 as R.S. 51:1771-1775, delaying the effective date to 2027-07-01 and clarifying that a developer may rely on the app-store age signal (using internal data only when it has actual knowledge that data is more accurate, or applying the more restrictive classification). Penalties, cure period, no-PRA, and the developer liability protections were verified against the enrolled HB 977 text on 2026-07-04. This corrected an earlier 'no developer safe-harbor' claim: R.S. 51:1774(A)(2) shields a developer that demonstrates compliance with R.S. 51:1773, and R.S. 51:1774(B) deems good-faith use of widely adopted industry standards compliant. official_text_url points to the 2025 enrolled Act 481; the reenacted HB 977 text is in sources.
Scope
Act 481 imposes duties on the 'developer' of an application distributed through an app store: to receive the store's age-category signal, apply age-appropriate restrictions, and obtain (or rely on the store's signal of) verifiable parental consent before a minor downloads or purchases an app or makes in-app purchases.
Penalties
- Model
- Per violation
- Detail
- Civil penalties up to $10,000 per violation (R.S. 51:1775(B)), plus up to $5,000 per violation of an administrative or court order (R.S. 51:1775(C)(5)); 45-day cure period; a developer that demonstrates compliance with R.S. 51:1773 is not liable (R.S. 51:1774(A)(2)), and good-faith use of widely adopted industry standards is deemed compliant on age-category handling (R.S. 51:1774(B))
- Enforcer
- Louisiana Attorney General
- Private right of action
- No
Key dates
- Signed
- 2025-06-30
- Effective
- 2027-07-01
- Enforcement begins
- 2027-07-01
Obligations (3)
Request and receive the app store's age-category signal for each user and apply the age-appropriate restrictions; a developer may rely on the store-provided signal.
Statute’s own ages: Four bands: under 13 (child), 13-15 (younger teen), 16-17 (older teen), 18+ (adult)
Obtain, or rely on the app store's signal of, verifiable parental consent before a minor downloads or purchases the app or makes in-app purchases, and honor consent revocation.
Statute’s own ages: Minor = under 18, resolved via the four statutory bands
Use age-verification data received through app-store APIs only for compliance, and delete it after the age category is determined.
Statute’s own ages: Applies to data about any minor (under 18)
Cross-state comparisons
- similartx-sb2420 (Texas): Both are App Store Accountability Acts imposing parallel developer-side duties: consume the store age signal, obtain verifiable parental consent for minors, and apply the same four age bands. Louisiana's is delayed to 2027-07-01 and provides no private right of action; both give developers a compliance/good-faith liability protection.