Twitch sued by Russian tech giant for $3 billion over illegal Premier League soccer streams
Rambler Group alleges its exclusive broadcasting rights were breached by the Amazon's service more than 36,000 times since August 2019. Initially, Rambler demanded the blocking of Amazon's platform in Russia and 180,345 billion rubles in damages (approximately $ 3 billion). This astronomical sum is the result of multiplying the highest compensation possible in Russia for a one-time exclusive violation of the law (5 million rubles) by the number of violations (36,000). Twitch defends itself that the allegations are unfair because it cannot be held responsible for users' activities. In addition, the company claims that the Russians did not make official complaints, but only "sent screenshots without any dates." At the same time, the streaming platform provided Rambler with tools to fight pirate broadcasts.
The Moscow City Court ordered a temporary suspension of EPL streams on Twitch after the lawsuit came to light, the Ekho Moskvy radio station reported Monday. The court will hear the case against Twitch on December 20, 2019.
Russians make up about 7% of Twitch users, and according to specialists, blocking this platform would also be a serious step towards blocking YouTube in Russia (“If they block Twitch, we’re one step from blocking YouTube” - Sports.ru website co-founder Dmitry Navosha). It is worth remembering that Dailymotion has been banned in Russia since January 2017.
Breaking news - Russia no longer plans to block Amazon’s Twitch over piracy allegations after the streaming service took down illegal sports content, Russian news agencies cited communications watchdog Roskomnadzor (The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media) as saying on Tuesday.
Both companies also continue to negotiate settlement terms.
