PhantomL0rd Wins Lawsuit In opposition to Twitch After Two Years of Litigation

Source: Twitch Interactive

James “PhantomL0rd” Varga reportedly won his lawsuit against Twitch on Friday, with the court standing up on all counts for Varga. The counts listed in the original complaint against Twitch included, among other things, breach of contract, willful misrepresentation, and violation of Section 17200 of the Business and Professional Code.

The lawsuit was filed in the San Francisco County Court on February 14, 2018, two years ago. In the lawsuit, Varga alleged that Twitch failed to provide a formal explanation of the ban Twitch placed on Varga in 2016. Varga initially sought $ 35 million in damages, and the amount of money he won in the lawsuit wasn’t Twitch public reporter Zach Bussey claimed Varga won just over $ 20,000.

Varga was suspended from Twitch in 2016 after Twitch claimed that Varga used its CS: GO Skin gambling website, CSGO Shuffle, to scam Twitch users by controlling betting percentages and other backend aspects of the website. Twitch also argued in its 2018 counter-complaint against Varga that he violated their “adult products or services” content policy by producing game content and that they warned him of possible penalties several times in advance of the ban.

Varga responded to his ban by filing a lawsuit claiming that “[Twitch indefinitely suspended his] Account. . . without any explanation, prior written notice, or opportunity for Varga to cure a perceived breach of its obligations. He went on to claim that Twitch changed its statement on the ban several times. Today, the court ruled in favor of the streamer, agreeing that Twitch has broken the law and breached its contract with Varga, awarding Varga nearly $ 21,000.

Many hail the court win as a win for streamers everywhere, as it has the potential to set a precedent in which Twitch must clearly explain why someone has been banned from its platform. Inexplicable Twitch bans have been a lingering problem in the Twitch community for some time. Many hope that today’s decision will force Twitch to finally communicate the reasons for bans clearly or to risk legal consequences.