PhantomL0rd wins lawsuit against Twitch after two years of litigation

Source: Twitch interactive

James “PhantomL0rd” Varga reportedly won his lawsuit against Twitch on Friday, with the court siding in Varga's favor on all counts. The counts listed against Twitch in the original complaint included Breach of Contract, Intentional Misrepresentation, and Violation of Section 17200 of the business and professions code, among others.


The lawsuit was filed two years ago on February 14th, 2018 in the County of San Francisco court. In the suit, Varga alleged that Twitch failed to provide a formal explanation for the ban that Twitch issued to Varga in 2016. Varga was seeking 35 million dollars in damages initially, and while the amount of money that he won in the suit has not been released publicly, Twitch reporter Zach Bussey claimed that Varga won just over $20,000.

 

 

Varga was suspended from Twitch in 2016, after Twitch alleged that Varga used his CS:GO Skin gambling site CSGO Shuffle to scam Twitch users by controlling the betting percentages and other backend aspects of the site. Twitch also argued in their 2018 counter-complaint against Varga that he violated their content guidelines against "adult-oriented products or services" by producing gambling content, and that they had warned him of possible penalties multiple times in the lead up to the ban.

 

Varga responded to his ban by filing a lawsuit, in which he claimed that "[Twitch indefinitely suspended his] account. . . without any explanation, prior written notice or any opportunity for Varga to cure any perceived violation of his obligations."  He further alleged that Twitch went on to change its explanation for the ban several times. Today the court ruled in favor of the streamer, agreeing that Twitch violated the law and breached its contract with Varga and awarding Varga nearly $21,000.

 

Many are hailing the court victory as a win for streamers everywhere since it has the potential to set a precedent that Twitch is required to clearly explain why someone was banned from their platform. Unexplained Twitch bans have been an ongoing problem in the Twitch community for some time, many are hoping that today's decision will force Twitch to finally communicate reasons for bans clearly or risk legal consequences.

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