We are pleased to announce that federal judge Hon. Sean P. Flynn of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida granted class certification for a Florida Class of almost 2,000 webcam performers for Streamate.com, a live adult streaming website. The Class Representative alleges that she and the Class were misclassified as independent contractors instead of as employees, and therefore they are entitled to damages for (1) time spent performing in “free chat”; and (2) tips received from customers but kept by Streamate. In essence, the Class Members allege they were only paid for part of the show and were able to keep only a small fraction of their tips, about 35%. But tips are the sole property of the employee, and an employer may not take any portion of the worker’s earned tips for any purpose. As the Court determined: “[i]ndividual questions of liability and damages are therefore provable class-wide by common evidence.” Now the liability portion of the case proceeds on a class-wide basis.
The Court’s September 24, 2025 Order Granting Class Certification may be found below.
According to Class Counsel Charles J. Kocher, Esq.: “This is now the second federal court to grant class certification on the same issue. We are very pleased that the Court, after hearing oral argument, granted class certification in this important wage and hour case under Florida law to recover 100% of the withheld tips and payment for all hours worked for our client and the Class.”
This class action is brought by Charles J. Kocher, Tyler J. Burrell, and Gaetano J. DiPersia.
