James Varga Wins Twitch Ban Case, Paid $21,000 in Damages

James “PhantomL0rd” Varga has won a case against Twitch for the platform’s decision to terminate his streaming channel abruptly back in 2016.

Varga Wins Twitch Ban Case 

Former Twitch streamer James “PhantomL0rd” Varga has won a lawsuit against the Amazon-owned streaming platform. Following his suspension from the platform in 2016, Varga prepared a lawsuit that launched in 2018 in San Francisco and sought damages from Twitch for wrongfully suspending the streamer’s account.

The player himself shared the news on Twitch, proclaiming his victory a victory for “ALL streamers.” Varga said that he had won the case on all counts resulting in approximately $21,000 paid in damages. 

However, it’s probably Twitch that should be thankful as a previously set $50,000 damages cap has been lifted, so the court could have put a much stiffer penalty. At the time when he was banned, Varga had over 1.3 million followers that could have resulted in substantial revenue over the years. 

Originally, Varga sought the whopping $35 million from the streaming giant. The sum paid in damages, though, relates to the 30-day notice period which Twitch failed to provide the streamer, effectively proving that no more was owed and characterizing the abrupt ban lacking a notice period as a “small misstep.” A company spokesperson added:

“While we regret the procedural failings related to Mr. Varga’s termination in 2016, he repeatedly violated Twitch’s Community Guidelines and exposed our community to harmful content.”

Twitch spokersperson

Ignoring the Notice Period 

Twitch suspended Varga’s account on July 19, 2016, outlining no reason at first other than the streamer had breached the company’s Terms of Services, a popular refrain the streaming giant uses in high-profile cases, and most recently the one involving Dr. Disrespect, a Fortnite and VALORANT player and streamer.

At the time of the ban, rumors swirled that Varga was the owner of CS: GO Shuffle, a skin betting website that allowed players to gamble on weapon skins for the popular game. He was showing content from the website on his stream, media reported.

The issue must have proven sensitive in light of a looming class-action lawsuit against Valve, the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive developer and publisher, who was accused of facilitating underage gambling for failing to restrict skin trading in the first place.

However, Varga didn’t hesitate to seek justice and said that Twitch never issued a formal reason for his suspension and that Twitch would allow him to stream gambling content for up to 30 minutes.

When litigation started, Twitch reiterated its claim that the streamer had breached the service’s terms despite having been issued various penalties and warnings to ensure the integrity of the service.