Visa Loses Bid to Dismiss Pornhub-Related Lawsuit in Los Angeles

A federal judge has refused to throw out key claims in a 2021 lawsuit alleging that Visa helped finance online sexual videos involving underage minors posted on pornography sites. For high-risk payment teams, the useful part is not the headline-grabbing subject matter; it is the court’s view that payment infrastructure can be part of the alleged mechanism that kept the business running.

1. U.S. District Judge Wesley Hsu in Los Angeles denied Visa’s motion to dismiss on July 9 for claims under California’s Unfair Competition Law and the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.
2. The case dates to 2021 and targets MindGeek, the Montreal-based parent company of Pornhub and other pornography sites, along with San Francisco-based Visa and several individual defendants.
3. Serena Fleitas is the named lead plaintiff, and court records list 33 additional plaintiffs identified as Jane Doe. The plaintiffs allege that MindGeek and Visa colluded to profit from the videos.
4. Hsu also rejected Visa’s argument that the plaintiffs lacked standing in federal court because Visa did not directly cause their injuries. In his order, he wrote: “Visa’s conduct enabled MindGeek to monetize trafficking content and provided the financial infrastructure to sustain its operations.”
5. At the same time, Hsu dismissed with prejudice the plaintiffs’ allegation that Visa participated in a civil conspiracy with MindGeek, saying the claim had “relevant defects” that could not be fixed. Visa is also a defendant in 14 related cases tied to payment processing for the online porn operator.

For PSPs, acquirers, and banks that work in adult or other high-risk verticals, the practical takeaway is straightforward: a dismissal bid does not always end the payment-network exposure story, especially when plaintiffs frame the network as part of the monetization layer. Visa declined to comment.