Pornhub $120 Million Settlement Wins Preliminary Approval: Who Qualifies and When It Pays

Pornhub $120 million settlement: what Judge Hsu did on November 6

A federal judge in Los Angeles granted preliminary approval on Friday, November 6, 2026, to the Pornhub $120 million settlement, the deal under which Aylo (formerly MindGeek) will fund a non-reversionary pool for people who appeared in content on its websites when they were under 18. The order resolves two certified class actions brought under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act in California and Alabama, starts the class notice and objection process, and moves the case toward a final fairness hearing, but no one is paid on a claim until the court grants final approval.

U.S. District Judge Wesley L. Hsu of the Central District of California issued a tentative ruling that was not made public, and lawyers for the class and for Aylo submitted on the tentative at a short hearing, according to Courthouse News. Law360 reported the same outcome under the headline that Pornhub got an "initial nod" for the deal. The individual lawsuits that run alongside the class cases, including the long-running Fleites v. MindGeek group, remain pending before Judge Hsu.

The ruling caps a five-year fight that survived Section 230 dismissal motions, two contested class certification orders, and a failed Rule 23(f) petition. It is also one of the largest privately negotiated recoveries yet for survivors of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and the injunctive terms that come with the cash are arguably the more durable part of the deal.

What is the Pornhub $120 million settlement?

The Pornhub $120 million settlement is a class-wide resolution of two lawsuits filed in 2021: Doe v. MindGeek USA Inc., No. 8:21-cv-00338 (C.D. Cal.), originally filed by Susman Godfrey and assigned to Judge Cormac J. Carney, and Doe #1 v. MG Freesites Ltd, No. 7:21-cv-00220-LSC (N.D. Ala.), before Chief Judge L. Scott Coogler. Both complaints alleged that MindGeek's companies knew or should have known that they were profiting from the hosting and monetization of CSAM on their tube sites, and that this made them liable as beneficiaries of sex trafficking under 18 U.S.C. § 1595 and under the federal child pornography civil remedy.

Aylo and its affiliated defendants agreed to three things. First, a $120 million non-reversionary fund, which means unclaimed money does not flow back to the company. Second, injunctive relief requiring age and identity verification, reporting, and independent oversight. Third, a release of the class claims, without any admission of liability or wrongdoing. Aylo said in August that the settlement "remains subject to court approval," which is the step Judge Hsu has now partly taken.

The motion for preliminary approval was filed in mid-August 2026, when Bloomberg Law, 404 Media, and Canadian Press first reported the terms. The November 6 order is the first judicial finding that the court will likely be able to approve the deal as fair, reasonable, and adequate under Rule 23(e)(2).

Who qualifies for the Pornhub settlement?

The settlement class covers every person who was under 18 when they appeared in a video or image that was uploaded or otherwise made available for viewing on any website owned or operated by MindGeek or Aylo between February 12, 2011, and December 6, 2024. That definition tracks the classes the two courts certified in 2023, extended to the end date fixed in the settlement.

Several points follow from that wording:

• Age at the time of depiction controls. A claimant who is an adult today qualifies if they were a minor when the content was created and it appeared on a covered site.
• The site does not have to be Pornhub. The court-authorized notice in the Alabama case listed Pornhub.com, Pornhubpremium.com, Redtube.com, YouPorn.com, Tube8.com, Spankwire.com, XTube.com, Thumbzilla.com, and other network properties.
• Who uploaded the content does not matter. The class is defined by depiction, not by who posted it, which is why it reaches survivors whose abuse was recorded and uploaded by others.
• Residence is not limited to one state. The California case certified a nationwide class with a California subclass; the Alabama class was likewise defined without a residency limit.

Class counsel have said notice will go first to known class members and then to the public, so that people who have never come forward can learn of the deal. The settlement administrator, claims deadline, and any proof requirements will appear in the notice package; they had not been published as of November 7, 2026, and should be confirmed from the court-approved notice rather than from secondary summaries.

How much will class members get from the Pornhub settlement, and when?

No per-person figure has been fixed. The gross fund is $120 million, but the net available to survivors will be reduced by court-awarded attorneys' fees, litigation costs, service awards, and administration expenses, and then divided according to an allocation plan the court must approve. Early reports conflict on whether the net fund will be shared equally among eligible claimants or distributed through tiers, so neither method should be treated as settled until the plan of allocation is public.

The payment schedule, by contrast, is defined:

Installment	Amount	Timing
1	$25.0 million	2026 (reported as paid into the fund on July 31, 2026)
2	about $15.83 million	June 17, 2027 (first anniversary of June 17, 2026)
3	about $15.83 million	June 2028
4	about $15.83 million	June 2029
5	about $15.83 million	June 2030
6	about $15.83 million	June 2031
7	about $15.83 million	June 2032
Total	$120 million	2026 to 2032

The back-loaded structure matters. Roughly 79% of the fund ($95 million) arrives after 2026, so the real present value is lower than the headline, and distribution may occur in rounds rather than in one payment. Claimants and their counsel should expect the administrator to make an initial distribution from funds on hand after final approval and later distributions as installments arrive, subject to whatever schedule the court approves.

What changes does Aylo have to make under the settlement?

The injunctive terms are the part of the Pornhub $120 million settlement that reaches beyond the class. As reported from the settlement papers and by Beasley Allen, which tracked the Alabama case, Aylo agreed to:

• Government-ID verification of everyone involved. Aylo must verify, using government-issued identification, that every person who uploads content and every person depicted in it was 18 or older when the content was made.
• Reporting. Suspected CSAM must be reported to the appropriate authorities.
• Upload review and detection. Strengthened review of uploads and processes for detecting and removing suspected abuse material.
• Independent oversight for five years. A monitoring committee to oversee compliance, meeting annually for five years, plus external auditing over the same period.

Some of those practices already exist in part. Pornhub purged unverified uploads in December 2020 after public reporting and card-network pressure, and in September 2025 Aylo entered a $5 million order with the Federal Trade Commission and the State of Utah requiring a program to prevent CSAM and non-consensual material. What the class settlement adds is court-enforceable obligations, survivor-side monitoring, and a five-year audit trail that class counsel can enforce in federal court.

How the cases got here: Section 230, the TVPRA and two certified classes

The settlement only exists because both cases survived the defense that ends most platform-liability suits at the pleading stage. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act generally bars claims that treat a website as the publisher of content posted by users. The 2018 FOSTA amendments carved out civil claims under § 1595 where the conduct underlying the claim violates 18 U.S.C. § 1591, the federal sex-trafficking statute.

On September 3, 2021, Judge Carney denied MindGeek's motion to dismiss in substantial part, reasoning that the plaintiff's TVPRA theory targeted MindGeek's own alleged conduct in monetizing and promoting the material, not its passive hosting of third-party content. He later denied reconsideration and refused to certify the question for interlocutory appeal. In Alabama, Chief Judge Coogler denied the motion to dismiss on February 9, 2022.

The Ninth Circuit narrowed the FOSTA exception the following year. In Doe v. Reddit, Inc., 51 F.4th 1137 (9th Cir. 2022), it held that the carve-out applies only where the website's own conduct violates § 1591, which requires knowing participation, not mere constructive knowledge. The MindGeek cases survived because the complaints pleaded active participation: alleged tagging, categorization, monetization through advertising, and content-partner programs. That pleading choice is the template survivors' counsel have used against other platforms since.

Class certification followed in late 2023. Judge Carney certified the California class in November 2023, and Chief Judge Coogler certified the Alabama class on December 12, 2023; Beasley Allen described it at the time as only the second certified class against MindGeek in the country. The Ninth Circuit denied MindGeek's Rule 23(f) petition to review the California certification in January 2024. With both classes certified and appellate review exhausted, the defendants faced a trial on class-wide liability, the pressure that typically produces a settlement.

The table below summarizes the procedural timeline.

Date	Event
Feb. 2021	Doe v. MindGeek USA Inc. filed in C.D. Cal. (Santa Ana)
2021	Doe #1 v. MG Freesites Ltd filed in N.D. Ala.
Sept. 3, 2021	Judge Carney denies the Section 230 motion to dismiss in substantial part
Feb. 9, 2022	Chief Judge Coogler denies the motion to dismiss in Alabama
Nov. 2023	California class certified
Dec. 12, 2023	Alabama class certified
Jan. 2024	Ninth Circuit denies Rule 23(f) petition
Sept. 2025	Aylo's $5 million FTC and Utah order
Mid-Aug. 2026	$120 million deal and preliminary approval motion filed
Nov. 6, 2026	Judge Hsu grants preliminary approval

Does the settlement end the Fleites v. MindGeek and other individual lawsuits?

No. The settlement releases the class claims; it does not dispose of the individual actions led by Fleites v. MindGeek, which Courthouse News reported are still pending before Judge Hsu. That docket, brought by Serena Fleites and plaintiffs in more than a dozen related cases, has its own history: since 2022 it has been the main testing ground for whether third parties that processed payments for, or financed, MindGeek can be reached as TVPRA beneficiaries, with payment processor Visa litigating its role through successive motions to dismiss.

Two practical consequences follow. Plaintiffs who already have individual cases, and who are also class members, will need to decide, with counsel, whether to remain in the class or to pursue their own claims, depending on the opt-out and release terms in the notice. And because the class release is limited to the settling defendants and released parties, claims against non-settling third parties turn on how the release defines those parties.

How much will the lawyers get from the Pornhub settlement?

Class counsel have said they will request attorneys' fees of no more than one-third of the fund, or up to $40 million, plus costs, and service awards of up to $150,000 for each class representative. None of that is awarded yet; the court decides fees at or after final approval.

The one-third request will be measured against the Ninth Circuit's 25% benchmark for common fund cases under In re Bluetooth Headset Products Liability Litigation, 654 F.3d 935 (9th Cir. 2011), which district judges may depart from for risk, results, and duration. Class counsel will point to five years of litigation against a Section 230 defense, two contested certifications, an appellate challenge, and installment payments that carry collection risk. Objectors, if any, are likely to point to the back-loaded schedule and argue that fees should be tied to money actually paid. The $150,000 service-award ceiling is high by consumer-class standards, but courts have approved larger awards where representatives disclosed traumatic personal histories and sat for depositions, which is what these plaintiffs did.

What happens next: notice, objections, opt-outs and final approval

Preliminary approval is a gate, not a payout. Under Rule 23(e), the next steps are:

1. Notice. The court-approved administrator sends direct notice to known class members and runs a public notice program. Because these classes were certified before settlement, the court does not need to certify a settlement class, which removes a common ground for objection.
2. Objections. Any class member may object to any part of the deal, including the allocation, the release, the fee request, and the service awards, by the deadline in the notice.
3. Opt-outs. Whether a new exclusion window opens depends on the notice plan; the Alabama court issued class notice after certification in 2024, so the timing and availability of any second opt-out must be confirmed from the November order.
4. CAFA notice. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1715(d), the court cannot enter final approval until at least 90 days after federal and state officials receive notice of the proposed settlement.
5. Final approval hearing. Judge Hsu must find the settlement fair, reasonable, and adequate under Rule 23(e)(2) before it binds class members and before claims are paid. Any appeal by an objector would delay distribution further.

The Alabama court's role in final approval, and whether coordinated orders are entered in both districts, will be set out in the settlement papers; practitioners should read both dockets.

What it means for platforms, survivors' counsel and funders

For platform defendants. The deal confirms that the TVPRA beneficiary theory, pleaded around affirmative monetization and curation conduct, can carry a CSAM case past Section 230, through certification, and into nine figures. Platforms with adult or user-generated video content should expect the government-ID verification and five-year monitoring package to be the starting demand in the next case, alongside state age-verification statutes and FTC orders.

For survivors' counsel. The class mechanism reached people who had never filed and may never have known their images were online. Counsel representing individual survivors will need to weigh class recovery against individual damages under § 1595 and § 2255, which provides liquidated damages of $150,000 per plaintiff, and should track the release language against third parties such as payment processors and lenders.

For mass tort and PI firms. The case is a model of a hybrid docket: certified classes running alongside dozens of individual cases before one judge, much like the hotel TVPRA verdict in J.R. v. Lincoln Bancorp or the state attorney general child-safety settlements against social media platforms. Coordinated notice, lien review, and trauma-informed claims processes will determine how much of the fund actually reaches survivors.

For litigation funders. The seven-year installment schedule creates a long-dated receivable. Funders backing individual plaintiffs who remain outside the class, or firms carrying the common costs, should model recovery timing out to 2032.

FAQ

What did the judge decide on November 6, 2026?

Judge Wesley L. Hsu of the Central District of California preliminarily approved the $120 million class settlement after the parties submitted on his tentative ruling, which allows notice to go out and sets the case on a path to a final approval hearing.

Who qualifies for the Pornhub settlement?

Anyone who was under 18 when they appeared in a video or image made available on any MindGeek- or Aylo-owned or -operated website, including Pornhub, between February 12, 2011, and December 6, 2024.

When will the Pornhub settlement be paid?

Aylo pays $25 million in 2026 and six annual installments of about $15.83 million from June 2027 through June 2032; class members are paid only after final approval and under the court-approved allocation plan.

How much will each class member get?

No per-person amount has been set; the net fund after fees, costs, service awards, and administration will be divided under an allocation plan the court must approve.

Can someone object to the Pornhub settlement?

Yes. Any class member may object to any term, including the fee request of up to one-third of the fund, by the deadline stated in the court-approved notice.

Does Aylo admit wrongdoing?

No. The settlement resolves the class claims without any admission of liability or wrongdoing by Aylo.