Activision Blizzard trifft mit neuer Belästigungs- und Diskriminierungsklage

Activision Blizzard has been hit with a fresh lawsuit that claims the company’s “frat boy” environment has allowed 700 reported incidents of sexual harassment and discrimination.

The suit has been filed in by Attorney Lisa Bloom in the Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of a current employee, who is referred to as ‘Jane Doe’.

Doe joined the company in 2017 as a senior administrative assistant in the IT department and says that she was often pressured to drink alcohol. She adds that female members of staff were also groped by male co-workers.

When she raised concerns with her supervisors, Doe claims that they were explained away and that things were not taken further due to concerns that it could do damage to the company’s reputation.

Doe says she repeatedly tried to scapes to a new job in a different part of the company but was eventually offered a lower-paying role after taking her complaints to former Blizzard president J. Allen Brack, who left the company last year.

The suit will seek a number of court orders, one of which is the firing of Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick:

Activision has ignored its many sexual harassment victims as its CEO has earned hundreds of millions. He should be fired for cause, as we request in the lawsuit.

The company was hit by similar legal woes back in 2021 when it was sued for fostering a culture of sexual harassment and discrimination. Seit damals, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft executives have all voiced their concerns with how the Call of Duty publisher is run.

Microsoft is perhaps going the furthest to change the way things work at the company; it’s buying Activision Blizzard in a $68.7 billion deal, with Kotick expected to leave the company once the deal is complete.