Adult Webcam Wage and Hour Class Action

On July 13, 2023, Partners Charles J. Kocher and Matthew A. Luber  filed this wage and hour class action in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on behalf of their client and a proposed class of webcam performers to recover their proper wages under federal and state law.  

As alleged in the Class Action Complaint, Defendants ICF Technology, Inc. and/or Accretive Technology Group, Inc. misclassified their “Performers,” including Plaintiff, as “independent contractors” when they are, in fact, employees under federal and state law. Defendants own and operate Streamate, which according to its website, is “one of the most exclusive networks of live adult chat sites on the web today” with “over 500 million visitors each month from all over the world.” Among other things, Plaintiffs allege Defendants withheld wages for the time spent in free chats where performers enticed customers to join a paid chat. But by paying them only for paid chats and not in the free chat space, they were only paid for part of the show. In turn, due the misclassification, Defendants deprived their workers of the right to be paid the minimum wage and the protection against illegal deductions from their pay and/or unreimbursed business expenses. Notably, similar cases have previously held that exotic dancers were in fact employees and not independent contractors. This class action seeks to recover all wages owed and due. 

A copy of the as-filed Class Action Complaint may be found below.

“This important class action seeks to enforce the Fair Labor Standards Act and state law requirements to pay workers for all their time worked. Post-pandemic, the webcam industry has gained popularity, resulting in many in-person performers going online to perform instead. Holding companies who improperly misclassify performers accountable is becoming increasingly necessary.” – Partner Charles J. Kocher