At the moment, there is a lawsuit between the US company Amazon and the Russian Rambler Group regarding Twitch, English football, and 3 billion US dollars.
Update from December 18, 11:20 AM: The Rambler Group has accepted the penalties imposed by Twitch against the respective streamers. At least a general ban of the platform in Russia is no longer an issue, as the Russian website tass.ru reports.
However, on the official website of the court, the next hearing is still scheduled for December 20. The lawsuit itself does not seem to be off the table yet.
This is the dispute: The Russian technology giant Rambler Group is demanding compensation from Amazon of about 180 billion rubles. This corresponds to approximately 2.84 billion dollars or about 2.58 billion euros.
Currently, it is still being discussed how the two parties will come to an agreement. The head of sports projects at Rambler Group, Mikhail Gershkovich, says:
“We are currently in talks with Twitch to reach an agreement. The service has provided us with means to combat piracy, and we are only discussing the compensations for the damages between August and November.” (via Reuters)
Legal Action Regarding Copyright over Football
Reason for the lawsuit: The basis of the lawsuit is an infringement of the usage rights for the broadcasting of the English Premier League, the top league of English football. These rights were originally secured by the Rambler Group to broadcast the matches exclusively in Russia.
However, some streamers on Twitch have reportedly shown the matches without authorization. Russia is the third-largest user of Twitch worldwide (via TheMoscowTimes) after Germany and the USA.
This led to over 36,000 viewers being able to watch the matches via Twitch rather than through Rambler’s channels. Hence the demand for compensation.
How will this end? The respective channels on Twitch have already been banned. A relatively mild penalty compared to other streamers who were sentenced to community service.
Currently, Twitch is no longer facing a ban in Russia. However, the dispute does not appear to be settled yet. The next hearing is scheduled for December 20.
So far, the exact amount of the payments is also not yet determined. Gershkovich says:
As for the amount [of the lawsuit], this was suggested by external judges handling this case. The amount is technical in nature and the maximum possible. It will be adjusted.
via Reuters
While streamers in Russia were showing football illegally in November, a streamer in Germany set a new world record:
