NEWARK, N.J.—A federal judge in New Jersey issued a complex court ruling last Friday, classifying performers on the adult camming platform Streamate.com as independent contractors under federal law and employees under the state's more worker-friendly wage laws. The decision is the penultimate act of a federal class action lawsuit filed against Streamate's corporate parents in the summer of 2023.
Streamate.com is operated by ICF Technology, which is a subsidiary of the Seattle-headquartered Accretive Technology Group. A performer based in Jersey City named Mia Tomasello sued Streamate for misclassifying her as an independent contractor under New Jersey's hours and wage laws.
Tomasello's attorneys are partners and associates at the New Jersey law firm McOmber McOmber & Luber, P.C. They argued that ICF and Accretive violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and three counts of state labor law, noting that the proposed class action is seeking unpaid wages and other entitlements. The suit was filed in July 2023, noting that the classification as an independent contractor in New Jersey was unlawful, including at the federal level.
Among the disputes at issue involved the collection of revenue and tip share earned by performers on Streamate while they are operating in the platform's so-called "free chat" functionality versus its premium chat features.
"A potential customer who is viewing a performer’s free chat area may give that performer 'Gold,' which is Streamate’s 'virtual currency,'" observes U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo in her opinion issued on Friday.
Judge Arleo notes that Streamate Gold is exchanged at a rate of 1:1 with U.S. dollars. She notes, "A performer who is given Gold would receive approximately 35 percent revenue share of the Gold transaction, while Streamate would receive approximately 65 percent from the same transaction. ... While performers appear to have the right to negotiate their percentage split of revenues for live performances with Streamate, neither party has provided evidence that any performer actually received more than 35 percent from a Gold transaction."
"It is undisputed that [the] defendants do not pay performers for time spent in free chat. Thus, if Gold is not earned in the free chat, performers receive no compensation for their time spent there," Arleo said. But the nature of conflicting jurisdictional and liability claims has led the judge to split the baby, so to speak, in relation to the plaintiffs' and defendants' motions for summary judgment and cloture. Ultimately, the performers led by Tomasello, which is a class of at least 400 performers, and the parent companies of Streamate.com were granted partial wins in the litigation.
Since Tomasello's Fair Labor Standards Act claim must meet an "economic realities test," Arleo awarded Streamate's parent companies a win because federal law is very lax in defining independent contractor status.
The U.S. Labor Department utilizes six factors to ascertain economic reality and to determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor under the FLSA.
For the immediate case, Judge Arleo found that Streamate has limited supervision and a lack of control over the schedules and hours of the performers. Combine this with the significant level of labor autonomy in their ability to determine time and place to stream, including producing on competing platforms, and there was a finding that federal law doesn't establish an employer-employee relationship.
On the remaining claims under New Jersey law, Streamate's parent companies were found not to be in compliance with the state's stricter "ABC test." In May 2026, the New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development issued final guidance on the state's "ABC test," which is used to determine whether a "putative employer has the burden of proof" to classify a worker as an indpendent contractor. They must meet all three prongs.
“This significant decision is believed to be the first employee misclassification decision involving remote webcam models in the country," shared Charles J. Kocher, a partner at Mcomber and lead counsel representing Tomasello and the plaintiff class. "We are pleased with the court’s rigorous and thoughtful analysis of the ABC test, including even recent regulatory guidance by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development."
Kocher added, "Now, with liability established on the state law claims, all that remains in the New Jersey case is an adjudication of damages to recover the unpaid wages in the 'free chat,' as well as 100 percent of tips for over 400 Class Members. Defendants have kept 65 percent of their tips during the entire class period, reaching back to 2019.
"[These] tips are the sole property of the employees and need to be returned," Kocher said.
James Felton, the managing partner in the Los Angeles-based firm G&B Law, LLP, and legal counsel for the Adult Performance Artists Guild, told AVN that the opinion of the court is noteworthy.
"Ultimately, and primarily based upon the fact that the performers set their own hours, schedules and content, the court found that they should not be considered employees, even though Streamate does have certain rules about which the performers have to abide," Felton said. "However, the court utilized two different frameworks, and under the second framework, the ABC test as provided by New Jersey statutory law, the court found that the Plaintiffs should be considered employees. The court noted that it is a much more rigid test, and under that test, the outcome was 180 degrees different.
"So, when similar cases apply different state laws and statutory interpretation, we could see similar split decisions," Felton concluded.
AVN received no comment from counsel for Streamate by publication time. Streamate's parent companies are represented by the law firm Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP.
