Another day, Bungie wins another big lawsuit: This time, Destiny 2 studios won a $6.7 million default judgment against Kunal Bansal, the operator of cheat website lavicheats.com.
Bungie’s case against Lavicheats in fact Start in 2021 (opens in new tab)along with similar complaints filed against Elite Tech Boss and VeteranCheats. The Elite Tech Boss lawsuit was settled in June 2022 for $13.5 million. (opens in new tab), however, neither LaviCheats nor VeteranCheats responded to Bungie’s lawsuit. $12 million (opens in new tab) Judgment against VeteranCheats was handed down to the studio last week, and today it won a $6.7 million victory over LaviCheats.
That may seem like a strange and arbitrary number, but it’s not. game post (opens in new tab):
- Statutory DMCA Damages: $5,580,000
- COPYRIGHT LAW DAMAGES: $300,000
- Lanham Act Damages: $579,270
- Attorney Fees: $183,850.71
- Cost including professional fee: $57,852.63
That’s a pretty hefty amount of cash, and far more than Bungie claims to have sold Destiny 2 cheats to create Bansal. Dollars, we calculated earnings on “Ring 1 Cheat” (1,828 downloads) from $36,377.20 to $455,172. Bungie says it has spent “a minimum of $2 million on game security staff and software” to “fight his Bansal cheat and other cheat devices in Destiny 2.”
A default judgment was entered because Bansal simply refused to participate in the case, but the judgment makes it clear that even if he launched a vigorous defense, he probably failed. The judge ruled in Bungie’s favor on everything from DMCA violations to copyright and trademark infringement to consumer protection law claims to “unlawful interference with contractual relationships.” Furthermore, he points out that “it is highly unlikely that the core facts are in dispute”, and that Bansal’s failure to appear was not due to “inexcusable negligence”, but rather a sense of ignorance of everything. He said it was a decisive decision.
The bottom line is an all-out win for Bungie, totaling seven figures, and a permanent injunction banning Bansal from creating, promoting, or selling cheats for Destiny 2. He was also ordered to shut down websites and social media accounts that may have been dedicated to that purpose.
It remains to be seen how Bungie will enforce this ruling. More importantly, LaviCheats does not sell Destiny 2 cheats. dropped them (opens in new tab) Shortly after the lawsuit was filed. However, the store page is still up, and LaviCheats stressed that he blamed Bungie for the Destiny 2 cheating issue and instead recommended other cheat sellers.