Adult videos and DVDs cannot be sold in Great Britain through the Internet, mail order, or by phone, the High Court ruled today.
According to a BBC News report, Lord Justice Maurice Kay and Justice Newman said "R18" sexually explicit recordings had to be sold in person in licensed sex shops.
They said the law was designed to stop the material falling into the hands of children.
It was argued at a recent hearing that the law harmed UK mail order firms and benefited overseas sex companies.
“We have no doubt that one of the main reasons for the restriction is to ensure that the customer comes face-to-face with the supplier so that there is an opportunity for the supplier to assess the age of the customer,” Lord Justice Kay said.
The judges were dismissing two appeals by licensed sex businesses fined thousands of pounds after prosecutions by Liverpool City Council's trading standards department, the report said.
Interfact Ltd, which has a sex shop in Bexley, and Pabo Ltd, based in Birmingham, were found guilty at Liverpool Magistrates' Court in April 2004 of offering R18 classified videos on their Website catalogues.
At the recent hearing which led to the judges' ruling, David Pannick QC, for Interfact, said it made "no sense" to allow sales to adults who were physically present, but prohibit mail order.
"Indeed, the only purpose which such an interpretation of the law would serve would be to damage the local economy in favor of the economy in France or the Netherlands," he had told the hearing.
Pannick had claimed prohibiting mail order would breach Article 10 - the right to freedom of expression - of the European Convention on Human Rights. But the judges rules there was no Article 10 breach, BBC News reported.
