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After 600 days of being banned, former CS:GO streamer sues Twitch

Former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive streamer James 'Phantoml0rd' Varga is suing Twitch for damages after being banned indefinitely from the platform back in July 2016.

Game Developer, Staff

February 20, 2018

1 Min Read

Former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive streamer James 'Phantoml0rd' Varga is suing Twitch for damages after being banned indefinitely from the platform back in July 2016. 

As reported by Polygon, Varga claims Twitch broke its contract with him by never issuing an explanation as to why his channel was removed. 

According to the lawsuit, Twitch and Varga reached an agreement in 2015 stating that if Twitch wanted to breach contract, the company had to give Varga a written explanation, something that never happened.

The service briefly addresses disclosure agreements in its Terms of Service and with a blog post about transparency in sponsored content and promotion.

However, “Twitch has made only vague and ever-changing allegations of breaches of the terms of service,” the lawsuit states.

Varga was banned and his channel was removed after he allegedly failed to disclose his business ties to a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gambling site (where players could gamble with weapon skins since they had monetary value), which he promoted during his streams. 

Similarly, the Federal Trade Commission has come out with guidelines on how "influencers" should disclose when they've been compensated by companies for their work. 

Varga is seeking financial retribution following his ban, saying his inability to generate a revenue from streaming has caused irreparable damages. 

A representative for Twitch told Gamasutra the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

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