Activision Blizzard faces new lawsuit for alleged "rampact sexism"
by Adam Fitch Β· Updated 7/4/22, 4:55 PM
American video game company Activision Blizzard has been subjected to another lawsuit that alleges a current employee has faced sexual harassment and discrimination, as reported by Bloomberg.
The lawsuit: Activision Blizzard is already facing a lawsuit for an alleged "frat boy" workplace culture that has resulted in the abuse and harassment of its women employees.
- The suit, named Doe v. Activision Blizzard Inc, involves an unnamed Senior Administrative Assistance to executives in the IT department at the Call of Duty and Overwatch developer.
- The complainant alleges that she has experienced harassment and discrimination, and faced retaliation for opening up about those experiences. It's claimed that she was pressured into drinking alcohol, participating in degrading "cube crawls", and that she received sexual advances from colleagues.
- Court orders requested in the suit include Activision Blizzard implementing a new Human Resources system that eliminates conflicts of interest, the use of a neutral firm to investigate the claims, and the firing of CEO Bobby Kotick.
The wider story: There's been plenty of activity in the Activision Blizzard camp as of late.
- As mentioned prior, Activision Blizzard was hit with a lawsuit in July 2021 for similar claims to this latest suit. It claims that a host of women have been sexually harassed, assaulted, and traumatized while working at the company.
- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has requested more information regarding the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard from Microsoft, a deal that would cost $68.7B. (Here's some context as to what else that figure could hypothetically buy).
- Three Activision Blizzard investors are being investigated by the U.S Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding potential insider trading following the announcement of Microsoft's desired acquisition of the company.
- In December 2021, it was revealed that League of Legends developer Riot Games was to pay $100M to settle a 2018 lawsuit relating to gender discrimination and sexual harassment.