Amazon’s Twitch has found itself in some legal hot water as Russia’s third-largest internet company, Rambler Group, alleges its exclusive broadcasting rights were breached by the service more than 36,000 times between August and November.
The media group is looking to permanently ban Twitch in Russia.
Twitch’s legal representation has called the case “unfounded”, but it will still lead to quite the legal battle, and can have massive impacts on the Twitch audience as Russia is the third-largest user of the streaming platform.
“Our suit against Twitch is to defend our exclusive rights to broadcast English Premier League matches and we will continue to actively combat pirate broadcasts,” Mikhail Gershkovich, head of Rambler Group’s sports project, said in a statement.
“We’re currently holding talks with Twitch to sign a settlement agreement. The service has given us tools to combat pirate broadcasts and we are now only talking about compensation for damages between August and November,” he said.
“As regards the sum of the (suit), it was proposed by external lawyers who are running this case. The sum is technical and the maximum possible. It will be altered,” Gershkovich said.
According to the report: “Rambler plans to sue Twitch for 180 billion roubles ($2.82 billion) in a Russian court for what it said were 36,000 cases in which Twitch had violated its rights to broadcast the soccer games, the Kommersant newspaper reported earlier on Monday.
The Moscow District Court said it planned to hear the case on Dec. 20. It said it had taken “interim measures” ahead of the hearing, but gave no further details.”
