EAST ST. LOUIS – Video streamers owe five percent of their gross revenues in Illinois to local governments, according to a class action complaint East St. Louis filed at U.S. district court on June 9.
City counsel C. J. Baricevic of Belleville claims an Illinois law that collects five percent from cable companies should apply to streamers.
He seeks recovery from Netflix, Disney, Apple, Hulu, Home Box Office, Amazon, CBS, You Tube, Curiosity Stream, Peacock, DirecTV, and Dish Network.
“Defendants’ video programming is comparable to that provided by television broadcast stations and cable companies including but not limited to such areas as format, genre, and content,” he wrote.
He wrote that state law authorizes providers to use public rights of way as long as they make a quarterly payment to each municipality and county.
He claims defendants intentionally evaded their obligation.
He seeks an order requiring them to calculate how much they owe to each county, city, village, and incorporated town.
The order would require them to pay an independent auditor to verify the accuracy of their calculations.
He wrote that the class size is believed to exceed 1,298 municipalities.
He signed the complaint and wrote below, “Chatham & Baricevic, city attorney.”
John Driscoll, mass action lawyer from St. Louis now in San Juan, Puerto Rico, also represents East St. Louis.
So do Roy Mason and Zach Howerton of Maryland and Marc Grossman, Melissa Sims, Greg Coleman, Daniel Bryson, and Patrick Wallace of Tennessee.
The court clerk assigned Magistrate Judge Mark Beatty, who will preside unless a party declines consent to magistrate jurisdiction.
In that event a district judge would preside.