Apple says Texas App Store age assurance rules start tomorrow after court ruling

Starting tomorrow, June 4, app developers will have to comply with several App Store age assurance requirements tied to new Apple Accounts in Texas. Here are the details.

Last May, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 2420, also known as the App Store Accountability Act, into law, requiring app marketplaces to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent for minors under 18.

The signing came despite a heavy lobbying campaign from Apple, which reportedly included CEO Tim Cook personally calling Governor Abbott to urge him to veto the bill.

And while the law was slated to take effect on January 1, 2026, Federal Judge Robert Pitman issued a preliminary injunction against SB 2420 in late December, finding that the law was “more likely than not unconstitutional.”

By then, Apple had already released the APIs and sandbox tools developers would need to comply with the law. When the preliminary injunction blocked SB 2420 from taking effect, Apple paused its previously announced implementation plans, while keeping the tools available for sandbox testing.

Last week, however, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of Judge Pitman’s injunction, which means Texas can enforce SB 2420, at least, for now.

Even though the stay can still be appealed and reversed, Apple told developers today that the law’s requirements will apply to new Apple Accounts in Texas starting tomorrow.

Here’s Apple:

The company told developers to review documentation for the Declared Age Range API, Significant Change API under PermissionKit, New age rating property type in StoreKit, App Store server notification, and to implement the necessary changes to comply with the new law.

Apple added that it is “the developer’s responsibility to determine when there’s a significant change to their app,” and that developers can use its “sandbox testing environment to validate that the APIs have been implemented correctly.”

To learn more about what’s changing for developers distributing apps in Texas, follow this link.