Privacy & Cybersecurity Law Blog

On May 9, 2025, the Texas House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 2420—the App Store Accountability Act—by a vote of 120 to 9. The bill, which previously cleared the state Senate in April by a vote of 30 to 1, now awaits concurrence from the Senate on House amendments before it can be sent to Governor Greg Abbott.

SB 2420 would shift the burden of age verification to app stores like the Apple App Store and Google Play. Modeled after Utah’s recently enacted App Store Accountability Act (SB 152), the Texas legislation would require:

• Age Categorization and Verification: App stores must verify the age category of users when they open an account and obtain parental approval for users under the age of 18.
• Developer Access to Verification Data: App developers must be allowed to access users’ age category and consent status for the purpose of complying with verification requirements.
• App Rating Obligations: App developers would be required to assign age ratings to both apps and in-app purchases.
• Data Minimization and Deletion: Both app stores and developers would be required to limit data collection and delete verification-related data after the process is complete.

The Texas Senate must now concur with the amendments added by the House before the bill can be formally enrolled and presented to the Governor.