Russian lawsuit calls for Twitch block

Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch could be blocked in Russia, if a lawsuit to be heard in the country’s courts is successful.

As reported by Kommersant, Russian corporation Rambler is attempting to recover 180 billion rubles. (about $ 2.9 billion) and have Twitch blocked in Russia.

This is due to what it claims are 36 thousand cases of Twitch users streaming English Premier League football matches, which it owns the exclusive rights for in the region.

In a prepared statement, a Twitch representative claimed the service “only provides users with access to the platform, does not post its own content, cannot change the content posted by users, or track possible violations of rights.”

At the same time, Twitch took all necessary measures to eliminate violations, “despite the fact that Rambler did not send any official notifications, only screenshots of pages, and even those without specific dates,” the Twitch representative said.

The Moscow City Court will consider the claim of Rambler Internet Holding LLC against Twitch Interactive on December 20.