Russian ISP sues Twitch for $3B due to illegal soccer streams

Rambler Group, the third largest ISP in Russia, has filed a lawsuit against Twitch for US$3 billion (180bn roubles).

As seen on BBC, Rambler Group states Twitch breached its exclusive broadcast rights for the English Premiere League more than 36,000 times between the months of August and November of this year. The Russian ISP is seeking to ban permanently the streaming service in all of Russia.

Julianna Tabastaeva, a lawyer representing Twitch, told Russian-language news site Kommersant that the streaming platform “only provides users with access to the platform and is unable to change the content posted by users, or track possible violations.”

She also stated Twitch has been taking “all necessary measures to eliminate the violations, despite not receiving any official notification from Rambler”. Under its terms and conditions, Twitch says its users are not allowed to share content via the service without permission from copyright owners.

The Rambler Group vs Twitch case will be heard by The Moscow City Court starting on December 20.

Meanwhile, Mikhail Gershkovich, head of sports project at Rambler Group, said the following: “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.”

In order to come to an amicable agreement, Rambler Group is in talks with the streaming giant to try to come up with an agreement.

While Rambler Group holds the rights of the English Premier League in Russia, parent company Amazon holds the EPL exclusive rights to a certain number of matches in the UK for the next three years.

[Source]: BBC: Twitch sued for £2.1bn over Premier League by Russian firm.